S26.E22 Post Rage

[Xeliou66]

Episode description 

Benson investigates a string of sexual assaults targeting local female psychiatrists; the squad celebrates a promotion. 

[wknt3]

The Good:
Velasco gets a promotion. He still gets crapped on unnecessarily on his way out the door, but it was nice to see him getting some love and bringing everyone together. If he is going to get pushed out for Mariska's power play at least he got a nice send off.

Fin. It's nice to see him getting some solid material, both as comic relief and as the voice of cynical wisdom. The show is so much better when that element that he and Munch used to bring to every episode is there.

The whole squad out in the field, interviewing people and running down leads. Even working with MEs and CSU! It is nice to see they actually remember how to do this - with the ADA appropriately consulted too!

Bruno reminding us of just how much Kevin Kane's raw charisma elevates an episode.

A solid script. Good story, used everyone and didn't bog down too much in any of the usual pitfalls.

The Bad:
A missed opportunity with Silva still around to take advantage of having someone newer around to show the audience that this is a truly twisted and unusual case.

And speaking of Silva looks like she is getting unceremoniously dumped like every other young female detective the past decade. I guess she is guilty of not playing a slightly younger version of Benson who is not too threatening to MH's ego.

 

Overall this was a solid ending that would leave me optimistic for next season if it wasn't for seeing the articles about where TPTB want to go with the show. At least this season ended on a high note.

[The Wild Sow]

Oh, come on now - how was the perp - at least of Dr. Stewart - NOT “Gary”? What the heck was his purpose then?

 

[Xeliou66]

This was a good ending to the season - a strong case with a good role for each character. I liked the investigation a lot and how each character got a role and did their job well, it felt like classic SVU, as a lot of this season has.

I was certain Gary was going to turn out to be a bad guy, I’m surprised he turned out good. I liked the way the case played out and how they solved it.

Velasco got a deserved promotion, so I guess he’ll go to a new squad, at least he got some focus in his last episode, it’s a bummer that him and Silva are gone, because they added to the show.

Bruno was awesome as usual, as was Fin.

Overall this was a good ending to the strongest SVU season in ages. Really solid season, unfortunately with Velasco/Silva gone and Rollins returning full time I’m afraid the good won’t last and we’ll return to soapy melodrama and Benson/Rollins hogging the screen time. So I don’t have high hopes about the future, but this season was strong.

[kitkat343]

3 hours ago, The Wild Sow said:

Oh, come on now - how was the perp - at least of Dr. Stewart - NOT “Gary”? What the heck was his purpose then?

 

Years later, it could turn out that he was a copycat assailant who was trying to scare Dr. Stewart into having a relationship with him.  They already did that with Marcia Gay Harden's character, but repeating a story won't be the worst thing they've done. 

[EtheltoTillie]

1) who played dr Stewart?  She looked familiar but she wasn’t listed in the IMDB episode guide. 
2) what are the articles people are reading about the direction the show is going?  
3) Silva and Velasco are bothe being written off? 

 

ETA one answer below, two answers in media thread. 

Edited May 16 by EtheltoTillie

[wknt3]

4 hours ago, EtheltoTillie said:

2) what are the articles people are reading about the direction the show is going?  
3) Silva and Velasconare bothe being written off? 

Check out the media thread for the article links and discussion!

 

Quote

1) who played dr Stewart?  She looked familiar but she wasn’t listed in the IMDB episode guide. 

Don't know off hand, but she might be familiar because she looked a lot like Benson. Especially in the dark with those oversized glasses - at first I thought that was Liv going for her gun.

[EtheltoTillie]

The actress is Betsy Brandt, Shrader's wife from Breaking Bad.  (I went back and looked at the opening credits.)
I can't say I recognized her that way, as I watched BB so long ago.  And she looked so different with the glasses.  After seeing the name, I had to look her up.  I almost thought she was Brooke Shields, but Shields has had another role, as Noah's grandma.

 

Edited May 16 by EtheltoTillie

[The Wild Sow]

8 hours ago, kitkat343 said:

Years later, it could turn out that he was a copycat assailant who was trying to scare Dr. Stewart into having a relationship with him.

