S19.E06: Unintended Consequences

[Aethera]

Quote

A teenage girl is found dead leading Rollins to go undercover at the last place she was seen alive, a high-end rehab center. Meanwhile, Benson tries to overcome her doubts about Sheila.

[QueenMab]

.....aka "The Olivia Benson Hour". 

[ForeverAlone]

I would laugh and cheer if Olivia's subplot is deleted and replaced with a storyline for another character. But I doubt I am so lucky. :)

[QueenMab]

We can dream.....

[Gigglepuff]

5 hours ago, Aethera said:

A teenage girl is found dead leading Rollins to go undercover at the last place she was seen alive, a high-end rehab center.

Sounds like another young, rich victim. Quelle suprise. Who wants to bet she was also pretty and white? 

[Xeliou66]

15 minutes ago, Gigglepuff said:

Sounds like another young, rich victim. Quelle suprise. Who wants to bet she was also pretty and white? 

At least she's dead so she won't be able to give a speech at the end thanking Olivia for saving her and being her hero, which it seems like most victims have done the past couple of years. 

[Gigglepuff]

Just now, Xeliou66 said:

At least she's dead so she won't be able to give a speech at the end thanking Olivia for saving her and being her hero, which it seems like most victims have done the past couple of years. 

You made me laugh.

But odds are there will be some other young, vulnerable, pretty, white girl that Benson will be able to save in the meantime. 

[CheetaraThunder]

Somehow they will make the whole Rollins going undercover about Noah/Olivia.

[RafaelBarba35]

They are moving the episode to next week cause the World Series. They are replaying Gone Fishin.

[QueenMab]

Onscreen guide shows Blacklist, SVU, Chicago P.D. NBC has no listing for World Series.

Got it. World Series Game 7 on at 5pm (PST) until 8 on Fox 11 here. Over by primetime. Are we going to suffer in the west coast because east 3 hours ahead?

[LizDC]

World Series is on Fox. It’s Game 7 and might draw a lot of viewers.  NBC is running reruns tonight and saving the new episodes for next week when the Series is over.

[QueenMab]

Isn't this the one that Finn goes to Cuba and we thought it would be (logically) a Finn and Barba episode but Finn just wore a Hawaiian shirt and Barba just showed up to plant a big one on Benson's ass and we got the same old shit?

[wonderwoman]

I'm guessing this is because the Dodgers are in the Series. Given how long these games take, 10PM Pacific time is just about when things should be wrapping up.

[dttruman]

1 hour ago, LizDC said:

World Series is on Fox. It’s Game 7 and might draw a lot of viewers.  NBC is running reruns tonight and saving the new episodes for next week when the Series is over.

My tv-guide part of cable says they are still running that "Unintended Consequences" episode. I guess I have to wait until 9pm to actually find out.

[Xeliou66]

It's not airing tonight anywhere, that's been announced all over social media. I guess the cable guides haven't been updated yet. 

Smart move, as myself and many other SVU fans will be watching the World Series tonight. Can't compete with a big event like that.

[dttruman]

On 10/31/2017 at 11:14 AM, QueenMab said:

.....aka "The Olivia Benson Hour". 

Since we discussed the evolving story line of SVU in the past, where it centers around Benson's personal and professional life now. I ran across a tv series that was on from 2014-2016 starring Debra Messing and this is the from the IMDb description of the show "The Mysteries of Laura", "A New York homicide detective cracks case after case while raising wild twin boys and locking horns with her less than helpful police detective ex-husband." With a few minor changes, does that sound familiar in any way?

24 minutes ago, Xeliou66 said:

It's not airing tonight anywhere, that's been announced all over social media. I guess the cable guides haven't been updated yet. 

Smart move, as myself and many other SVU fans will be watching the World Series tonight. Can't compete with a big event like that.

Another reason to drop my cable!

[dttruman]

32 minutes ago, Xeliou66 said:

It's not airing tonight anywhere, that's been announced all over social media. I guess the cable guides haven't been updated yet. 

Smart move, as myself and many other SVU fans will be watching the World Series tonight. Can't compete with a big event like that.

NBC is showing the Blacklist  episode "The Travel Agency" and my tv-guide says it is new, season 5, episode 6. Will SVU be new?

[Jaded]

The NBC site doesn't have anything listed for the SVU and Chicago P.D. timeslots. I'm guessing that's because they pulled the new episodes as others have mentioned. Since those new eps were pulled today cable guides wouldn't have had time to make any changes.

http://www.nbc.com/schedule

[QueenMab]

For crap sake! Somebody on the east coast tell us what's up with the shows! C'mon! Jeeesh. Like pulling teeth to get info.

