S19.E10: Pathological

[Snookums]

This was definitely the best one of the season, which is like saying a particular gumdrop out of the bag you bought at the dollar store was especially delicious, but at least the BENOAH was kept to a dull roar.

Watching it, you could see the actress playing Muriel using what she'd learned from her crazy mother about manipulation: like, during the initial interviews about the sex, she says clearly "Mommy, Cody raped me." He didn't--it was consensual--but even in her fogged, drugged, messed up state she knows what her mom wants to hear and how she wants her to act, like a helpless child. Muriel, like her mom before her, grew up knowing that everything was wrong but couldn't get anybody's attention long enough to be able to voice it. And last but not least, she learned that rage. Dawn may not have bopped her stepfather on the head with a hammer but Muriel? She's a fast learner. 

Considering how coloring book bold outlined the plots have been the last couple of seasons there was actually nuance in trying to figure out what to do when someone is terribly, terribly ill and also knowingly inflicting damage on another human being with no intention of stopping. You could see Dawn's channeling of her own "unacceptable" states into her daughter: woman had so many projection issues she should have managed an art house theater. "She's anxious!" she would shriek, flapping her arms like a emu on bath salts, and no one feels comfortable saying um, YOU are the anxious one here because Sick! Kid! Single! Mom! Quick, start a GoFundMe campaign! 

Annnnd then we get to the actual trial part and everything falls apart. As everyone has pointed out, there is absolutely no reason Barba couldn't send this case to family court, which is far more equipped to handle the legal vagaries of this nightmare of a case. And while I got the giggles at how he threw the thing at the last minute it's ridiculous that it A) worked without him losing his job and B) it ever got that far in the first place. And frankly, if we dropped the damn Noah crap there would be room, like there used to be, to show the maneuverings, such as having Muriel's lawyer petition for moving the case, etc. At least it wouldn't look like everybody in this courthouse had totally forgotten how to do their jobs.

Last but not least: who was the actor playing Muriel's dad? He looked so familiar.

[Zoe]

20 hours ago, ChristiKRN said:

I thought this was one of the better episodes of the season, but that is not saying a whole lot.  When SVU has done "ripped-from-the-headlines" stories in the past, they have put their own twist on the story but they really didn't change up the story too much this time.  

Actually they changed it quite a bit even though I recognized it immediately. In real life the girl knew her mother was abusing her, and she and her boyfriend conspired to murder her and then cover it up by faking a kidnapping.

[katisha]

What a blessed relief that episode was after last week's Benoahthon. Okay, it will never make any top 10 lists of the best ever episodes but it's one of the better ones of the crappy last few seasons. And it had Warner, Olivet, fairly minimal St Benson and good Fin moments. And I didn't know the real life story which "inspired" the plot so I didn't see it coming when the daughter killed her mum.

[watcher1006]

I've served in a jury pool twice. I recall that the building had reserved elevators for jurors only to prevent the kind of incidental contact with non-jurors which in this case brought down the prosecution's case. I suppose every state is different but it felt odd to me that a mistrial could happen in this way.

[MaggieG]

On 1/14/2018 at 4:23 AM, ChristiKRN said:

I thought this was one of the better episodes of the season, but that is not saying a whole lot.  When SVU has done "ripped-from-the-headlines" stories in the past, they have put their own twist on the story but they really didn't change up the story too much this time.  To me, it seemed they were doing this story more to prop up Benson and Rollins as paragons of motherhood.  It was good to see Warner and Olivet again;  I wish they were more heavily featured, especially Tamara Tunie.  SVU is so desperately lacking a supporting cast, and this type of episode makes me nostalgic for the others, such as Dr. Huang, TARU guy and O'Hallorhan (the forensics guy).  

Wasn't O'Hallorhan killed by that annoying other forensics guy (Chuckie? Dickie) who also played Mickey on Shameless?

I was also glad to see Warner, so much so that I squeeled when I saw Tamara Tunie's name in the credits

[dttruman]

4 hours ago, MaggieG said:

Wasn't O'Hallorhan killed by that annoying other forensics guy (Chuckie? Dickie) who also played Mickey on Shameless?

