Jump to content

Type keyword(s) to search

S16.E13: Decaying Morality


  • Reply
  • Start Topic

Recommended Posts

Two families are left to pick up the pieces of their lives when a rape case goes terribly wrong. 

Additional info from TV Guide: A teenager claims she was raped in a pizzeria bathroom, but there's little evidence found, so the suspect is released. Not pleased, the teen's emotional father decides to take the law into his own hands.
Link to comment

I knew who it was a soon as he came on screen.

Barba's snips towards Carisi is funny. But, why is everyone always so mean to Carisi? Lol!

This episode was eh. I liked how Amaro and Rollins weren't annoying whiney brats this episode.

That uncle was a piece of shit. "You're not so special, Jenna." I would have punched his smug face.

  • Love 2
Link to comment

The fact that Barba enjoys opera fills me with so much joy. Although that said I can't figure out what show he saw from the Playbill he's carrying. Help?

tumblr_nja5d1mZqk1ry4beko1_540.png

 

ETA: Playbill is from Tosca, it appears.

Edited by RafaelBarbas
  • Love 4
Link to comment

Does he enjoy opera or is Barba just trying to fit in with the wealthier crowd?

Good episode IMHO. I knew it was the dentist the minute he was introduced.

He strikes me as the type to genuinely enjoy it, though there is a possibility that might be Raul bleeding off into the character. 

Link to comment

I thought this episode was quite good. Another episode Produced by Mariska. They seem to be getting stronger as we move forward. Agreed, I knew something was off about the Uncle from early on. It seems the team is pulling together, collectively getting their shit together. It was nice to see everybody present in an episode without too much emphasis on an individual. I am glad that they didn't focus overtly on Race, but there seemed to be some underlying tones.

I was reminded of The Season 12 Episode,Reparations, that I found to be an outstanding episode. At first, I was annoyed with the ending. After a little processing, I am good with it.

I think it's funny how they throw in cousin Jackie from Sopranos in on some of these cases, he looked like a fish out of water in that wild court room. What also cracked me up -

The New(Er) Guy: "Her Uncle.. he raped her? It can't be.." Benson, "Yes it can". (He walks away).

Haha. Go check out early/ mid-season episodes. Uncles ain't nothin!

  • Love 1
Link to comment

 

So was this a pseudo-Cosby storyline but with a better outcome/ending?

With a little bit of Eric Garner thrown in ("I can't breathe/Jerome having an asthma attack). 

 

 

I knew it was the dentist the minute he was introduced.

How did the squad not think to look into the uncle at the beginning? In earlier seasons, they always eliminated close male relative first. Also, did the two (Fin&Carisi? Amaro&Fin?) that went to question the uncle just LEAVE him alone with another female patient? I saw him go into the exam room and close the door.

 

Also, it's weird that the detectives are always randomly happening across crime scenes in their off-hours. I would imagine as cops they are more attuned to sketchy situations; however, I live in NYC and I've never stumbled upon a crime scene.

  • Love 1
Link to comment

I thought it was a good episode. I knew it was the uncle as soon as Olivia gave him the side-eye in the beginning. It's hard for me to separate Luke and feel sympathy for him when I hated the actor in Sons of Anarchy. lol Personally, I'm glad that Rollins is back. Barba and Carisi were great, too.

  • Love 1
Link to comment

With a little bit of Eric Garner thrown in ("I can't breathe/Jerome having an asthma attack). 

 

Also, The Central Park Five (Jerome being a member of the Prospect Three).

Link to comment

Well, that was depressing.  I had a feeling Cosby would come into play at some point this season.

 

 

That uncle was a piece of shit. "You're not so special, Jenna." I would have punched his smug face.

Ditto.  Even worse was how he helped rile up the father to kill an innocent guy as a patsy.

 

Even though the whole "police framed my child" spiel really REALLY gets old, I did feel sorry for Jerome's mother.

  • Love 2
Link to comment

Yes, it's nice the dentist uncle wasn't some huge last minute reveal.  I was immediately all "That guy!  Arrest him!" --along with everyone else, apparently. 

: )

 

In two or three of the old SVU's, they balm the sting of rapists being found not guilty with a trembly-lipped previous victim waiting in the courthouse hallway to say "Me, too."  I appreciate the show for stepping up that point--and reinforcing the only good thing that can come out of the Cosby situation--with 17 victims instead of the one sad traumatized woman outside the courtroom door.