[Jaded]

I'm in the central time zone and the start of Gone Fishin was on when I flipped the channel to something else.

[QueenMab]

Thank you. The one thing everyone wonders about and none of ya telling. Jeeez.

[QueenMab]

On west coast..."Blacklist" "The Travel Agency", new episode is on as listed. FYI. Watching it, I like the show. Its the new episode. Maybe we'll get the new SVU too. Let you know.

[illdoc]

19 hours ago, QueenMab said:

On west coast..."Blacklist" "The Travel Agency", new episode is on as listed.

But that would be the first show of prime time. I believe the networks are (were) new in that time slot. It's the two timeslots after that which are reruns.

[DesertCyclist]

So glad I came here; I was ready to go off on Hulu for not having posted the latest episode.

[Aethera]

Sorry guys, I've been swamped and didn't come change the thread title. That's been done now :) 

[dttruman]

Is NBC preempting SVU or showing another rerun again? ESPN is showing the Celtics-Lakers game tonight.

[balmz]

hmm actually liked the episode, didn't care for the olivia/noah/ shelia part but the rest was good, nice to see them working as a team and barba,  a few things though,

 

what kind of agreement did that place have that stopped them from looking at her records? couldn't barba have argued that the fact that the girl died while under their care showed that they were unfit caretakers and as such they can look at the records? also with Anthony having sex with the girls, wouldn't it still be illegal because of the difference of power? like he has the power, they don't regardless of their age so that's considered rape, also the lady poisoning him was a interesting twist but i'm pretty sure there's an antidote for the drug she used, i know in canada we have something like that and firefighters and police carry it, unless it's not available in the us and with trump as president wouldn't surprise me he prevented it from being used, also part of me thought that would have been more interesting if the owner ironically was a drug addict and he used his own place to do drugs and treat himself and he accidentally od'd and the lady wanted to watch him die

[QueenMab]

That told us nothing.

[wknt3]

The Good:
Another case where the whole squad was involved. At this point it seems like this is the new normal, but for so long it's been all Benson all the time that it's still worth noting.
Fin. While we were light on good Fin snark it was nice to see him played as the veteran he is. Especially the scene in the narcotics squad. Too often he's been shown as knowing everything about the drug trade and urban culture no matter how unrealistic it is.
It's nice to see a case that was wrapped into a nice tidy bow by Benson speechifying and persuading the reluctant witness to testify.
Some concern for laws and procedure. The execution left something to be desired, but it's nice to see some sort of effort.
Actual focus on someone other than Benson in the COTW. Even though there was too much Benoah and too much Benson in the field it was nice to see the promised Rollins story wasn't a complete fakeout and we're still moving towards something more like early Season 17 where Benson is the star, but not the only one doing everything.
Barba. Not his best, but not Pod Barba and he was calling the legal shots and had some good lines about Carisi.

The Bad:
The opener. What was the point of showing the crime? Why was Benson at the scene?
Benson getting all tough and feminist with the drug dealer. That was painful. Not a bad idea, but poorly written and even more poorly acted. Can't they go in the archives and find a Van Buren scene to plagiarize?
I know what she meant, but I was still pissed to hear Benson talking about how hard it was to find a good babysitter. How can you insult Lucy like that!
Another pretty young rich white girl victim.
Benoah. It was actually about as well done as it could be, but there was at least one too many scene devoted to the plot and the case definitely could have used some of the time.

Overall it was solid and maybe even pretty good. I still feel like there is a creative tug of war going on between interesting cases and Benson family soap opera, and between something more like traditional L&O and the agenda and style that dominated last season and unless and until they resolve that they will never reach the potential that is still there.

[shapeshifter]

It seemed the takeaway was that Obamacare was turning the opioid epidemic into open season for greedy institutions preying on unsuspecting parents seeking rehab for their kids. And it came out of Barba's mouth. Has this show always been this way and I'm just noticing it now? Or is there some way I misinterpreted?

Meanwhile back at the Benoah place, am I the only one left wondering how many episodes before Granny's true nature is revealed when she's alone with Noah and he's having a bad day?

[wonderwoman]

3 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

Meanwhile back at the Benoah place, am I the only one left wondering how many episodes before Granny's true nature is revealed when she's alone with Noah and he's having a bad day?

Noah having a bad day? Were that it be. I'd pay to see that! And if Olivia were in the room... Please, oh pretty please.

Edited November 9, 2017 by wonderwoman

[CheetaraThunder]

I just want an episode where Benson just sits at her desk while the squad + Barba actually are out in the field. And the times we see Benson is when they are updating her on the case. Dreams, I know.