That's what I was waiting for.  Especially since they never mentioned finding her gun in the the other guy's house!  I was waiting for it to pop up in Gary's last scene, after the cops left.

 

8 hours ago, kitkat343 said:

They already did that with Marcia Gay Harden's character,

Arrrggghhhhhh, do not remind me of that horrible storyline!

Taking an strong, female, established character like Dana Lewis and throwing her under the bus for that plot was just infuriating. 

I was also kind of ticked off when they retconned Benson's long-ago boyfriend Burton Lowe(Aidan Quinn) into a predator, even if she was "almost 17" and he was college-age.  At least he wasn't an established character like Agent Lewis though.   

I was waiting for him to tell Liv that, yeah, he gave a mixtape with "The Girl From Ipanema" to every girl he was interested in -- but she was the first! 

[TVMovieBuff]

Lookedto me, some goo-goo eyes between Benson & Velasco at the very end of the episode. 

[Zaffy]

A rather "Meh" episode for me.
Overall, quite a solid season, after many years of bad to mediocre quality.
Not easy to achieve after 26 years.
Anyway a Maddi-less season is always a good season :D
There has been balance and fair use of most of the cast and they toned down on the personal Olivia drama although they did have the Carissi hostage situation.
I get why Silva and Velasco are leaving, the cast was a tad big and If I am not mistaken Rollins comes back as regular? I liked her character, I never liked her personal drama and I hope we won't get much of it  next season, where hopefully TBTB will follow the same successful path they did this year.

[tennisgurl]

I'm sad to see Velasco and Silva leaving, I liked both of them and it was nice to have a full squad doing work to solve cases instead of just jumping to conclusions while Olivia does her intense face to find answers. Velasco at least got a nice ending where he gets a promotion and Olivia finally appreciates him, hopefully Silva at least gets a goodbye before she leaves.

This was a solid episode and the end to a surprisingly good season. No stupid Maddie drama, not a whole lot of stupid family drama, focusing on detective work, likable characters, it was the most fun I have consistently had with the show in years. In this one we even had the cops talking to the coroner, doing profiles, talking to multiple people who didn't do it, real investigation stuff!

It took me a minute to recognize Marie from Breaking Bad as the therapist, she did a great job and in general we had a good batch of guest actors. I was so sure that Gary would be the bad gut but I was happy to be surprised and I'm glad that it looks like they'll be moving forward. 

That poor woman at the mechanics, she's going to feel awful knowing that she put her therapist, who she clearly liked, in danger totally by accident. That guy was seriously twisted, the last few cases have been impressively fucked up. 

[marny]

Are me to the Gary-is-the-bad-guy club. He was way too much of a “nice guy” to be innocent. Strange writing. And he was a recognizable actor so I’m hoping we’ll have an episode next season where he eventually attacks Marie from Breaking Bad when she rebuffs his romantic efforts again. 
It seems like the last several episodes have given Carisi very little to do other than say “get me some evidence.”  I guess the current writers don’t feel like writing courtroom scenes. 

[Xeliou66]

On 5/21/2025 at 8:55 AM, marny said:

Are me to the Gary-is-the-bad-guy club. He was way too much of a “nice guy” to be innocent. Strange writing. And he was a recognizable actor so I’m hoping we’ll have an episode next season where he eventually attacks Marie from Breaking Bad when she rebuffs his romantic efforts again. 
It seems like the last several episodes have given Carisi very little to do other than say “get me some evidence.”  I guess the current writers don’t feel like writing courtroom scenes. 

Actually Carisi got a lot more courtroom scenes this season than he has ever gotten, and the legal material was the best it’s been in a while. They didn’t go into court in the last 3 episodes but they did so plenty of times throughout the season and Carisi got really some good stuff. It’s another way season 26 was the best SVU season since season 17 - I was impressed with this season overall, unfortunately I’m afraid that the high quality won’t last given that they’ve ditched Velasco and Silva and are bringing back Rollins full time, and the Benson worshipping fans apparently disliked this season because it didn’t have enough personal stuff/Noah scenes for them and other characters besides Benson got more of the screentime than usual. And I’m afraid the showrunners will pander to those fans since they are loud on social media.