  • Love 1
Link to comment

Fin: "THIS IS WHY I DON'T TRUST DENTISTS."

 

The episode could've been just that and it would've been worth it.

 The eye roll and tsk Olivia did in response to that Fin line was the most I've liked her in ages. GIF worthy, if I GIF'd things.

 

I enjoyed this episode, even though of course we all knew where it was heading based on the actor. I thought all of the guest stars did very well though, especially Jenna.

 

I liked seeing the team work together, we got a lot of Barba, and Rollins & Amaro didn't annoy me, so I'm happy!  One of the better episodes this season, overall.

  • Love 2
Link to comment

Can't start without - SEASON 17 HELL YEAH!! Extatic about this early renewal. Now let's hope Kelli & Danny signs on for another season though...

 

As for the epsiode - thank goodness the long hiatus is over, Rollins was back = hiatus over ;)

I didn't hate the bonding scene with Liv & Amanda as much as I thought. I was expecting to barf all over Liv's played concern, as she seems to only be able to connect to victims & now that Amanda is one... well a little too late for me, had she given a damn about her co-workers in S13 & not had her head up her own butt grieving Stabler she might have 'caught' Amanda earlier. But okay it was a rather good scene, I guess (it will take me time to warm up to Liv again)

 

Haley Lu Richardson / Jenna was really, really good. That scene with Amaro & Rollins as she remembered what had happened, my goodness that was amazing.

Of course my lovely dr Cooper would be the bad guy but I just imagined him with a mask on, dr Cooper can do no evil :/

Barba is always a treat, & him in a tux a treat with an even bigger bow on!

 

I wouldn't have mind to see the squad welcome Amanda back a ltl, like a look & I would've been satisfied, but no, nothing. What was I expecting, she's not Liv after all, why would she get special treatment *sigh* No not bitter at all ;)

 

And it took 13 episodes but then we got it - an episode with the entire squad/cast. Next week Nick/Danny is missing again but then there's a 2nd episode with all of them (not sure about Barba though). It really bugs me, this rotation. They have such a great cast & they are not using them properly imo. What was the point of bringing another detective on if they were planning on rotating them? Love Carisi/Peter though but I just don't see a point of this rotation. It's just stupid imo.

Link to comment

NBC is going to try to break the Mothership's record with SVU, isn't it?

 

Well, congrats to all who wanted a renewal. I just hope NBC moves the show since it now looks like it's getting hammered because of Empire.

Link to comment

They stayed on the sex crime the entire time and didn't turn into Something Else.  Good.  I also figured the uncle wasn't on the up-and-up early on, and when I saw how little time was left when he was finally caught, I knew he wouldn't be getting off in some last-minute twist.

 

I felt for Marcy and Jenna, as well as Jerome's family.  All of these lives were basically upended by one horrible person.  One person who, thankfully, will pay for it.  I especially loved Marcy going after Neil.  Had to hurt knowing her own brother was that terrible.  I watched her running for him so many times on my DVR.

 

The ending reminded me of an old SVU episode.  As much as I somewhat felt for Luke, since he was set up almost as much as Jerome was, he still did need to do time for what he did to Jerome.  So I hope Jerome's family just lets him do time for the manslaughter charge.

 

I thought it was a pretty good episode.  The whole cast was in it, for once, and it felt like a nice return to the old-school SVU episodes.

  • Love 1
Link to comment

Oh, here's something I'm surprised they didn't touch on.  What's gonna happen to Jiya, Neil's wife?  She clearly knew what he was doing and covered it all up.

 

Barba's snips towards Carisi is funny. But, why is everyone always so mean to Carisi? Lol!

 

Because . . . he's annoying?  He comes off like a total Brooklyn stereotype?

 

Sorry.  I get everyone seems to be in love with Carisi, but I'm not.  He's not terrible, but when he first came on, I didn't get much time to form an opinion of him.  But all the love thrown at him before I got a chance to decide kinda turned me off to him.  So . . . it's basically everyone's fault I don't have too high an opinion of him, not really his own fault.

  • Love 3
Link to comment

A decent episode. Although it could have been awesome if they had gotten Bryan Cranston (AKA Dr. Tim Whatley) to play the creepy dentist. I love Seinfeld plus Cranston is an awesome actor.