 

They could have ended this episode with maybe Rollins going back to Jesse and holding her tight, but no we get more bemoan/shiela bullshit to fill up the ego of the star.

Besides that shit, the episode was actually pretty good.

[Xeliou66]

This was a much better episode overall than the last 3, I liked that the storyline was something very different than normal : no Benson badgering someone to testify, no victim thanking Benson for saving her, no sermons from Benson/MH and we actually had an in depth investigation to figure out what was going on. What started as an apparent rape/homicide turned out to be a massive scam run by sleazy rehab clinic staff and it cost a girl her life, nice twists. 

It's nice that they are using all of the detectives this season instead of just Benson, we've gotten a lot of good scenes with Fin, Rollins and Carisi, they are being used nicely this year instead of having Benson in every scene like in the past. 

Still not nearly enough Barba, the scenes we had with him were great as always but he just isn't being used at all. We've barely had any courtroom scenes this year, despite Churnuchin being a mothership writer who knows how to write for the courtroom and Barba is barely even around. It's ridiculous and insulting to the character, I'm starting to wonder if they are writing less Barba because of his popularity and they don't want anyone to overshadow Queen Mariska. 

Way too much Benson at home, it added absolutely nothing to the show and was just pointless filler designed to give MH more screen time. I'm so sick of the constant Noah appearances, it's totally pointless and just gives MH a chance to play super mommy, I mean it's gotten to the point where Noah should be a main character ahead of Barba cause we are getting just as much Noah as Barba and that's a joke. 

Benson going off on the drug dealer guy in interrogation was awful, terrible acting and writing, very out of place. 

Much better than the last few, but please give us more Barba and more courtroom and less Benson at home, a lot of the Benson at home stuff could've been cut to help flesh out the case more. 

[Snookums]

Quote

he was calling the legal shots and had some good lines about Carisi.

"What are you, a bat?" Made me laugh out loud. Give Raul more to do, show! Like showing that tape of the one girl being KIDNAPPED from her home, tied and gagged and dragged into the rehab! In what friggin' universe is that legal? How is that not showing they are unfit caretakers? Arrrrgh.

The insurance scamming was interesting but you'd think some underwriter or other would have run a few numbers at some point. Peter Scalari was being unbelievably greedy and sloppy with those billings and it should have been a huge red flag to any insurance company worth its salt.

Can we just cut to the "Grandma Sheila kidnaps Noah" storyline and get it over with already?

[CelticBlackCat]

1 hour ago, Snookums said:

"What are you, a bat?" Made me laugh out loud. Give Raul more to do, show! Like showing that tape of the one girl being KIDNAPPED from her home, tied and gagged and dragged into the rehab! In what friggin' universe is that legal? How is that not showing they are unfit caretakers? Arrrrgh.

The insurance scamming was interesting but you'd think some underwriter or other would have run a few numbers at some point. Peter Scalari was being unbelievably greedy and sloppy with those billings and it should have been a huge red flag to any insurance company worth its salt.

Can we just cut to the "Grandma Sheila kidnaps Noah" storyline and get it over with already?

That cracked me up too!  Agree that Barba could use more screen time!  Hey, I know!  Let's cut out the Mommy & Noah scenes at home!  There.  Problem solved.

I'm thinking that the Season cliffhanger will be just that:  Granny Sheila kidnaps Noah.  After all, Sheila just shows up from out of nowhere and we don't know anything about her except for what she claims.  I'll bet she bought that baseball mitt and made up the story about it being her daughter's favorite thing.

[Xeliou66]

Yeah Barba needs a lot more screentime, his "what are you, a bat" line to Carisi was one of the funniest lines SVU has had in a while. I'm sick of getting more of Noah and Brooke Shields than of Barba in episodes, it ridiculous. For some reason they give Barba nothing and soon they will be bringing on Churnuchin's pet Stone from Chicago Justice and I guarantee they will just shit on Barba in order to make Stone look good. I'm so sick of how they underuse Barba terribly. 

And yeah I have a feeling they are going to have granny kidnap Noah, there's no other reason they would bring on Brooke Shields for these rather pointless scenes several episodes in a row if something wasn't planned. I'm dreading the storyline already. 

One other thing about tonight's episode, it really irritated me how we didn't see an ME despite needing one to examine the victim. Instead we have the detectives say what the ME said. Why the hell cant we get Warner or another ME to appear, I really miss the recurring characters. 