I was also glad to see Warner, so much so that I squeeled when I saw Tamara Tunie's name in the credits

Yeah, I was very disappointed when O'Hallorhan was knocked off. That was a good character that made the supporting cast valuable.  When Warner was testifying at the trial, I thought she could only answer medical questions and it would have been a forensics guy like O'Hallorhan who would have answered the questions concerning blood spatters.

[WendyCR72]

All I can figure is the budget must be on a shoe string if even day player techs/whatever are getting killed.

[Iguessnot]

8 hours ago, MaggieG said:

Wasn't O'Hallorhan killed by that annoying other forensics guy (Chuckie? Dickie) who also played Mickey on Shameless?

I was also glad to see Warner, so much so that I squeeled when I saw Tamara Tunie's name in the credits

It was Stuckie or Stewie. I loved watching Stabler's blood start to boil anytime that dude was in his presence.

[wknt3]

14 hours ago, WendyCR72 said:

All I can figure is the budget must be on a shoe string if even day player techs/whatever are getting killed.

Unfortunately that plotline can't be blamed on budget cuts as it was before they got rid of all the recurring characters, started giving main cast members 8 episodes off, eliminated most of the extras in the squad room, etc. It was just their effort to top themselves with ever more outlandish, campier plots, with the most twists. The last few years where it's been budget cuts left and right they've tended to just disappear, never to be spoken of again.

[Xeliou66]

This episode made me miss all the recurring people even more. I loved seeing both Olivet and Warner, they add a lot to the show and I hope we continue to see recurring characters on SVU, please give us Warner on a more recurring basis and Olivet as well if we can’t get Huang back, I really miss him, also I would like to see the awesome Skoda again, he’s always been my favorite psych expert on the L&O franchise. I hate how SVU has eliminated almost all recurring characters, we never see TARU people (whatever happened to Morales?), we rarely see the cops in the lab or in the morgue, and we haven’t gotten nearly enough courtroom this season, it’s all Benson all the time.

[Kel Varnsen]

Wasn't there an episode from the Stabler days when someone had Munchhausen's by proxy? I am pretty sure there must have been since I can't figure out how else I would have known the term. 

Also agree that if Barba wanted to go lenient on the girl he should have just sent the case to family court to begin with.

And the best part of the episode was the framed photo of Munch that Olivia has on a small shelf in her apartment.

[Xeliou66]

1 minute ago, Kel Varnsen said:

Wasn't there an episode from the Stabler days when someone had Munchhausen's by proxy? I am pretty sure there must have been since I can't figure out how else I would have known the term. 

Also agree that if Barba wanted to go lenient on the girl he should have just sent the case to family court to begin with.

And the best part of the episode was the framed photo of Munch that Olivia has on a small shelf in her apartment.

The episode Sick from Season 5 had a grandmother making her granddaughter sick in order to get attention, that is probably what you are thinking of. 

[CelticBlackCat]

Just catching up on the post-kidnapping Noah by Granny drama hour episodes.  Liked this episode and agree with, appreciate and enjoyed the above comments.

Does anyone else feel disgusted that Noah is getting even more clingy and Mother Of All Mothers of This Year And All Years is now sleeping with the kid for comfort?  Are we getting into Creepland Territory here?  Can't she be a mother and get the boy to mind her and follow the rules instead of enabling him to want to sleep with mommy "one more night"?

FWIW, I could follow Barba's nuances and facial expressions that showed him regretting his decision to try Mariel in criminal court so, yeah, I think he planned his little elevator faux pas because he would know better than to keep talking on a cell phone in an elevator no matter who else is in there already.

[ForeverAlone]

I kept thinking about Noah's trauma and wondering just what he thought of it. I mean, does he realize that his grandmother abducted him? I suppose he does on some level, since he was asking if she had done a bad thing. But she didn't abuse or terrify him in any way. Hell, it sounded like he wanted to see her again. So why would he need to stay out of school for three weeks to recover? It almost sounds like it was more for Olivia's comfort than his own. 