 

Although at the end I was total expecting Barba to do some kind of Jack McCoy move and tell those two family members that the dentist was being charged with a bunch of sex crimes, plus conspiracy to commit murder or something for getting the girl's dad riled up to go kill the pizza shop guy.

Edited by Kel Varnsen
Link to comment
I knew it was the dentist the minute he was introduced.

 

 

The second he walked on I was IT'S HIM JUST GET IT OVER WITH. But they did a decent build, with a guy who's been getting away with it for so long he gets more and more reckless/gruesome, and then just keeps setting off depth charges with no regard for how ridiculous his stories sound or who he hurts, because he's just been doing it for so long he's kind of forgotten how to do a good coverup.

 

The actress playing the mom was really good, and really showed how her character has been believing/placating her brother their entire lives, so that it was even harder then it would already have been to accept what happened. It's clear he got a sick thrill out of using his sister as an unknowing procurer, and raping his niece because she was his niece. 

  • Love 3
Link to comment

I was appalled how fast they arrested Jerome and assumed he was guilty !!! The girl was obviously out of it and he worked at the pizzeria!!! How easy would it have been to check his story about the customers in line for the rest room!!!! Horrendous police work!

 

Same here! I kept having to remind myself it was "just" a TV show because I was getting so mad at the detectives.

  • Love 2
Link to comment

Did they arrest him or did they just take him in for questioning? They were right there and she's screaming 'he raped me arrest him!' So they couldn't not taking him in for questioning.

I agree that they are too quick to judge someone without all the facts. Then they go to trial without having all the information. The always assume that the person the victim accuses is guilty until proven innocent. Then they find out during the trial that the accused is innocent which makes Barba look bad. They need to do a thorough investigation before arresting people. It just makes them look bad when I don't.

Link to comment

I think they cuffed him on the spot and totally ignored what he was trying to tell him. If they had listened, they could have just went in the restaurant and asked the customers about the bathroom line, they all must have still be in the pizzeria !!!

Edited by Packerbrewerbadger
Link to comment

I think they cuffed him on the spot and totally ignored what he was trying to tell him. If they had listened, they could have just went in the restaurant and asked the customers about the bathroom line, they all must have still be in the pizzeria !!!

What was even more ludicrous is that I am pretty certain when they were questioning him they said they had a bunch of witnesses, so you would think even these nimrods would have been important to nail down this party witness testimony even if he was guilty.

Link to comment

This might be a dumb question, but why couldn't they charge the father with murder? I thought that if you commit a felony and in the course of committing that felony someone dies, their death is considered murder, even if there was no intent to kill them. The father kidnapped the pizza guy (which is a felony) so why wasn't his death considered a murder?

Link to comment

They could have charged him with murder and were going to even though they knew that he tried to revive him and called 911; however, they decided to be lenient when they realized that his brother-in-law had manipulated him into kidnapping the guy to cover his crime.

Link to comment

They could have charged him with murder and were going to even though they knew that he tried to revive him and called 911; however, they decided to be lenient when they realized that his brother-in-law had manipulated him into kidnapping the guy to cover his crime.

Giving the guy a break because of the brother makes sense, but at the same time it seemed like from the minute the cops found the pizza guy, they were saying that because the dad guy gave CPR they probably wouldn't be able to charge murder. 

  • Love 1
Link to comment

The cops said they shouldn't because they felt that his intent wasn't there but Barba was planning on doing it because he felt the charge was justified. Basically the cops felt sorry for the dad from the start and thought they shouldn't charge him so harshly because of the circumstances, in the end it isn't up to them. They cops also wondered if he would get off beause at that point they weren't sure the guy wasn't guilty so he might get off with jury nullification.

Edited by biakbiak
Link to comment

I think they cuffed him on the spot and totally ignored what he was trying to tell him. If they had listened, they could have just went in the restaurant and asked the customers about the bathroom line, they all must have still be in the pizzeria !!!

 

I'm not so against them cuffing him on the spot. She very clearly accused him of rape. That's probable cause to arrest someone in most cases. Not enough to charge them but enough to arrest.

 

But to not walk inside and interview the 4 or 5 people in line for the bathroom? That's ridiculous. As you said they were all clearly still inside the pizzaria.