[Joimiaroxeu]

If Grandma Sheila does kidnap Noah I hope she takes him out of the country to someplace where Benson can't ever find them. I'm already dreading a whole season devoted to Benson's "must find Noah!" drama. Maybe she'll step down from her position as the boss of SVU so she can spend more time on the search.

[wknt3]

10 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

It seemed the takeaway was that Obamacare was turning the opioid epidemic into open season for greedy institutions preying on unsuspecting parents seeking rehab for their kids. And it came out of Barba's mouth. Has this show always been this way and I'm just noticing it now? Or is there some way I misinterpreted?

The takeaway was actually what it usually has been the past season and a half - powerful men will use anything to abuse young women. Especially pretty rich white girls. It is true to some extent about there being plenty of men who will abuse power that way (although the non-wealthy and minorities are of course more vulnerable even if they are less telegenic), but I still miss the days when we saw a range of perps and victims and motives. As far as your question is concerned the show has always incorporated random lines attempting to address the issues being covered. In some ways it used to be worse - if this was season 7 SVU Barba would have known exactly how much was being billed and the range of suspected fraud. In some ways it used to be better as there was more thought about the message they were sending, more characters so it was more realistic one of them  would know something relevant about any issue, and they made more effort to try to point out both sides (which again was easier when you had more characters and a range of views). This was clunky writing more than an intentiinal message IMHO. It is probably another casualty of Benoah - if they weren't spending so much time on that nonsense, they could have had a bit of back and forth and come to the classic L&O conclusion that the policy wasn't necessarily the problem it was human nature and the solution was to drop the hammer on the bad guy by any means necessary.

Edited November 9, 2017 by wknt3
Sloppy phrasing and poor writing undermined my intended point. Maybe I should join the SVU staff?

[dttruman]

Did anyone else think that the crime investigation of this episode could have been something special. I thought it had an intricate plot line that could have covered two maybe three episodes, but they turned it into a seriously watered down version of itself just so Benson can over worry, both at work and at home concerning her paranoiac petty jealousy of the maternal grandmother. The writers will of course take Benson's delusion (and make it real) and stretch it out like something from the Lifetime Movie Network.

[JyDanzig]

Well, the big surprise was that I really loved the Benson/Sheila stuff!  I could not have been less enthused by the prospect of this story, but Brooke Shields is really transforming it into something great, essentially single-handedly.  She acts the hell out of her scenes and I'm finding her character very affecting.  They're doing a good job of making this work by keeping it grounded -- I sincerely hope they can resist the temptation to reveal that Sheila is actually the world's most prolific sex trafficker, and Ellie was just one of her many thousands of victims.

The crime story I thought was fine.  They've done the evil rehab/hospital/whatever before, but not in awhile, so we were good for another run at that, but I thought they didn't execute properly.  They spent too much time at the beginning chasing red herrings, and then the more interesting developments in the second half were rushed.

There was also a disconnect in the portrayal of Lux -- the location was so gorgeous and lavish (I was seeing it and thinking, I want to go there!), yet the social worker and her office were portrayed in that overwhelmed-public-servant way.  It's so torturous to work at this gorgeous high-end rehab facility for pretty young white girls that job positions there are unfillable for months on end?  And some of Peter Scolari's scheme was just sloppily plotted.  It seemed like a scam succeeding on such a large scale would have a better eye on the details.

Overall, an OK episode.  I'd hope for better but it's still such an enormous, titanic improvement over last season that I'm coming away basically happy

 

13 hours ago, wknt3 said:

I know what she meant, but I was still pissed to hear Benson talking about how hard it was to find a good babysitter. How can you insult Lucy like that!

And yes, this was an outrage!  If there's one person who shouldn't complain about their help, it's Benson.

[shapeshifter]

I still don't quite get what happened to the victim. Was the opening scene a flashback to her being hauled back to Evil Rich Rehab? Or was it just before she died? Who dumped the body? Sorry, and thanks in advance for filling me in. I really wasn't sleeping this time.

[dttruman]

2 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

I still don't quite get what happened to the victim. Was the opening scene a flashback to her being hauled back to Evil Rich Rehab? Or was it just before she died? Who dumped the body? Sorry, and thanks in advance for filling me in. I really wasn't sleeping this time.

No the opening scene showed the kidnapping at the beginning was arranged by the parents. She was the blonde with the rainbow hair that we saw later.

[Snookums]

I still can't track what happened to the actual victim when.

Okay, so Rainbow Hair is kidnapped and hauled in by the guys, including the one who got the  vic pregnant at the halfway house. That's all on tape, including showing her sneaking out of Lux, physically intact and unbattered.

