About Last Night…LAW & ORDER, LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT, LAW & ORDER: ORGANIZED CRIME, and More

Let’s talk about Thursday night’s TV!

LAW & ORDER: This was in my top 2 episodes of the revival, easily. Mehcad Brooks and Hugh Dancy were so damn good as Shaw and Price had to grapple with how the system–and their role within it–failed a wrongly accused (and arrested) man. I loved that the show shook up how the episode was told in order to best tell this story, and really hope they continue to do this. And that bar scene? It has gutted me every single time I’ve watched.

[For more on the episode, here’s what Brooks had to say on filming “The System.”]

GHOSTS: Oh my God, poor Pete. Look, I wasn’t convinced Alberta was ready for the leap he was, but I didn’t see her so blatantly rejecting him, either. (It was the nicest rejection possible, to be clear. And so freaking funny—sorry to Pete. But oh my God.)

I got irrationally stressed by Sam and Jay being blindsided by a liquor license inspection, because they only deserve good things, dammit. I’m glad their stealth tasting didn’t blow up in their face. I did, of course, love seeing SUPERSTORE’s Kaliko Kauahi in the role, though.

[For more on the episode, here’s what Richie Moriarty shared about “The Liquor License.”]

LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT: Okay, I’m going to start with the good: I’m glad for Rollins and Carisi that they got married. I’m very, very glad that Rollins was able to leave on her own terms and she got a lovely round of applause from the squad as she left.

But…

• Amanda would only give Carisi a drawer, but they spontaneously got married? I really wish the show had spent the time that was devoted in the last episode to her possibly changing jobs to discussing their relationship/marriage instead. I absolutely believe Carisi would have married her in a nanosecond (and likely ditto for her), but all we saw/heard on-screen was how slow they were/she was taking it. If they were going to elope, forgoing her daughters (?!) or his mother (I know she’s planning a “real” wedding, but good luck to them at the holidays, because I’m guessing Serafina is going to hold this against them for a while), I wish it felt more like it made sense for the characters than a “surprise!” to the audience. And I wish we had seen more of the wedding itself.
• Much like Eli being aged up on OC, Noah being 12 makes no sense. Yes, his real-life portrayer is not Noah’s age, but making him 12 means he would have been around before Elliot left, Amanda arrived, or Lewis took Olivia. Just don’t say his age! Sigh.
• But, also, are we supposed to take him being 12 as an excuse for him being so, um, hurtful to Olivia? That’s your mom—she’s your family. Come on. There’s absolutely a story to tell about him trying to find himself, especially as he grapples with what his adoption means for him, but I wish Olivia had pushed back a little? Or we had at least seen him and Olivia reiterating the importance of found/chosen family versus blood?
• I do not doubt that Olivia Benson loves her son more than anything in the entire world, but…how did she leave him in the home of strangers? She was nervous to have him and his half-brother spend time alone with the door closed. But leaving him to stay with this newfound family while she bolted to spend the night at an inexplicably awful motel makes sense? Even if she wasn’t the captain of SVU, even if she hadn’t had her own extremely complex relationship with her own half-brother…she knows what introducing Sheila into Noah’s life did to them both. (I get this is the same Olivia Benson who found out her kid was put in a dog cage as a bullying tactic and was relatively blase about it, and now apparently was okay and not checking up on him being so transfixed by his phone. But maybe Fin is right…she does need to say no to him.)
• (I also do not trust this new family. TV has taught us, repeatedly, no one is that perfect. Also, if you’re giving a kid a PS5 without asking their parent, you may also be awful, period. Ask his mother?!)
• I’m sorry, I don’t care if you’re a cop, if you find a camera in the mirror, in what world do you CONTINUE TO STAY IN THE MOTEL? I would sleep in my freaking car if I could not find anyplace else.
• Also, in what world was anything Olivia did by-the-books?! What jurisdiction did she have? Yes, she had her badge, but she basically went rogue…
• I like the idea of showcasing a trial weeks/months later*, but I wish this subplot had been either utilized in episode 8 or 10. As it was, the episode was already juggling Noah’s drama, Olivia’s random case, and Rollins trying to quit, so it felt like it was just too much. *I understand, logistically, this might be an absolute nightmare with guest star availability, etc. But it could be fun if they played with it a few times.
• (It’s also unfortunate, because Fin and Velasco steadfastly supporting Muncy was one of the best parts of the episode.)
• I really wish Carisi had been there for Rollins’ final scene.
• I will deeply miss Kelli Giddish on this show.