  • Love 1
Link to comment

This might be a dumb question, but why couldn't they charge the father with murder? I thought that if you commit a felony and in the course of committing that felony someone dies, their death is considered murder, even if there was no intent to kill them. The father kidnapped the pizza guy (which is a felony) so why wasn't his death considered a murder?

They likely meant they couldn't charge him with 1st degree murder or 2nd degree murder, because an element of those crimes is an intent to kill the person. Felony murder is a different charge, and that's what they did charge him with.

 

I also knew it was the dentist from the beginning, and I'm not one to usually figure these things out early.

Edited by Evangeline
  • Love 1
Link to comment

It was obviously the dentist from the moment she mentioned she had been to the dentist. Even more obvious once she said the dentist was her uncle. I guess I've watched too much SVU in my life.

Even more obvious when the dentist was the only guest star I recognized.
  • Love 1
Link to comment

I am going to take Carisi's refusal to believe that an uncle could do such a thing as proof that his family really are a bunch of absolute sweethearts who (platonically) love him to tiny bits and would never hurt any proverbial flies.

Because someone in this show needs to have a non-fucked up family.

  • Love 2
Link to comment

I recognized him but I can't place where from.

He's been in A LOT of tv: Agent Kellerman on Prison Break, Cooper Freedman on Private Practice, he's on the new season of Scandal (cannot remember his character name for the life of me though), and he's been in a previous ep of SVU.  He's also married, in real life, to Paris from Gilmore Girls, which I only mention because it tickles me.

 

I didn't mind the episode on the whole, but it exemplifies what drives me nuts about SVU in recent years - instead of just taking one "ripped from the headlines" story and doing it well, they take, like, six storylines and try to cram them all into one.  This could've been so much cleaner if the person the girl originally accused had just been a case of accusing someone because they were close by - it doesn't have to be a Central Park 5 AND Eric Garner storyline on top of it.  And I can't put my finger on exactly why, but it kinda rubs me the wrong way that they made this character an SVU version of a member of the Central Park Five, but made him clearly guilty (Amaro had that throwaway line about how they were all guilty, but there was a police screw-up that vacated the conviction), as opposed to what actually happened, which is that they were completely innocent.  

 

I guarantee this isn't the only version of a "Bill Cosby ripped from the headlines" story they do this season though.  I can't imagine that SVU would cram it into half a story like this.

Edited by Princess Sparkle
Link to comment

I am going to take Carisi's refusal to believe that an uncle could do such a thing as proof that his family really are a bunch of absolute sweethearts who (platonically) love him to tiny bits and would never hurt any proverbial flies.

Because someone in this show needs to have a non-fucked up family.

I think his refusal to believe that the uncle did is showing that his character is inexperienced in sex crimes, not that he has a perfect life.

There was an episode where he did this speech about how he usually worked on Homicide cases and the victims he had to deal with were dead. There was no personal connection to them. He also stated that the female victims were usually killed by their husbands or boyfriends and that they were positioned to look "pretty." But, in SVU, the victims were most likely alive and their attackers were probably someone they didn't know. They were ravaged and he probably isn't used to how personally he would take some of these cases.

Link to comment

Probably. It's wishful thinking because it would just be nice change from the rest of them.

On a completely shallow note, I agree that Amaro's hair was looking good this episode, but actually it seemed like Barba and Carisi's hair was nicely done too. Whoever they've hired, they should keep them.

Link to comment

I am going to take Carisi's refusal to believe that an uncle could do such a thing as proof that his family really are a bunch of absolute sweethearts who (platonically) love him to tiny bits and would never hurt any proverbial flies.

Because someone in this show needs to have a non-fucked up family.

 

We're going to find out soon enough... 

 

We're going to see some more of Detective Carisi and learn where he comes from. "There's an episode coming up where we get into my family backstory," Peter Scanavino tells us. "…I think he's coming from a really interesting place. He is new and doesn't have the experience all the other detectives have and I think in general, most of the other detectives come from some kind of family where there's a problem: There's an abusive father, there's a sister, there's whatever. And I think kind of the interesting thing about Carisi is he comes from a family that's very close-knit and very tight…I've got sister and I love them, it's a tight family." A family that's not totally screwed up?! It's a first for Law & Order: SVU. But something tells us there may be a secret or two lying in wait…it is SVU after all. (source)

Edited by Everleigh
  • Love 1
Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...