She's later shown on the subway? I think? with a black eye, showing that she was beaten up between Lux and the East Village. She presumably went to the halfway house to score the drugs but that can't be right because her assaulter/pusher was still at Lux dropping off Rainbow Hair, right? How did he get back to the halfway house in time to assault her? And her friend at the restaurant, who was the one who bought the drugs that killed her from the street pusher, said she looked fine and just wanted to party. He took off when she died, right?

So when did she get raped by the halfway house guy???? It had to be after she and Friend got the drugs, and we know it was HH Guy because of the DNA kit! The timing on this is bizarre and unworkable.

[illdoc]

15 hours ago, hovegeta said:

i'm pretty sure there's an antidote for the drug she used, i know in canada we have something like that and firefighters and police carry it,

That would be the Narcan (or whatever they said)---the drug that the social worker said at the lecture that "if she had some, she could have saved her daughter". Which Rollins told Carisi to get, which the social worker said that she had used Fentenal (whatever the spelling is), and therefore no Narcan can save him.

[balmz]

Just now, illdoc said:

That would be the Narcan (or whatever they said)---the drug that the social worker said at the lecture that "if she had some, she could have saved her daughter". Which Rollins told Carisi to get, which the social worker said that she had used Fentenal (whatever the spelling is), and therefore no Narcan can save him.

hmm i 'm pretty sure it's something different here in canada, not sure what it is called but it's not narcan

[Snookums]

Quote

Which Rollins told Carisi to get, which the social worker said that she had used Fentenal (whatever the spelling is), and therefore no Narcan can save him.

Which means Rollins should quit touching him without gloves because she could OD on Fentanyl! It's designed to be absorbed through the skin! Rescue workers apparently have had a real problem with this and the Narcan is for them as well as the victims a lot of times.

[Efzee]

Am I the only one who's wondering how the hell the halfway house/counseler got away scot-free? I was expecting a great courtroom case after they made such a big deal out of the rehab facility having guardianship (or whatever it's called) over all their patients because the parents all temporarily transfer their parental rights to the clinic. Therefore, the rehab/clinic is responsible for the well being of these minors who they transfer to a halfway house where they're taken advantage of/being drugged. If the parents didn't have any parental rights during their daughter's stay in the clinic, which apparently includes the brief time at the halfway house, then the clinic or the halfway house (if they temporarily transfer their given parental rights to the hh) have parental rights over these minors. That really complicates the whole drugging and raping these girls. Because not only is their counselor in a position of power and trust while they are under their supervision but they might even have parental rights. 

So, either way the clinic and the halfway house and the pervy counselor should be in big trouble...

[Gigglepuff]

Better episode than the last few, though I could have done without yet another rich, white victim. I wasn't a fan of the ending, with the woman from the treatment center killing the guy, that seemed like a cheap way out imo.

Less Benson drama ain't gonna happen, and I have a sneaking suspicion that grandma Sheila is going to prove to be sinister, which will give us all the more Benson angst. I can see it now, St Liv wallowing about how, being a saint and practically perfect in every way, should have trusted her instincts etc, etc, etc.....I hope they don't go there because 1) I think Noah having a grandmother is a good thing, and 2) it would really, really fulfill a negative stereotype about adoption, biological families, the important role they play in the lives of many, many adopted children and finally, making grandma evil and Noah in need of rescue from his own blood is a little too "adoptive parents are saviors" for me. 

 

I liked the use of the rest of the cast, especially Fin. I know people here are huge Barba fans, but really, Fin has been there the longest (next to the saint of course), and if anyone deserves better screen time, it's him. Barba too, but more so Fin. 

[shapeshifter]

23 minutes ago, Efzee said:

Am I the only one who's wondering how the hell the halfway house/counseler got away scot-free?

The female counselor is going to likely get 25 to life for hot-shotting the evil Rehab House manager. The manager is dead. If she hadn't killed him, Barba was going to bring him up on RICO charges. But, yes, there's still a manager of the halfway house. I think off-screen he too will be part of Barba's RICO case.

[dttruman]

On 11/9/2017 at 3:05 PM, shapeshifter said:

The female counselor is going to likely get 25 to life for hot-shotting the evil Rehab House manager. The manager is dead. If she hadn't killed him, Barba was going to bring him up on RICO charges. But, yes, there's still a manager of the halfway house. I think off-screen he too will be part of Barba's RICO case.

I agree with you on the manager of the halfway house. They could have taken 20-25 seconds to finalize his punishment. Or if they wanted to make it into a 2 or 3 episode story. This manager could have turned state's witness to testify against the Rehab house manager but is killed before he can testify. But noooooo, all this is wasted in favor of Benson worry about getting a babysitter.