[katisha]

On 17/01/2018 at 12:39 PM, Iguessnot said:

It was Stuckie or Stewie. I loved watching Stabler's blood start to boil anytime that dude was in his presence.

Definitely Dale Stuckey.  I recently re-watched the episode where he went postal and killed O'Halloran and I'd forgotten how bloody annoying he was with his catchphrase, "Bing bang boom!"

[Xeliou66]

Dale Stuckey was the worst, such a useless annoying character that made you want to throw something at the TV. Zebras was the stupidest this show ever got, and killing off O’Halloran was the worst mistake ever, especially bad that they never had any character acknowledge his death even! Season 10 was the absolute worst, most of the stories were just laughable. Makes this season look good by comparison. 

The forensics people are sorely missed on the show, just like the other recurring characters. 

[QueenMab]

FYI....this week, I think on USA, they are showing the episodes that crossover with Chicago PD, about my two fave bad guys of all time. Yates and Rudnick. Gregory William Yates, beyond evil and sick, made William Lewis look like a pussyweight amateur, and Dr.Rudnick....off the charts bonkers! Those were sick puppies. Love it!!

[wknt3]

6 hours ago, Xeliou66 said:

Season 10 was the absolute worst, most of the stories were just laughable.

As much as I usually agree with you and respect your opinion the only way Season 10 can be considered the absolute worst is if you are completely ignoring Season 18 or the grimdark torture porn last couple Amaro years. Which actually isn't a bad idea! Yes I think the campiness and attempts to pile up "shocking" plot twists went completely off the rails, but it had many of the same elements that made this episode superior to last season, such as recurring characters, the involvement of the whole cast, and Ice-T not completely phoning it in. Not to mention Season 10 had Meloni and Belzer too which raises it a notch above. Plus it was bad in a laughable way instead of in a just painful way.
 

Quote

Makes this season look good by comparison.

Probably, but I think this season benefits more by comparison with Season 18 than with Season 10. I would rather watch this episode again than most of Season 10. I would rather watch this episode while being kicked in the cojones repeatedly than watch a randomly chosen episode from last season!

[Joe Hellandback]

Well this one was pretty good, I thought when they brought Benson in from being off duty (why exactly apart from giving Olivia some more screentime) they were going to ruin it but thankfully it became all about Barba which was refreshing, I hope we have more eps like this one. 

On ‎11‎/‎01‎/‎2018 at 3:43 AM, Fiero425 said:

Jurors are idiots and can only do as instructed! So often they don't have a clue outside of just judging the evidence put before them! It's the reason OJ got off; the prosecution was incompetent while the defense tried to relate to them and were a lot more charismatic! I remember Trump and other owners of USFL teams back in the 80's won their case of collusion against the NFL! The jurors awarded only a dollar thinking the judge would come up with a figure! They must not have been told that the only thing the judge could do was triple the judgement so Trump got $3 IIRC! That is one of the reasons he's gone "tooth and nail" after FOOTBALL trying to pay them back! ;-)

The OJ prosecution wasn't incompetent, not their fault the detective who finds the vital evidence turned out to be a racist, discrediting him in the juries eyes. Basically they thought this was just an ordinary domestic murder and didn't realise it was a racial issue. 

[Xeliou66]

This episode was one that was very good for the first 50 minutes and then they ruined it with the final 10 minutes. It was a very interesting case, we had the return of Warner and Olivet, a lot less Benson and a lot more of everyone else, and then they shit the bed at the end having Barba deliberately tank the case in yet another extremely OOC moment just because he saw the light after talking to St Olivia. Barba could’ve sent the case to family court before the trial and he would’ve had plenty of time to think about doing so, but no the writers have to throw in a Barson scene cause Barba can’t think straight without Olivia. 

It seems like a regular theme this season that we come close to having a great episode, but then the soap loving SVU writers and Mariska throw in some bullshit that knocks the episode down.