The show has struggled at times with how to showcase the Olivia/Amanda relationship, and a lot of that came to a head in Amanda’s final episode. Personally, I view them a bit more like chosen sisters, which, frankly, is messier than friends. We’ve seen them hurt each other, intentionally or not, and, in recent years, with Olivia in a position of power, some of the big stuff in Amanda’s life—like the entire time between her and Carisi getting together and them finally disclosing their relationship—she’s had to withhold from her boss. But there’s also no doubt they love each other.

That also meant they got pretty murky as Amanda tried to quit. (Why didn’t she give two weeks notice?!) Olivia had just confessed how much Elliot leaving messed her up—more on that in a second—and Amanda was like, “Surprise, I’m leaving, too!!” And then…ditched her at the motel with no word? Olivia did not handle it well at all, either—thanks, boxed wine—but…mess.

I’m very, very glad they at least ended the working relationship between Olivia and Amanda on a good note, because we’ve seen Olivia’s friendships fall apart in recent years. Of course things will change—they have to with Olivia’s hours and Amanda’s new job and married life—but I hope they can actually be there for each other in the future. And I do hope, somehow, we see Rollins on SVU (or the L&O world) before the series comes to an end.

I’m simultaneously very glad we got to hear a bit about Olivia’s mindset re: Elliot, but also upset she’s negating her own feelings in the process. (And I’m glad Amanda called her out on it.) Sorry, Olivia, but you absolutely have a right to your claim on Elliot, too. No, Elliot and Olivia were not married in a legal sense, but that man told her he was her partner, for better or worse, in year 2/season 1 of their dynamic. He sent her his Semper Fi medallion when he left. And she can’t see what we saw for 12 seasons—or how he spiraled both times she left him—but it absolutely was not one-sided, no matter how inappropriate that may have been.

The franchise has been implying for over a year that Olivia views her relationship with Elliot as home…and he hasn’t quite gotten the message. But for Olivia, who we know had so little stability growing up, to have that foundation so fundamentally shaken with no warning and no thorough explanation in the decade-plus since, of course she’s freaking scared to let him in again. And, again, the audience knows Elliot is in love with Olivia, but Olivia knows so little; she deserves to know, in plain words (beyond his saying if he heard her voice he wouldn’t have been able to leave), that she’s not alone in this.

It’s also deeply fascinating that Olivia viewed Kathy as the sole barrier between her and Elliot starting a relationship back in the day. To be clear, of course she was the biggest factor when they were together, but there was an almost two-year period where Elliot and Kathy weren’t living together/divorce papers were drawn up. (And eventually signed.) I mean, when Elliot straight-up told Olivia and the job were all he had left, she ran. I doubt we’ll ever get that deep of a look back at their history—because there’s a whole lot that has happened since that desperately needs to be addressed—but I’m curious how much of this is her now romanticizing the past and thinking she would have traded their partnership for anything more or it became clear to her at a certain point post-season 8 that, yeah, his wife was the only barrier against them taking that leap. (Again, I beg, let us see these characters in therapy in any real way.)

I wish we had an iota of an idea about what was going on with their present-day relationship, though. (I know I’m a broken record on this, but…) I guess you could make a case there’s an off-screen friendship, because, if not, what is Olivia worried about risking? He was out of her life for a decade, and if she was ghosting him now, the stakes aren’t the same? But, again, that’s speculation.

LAW & ORDER: ORGANIZED CRIME: It feels weird to say this was a fun episode, because our guys were miserable and fighting for their lives for like 90 percent of it, but…it was a fun episode!

Yes, the show has been gratuitous at times this season with the shootouts, but in this episode, it at least felt earned since they were cornered the way they were (a quasi-bottle episode!) and we also saw them fight back in a number of ways. (But please, TV writers, maybe we take a break from the “OCCB has to shoot people every episode” trope?) I still can’t believe Elliot freaking Stabler ended up saving them because he knew throwing Bobby’s phone would mimic a car crash and possibly alert authorities to them. It was perfect, ridiculous, so smart, and I’ve laughed every time.

But, man, as much as it was painful—and it was—to see Bell and Stabler fighting, I loved it. Danielle Moné Truitt and Christopher Meloni are so damn good together (I’d argue the best current L&O partnership across the franchise), and seeing them so out of sync was deeply uncomfortable to watch. It was all worth it to see them get to a bit of understanding—and then Ayanna using the sage in the office at the end was perfect. 

And, look, the task force wasn’t going anywhere long-term, but I’m also very glad Bell got to be their hero to keep the team together. I just hope there are no long-lasting consequences for her turning down the job.

I’m sure this was not intentional, but Silas offering a trove of info to OCCB and Lena on SVU offering the same thing to Olivia was an interesting parallel. I assume none of the information will overlap, but it would be fun if they did.

(Sorry to Whelan, but I absolutely have questions about this tattoo.)

[For more on the episode, here’s what Truitt shared about “Last Christmas.”]

Which shows did you watch last night?

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