About Last Night…LAW & ORDER, GHOSTS, LAW & ORDER: ORGANIZED CRIME, and More

Let’s talk about Thursday night’s TV!

LAW & ORDER: The series has been extremely hit/miss in how they utilize Jack McCoy, but what a final episode for Sam Waterston.

Obviously, Waterston was fantastic; that’s basically a no-brainer. But the stakes made sense for Jack to jump in and take the lead on the trial. He got a final win, got to best a terrible politician, and protected his team. And that final closing argument? Chills. The gravity Waterston brought to the show will be dearly, dearly missed.

It’s absolutely bittersweet that he resigned, but I’m also glad Jack got to leave on his terms. He knew what he was doing when they pursued this case and it was worth it to him. I hope he can enjoy whatever comes next for him…he left big, big, big shoes to fill.

(I do deeply wish somehow SVU’s Peter Scanavino had managed to make a cameo given there was a sexual assault element to the case and he wanted that moment so bad.)

NEXT LEVEL CHEF: Okay, I’m sorry to the genuinely good (and not-so-good) cooking in the episode, but my favorite part of the hour was seeing the chefs freak out during the final cook-off?! It was like watching spectators at a sporting event.



GHOSTS: Oh, I love that Sass can enter people’s dreams…it’s an interesting enough twist by itself, but Sass is also someone who isn’t as naturally close to everyone. This isn’t Pete, who would die to be able to properly converse with Jay…which makes things messy! It’s also really fair that Jay is so hurt by this given everything he’s done for the ghosts, despite having virtually no way to communicate with them; it’s such a one-sided relationship and yet…it doesn’t have to be. I know they can’t change the premise of the show (or make it so Jay can see everyone), but I hope we find little ways for Jay to be with the ghosts moving forward outside of Sam.

(Also, how FUN was it to see them in the dream space?)

Poor Thor, though. Alberta and Hetty trying so hard to woo him so they can be sucked off was funny, even if the timing was alllll wrong. (And Rebecca Wisocky’s pronunciation of “Chuck” has made me laugh out loud every time I’ve watched the episode.)

And I gasped at the mention Halloween was coming…I didn’t think we’d get an episode this year and I am so excited to see what that brings us. (Please be Flower.)

[For more on the episode, here’s what Román Zaragoza shared.]



LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT: I’m glad Maddie was found.

• Mariska Hargitay and Jordana Spiro were very good.
• So, when is Sykes’ sister’s case going to come up for SVU?
• (Sykes is also putting out a very Lauren Cooper vibe…hopefully a different outcome, on all counts, this go-round.)
• It’s an extremely tricky line to toe when your main character is overly invested in a case—to the point where people who care about them are expressing concern—and making wild leaps…but is also always right. I appreciate that Fin cares enough about Olivia to call out some of the worrying behavior, but it immediately feels moot when she’s proven correct almost instantly; it just comes across as him not believing her. I hope this becomes a non-factor moving forward as we get back to “normal” cases and this isn’t hanging over the characters.
• It’s also a very odd choice to not have this case interact at all with ORGANIZED CRIME given they just worked on a multi-month fentanyl bust—one that Carisi is still canonically working on.
• Utilizing leaves as a way to track movement?! Oh, FFS, that’s creepy as hell.
• Curry’s donuts looked delicious. (And it was extremely funny Fin said he was going to eat one under protest.) I do really enjoy the bits we got of Curry (and Curry-Fin’s tentative working relationship) in this episode, and I’m looking forward to what we get next.
• Speaking of what’s next, I’m so intrigued to see how Olivia, Curry, and Sykes really work together…these are three women who have very different expert arenas, are used to being in charge, and have drastically different personalities. What will it look like when the three of them have to work on a case together from the very beginning? What will it look like when Curry and Sykes team up?
• I truly hope Olivia continues to go to therapy, even with the Maddie case being over.

[For more on the episode, here’s what Aimé Donna Kelly shared.]



LAW & ORDER: ORGANIZED CRIME: This show has broken my heart before, and I’m sure it will again, but I’m honestly not sure I can put into words how I felt after watching this episode for the first time.

The closest description I have, frankly, is that I felt both scraped raw and a little bruised when this was over. (Not to jump ahead, but Christopher Meloni’s “no”s absolutely gutted me. That has not changed in subsequent rewatches.) The acting, writing, and directing broke me and changed my entire energy for the rest of the day…I thought about the episode countless times in the aftermath.

Somehow, this is still a compliment?!

I think the crux of it comes down to what Elliot told Vargas: Rita was someone he thought he had saved. She was someone we thought was safe. Elliot risked so much, literally and figuratively, to give her a chance to reunite with her son. But the fact is…people can’t just be saved; they have to want to make a change, too.

And Rita did try to change, to be clear. She took (smart!) steps with her friend, was her own boss, and had an element of control. She thought, clearly, she had the situation under control and she could go be with her son soon. But she played with fire and paid the ultimate price.

There was a (possibly accidental) quasi-parallel between SVU and OC, with both Elliot and Olivia getting vital clues days after they were delivered/filmed. In Olivia’s case, she found out about Maddie’s note three days after the teen tried to get help from a passenger; Olivia was ultimately able to save her, even if it was delayed. But Elliot got the video when Rita was already dead; he was on a mission with no chance of a happy ending. (Well, except for saving Christine.)

And it comes at the worst possible time, too: He’s already suspended for trying to de-escalate a dangerous situation. His mother’s health is declining rapidly. There’s other family drama. Elliot desperately needed a win; instead, he got a previous “win” undone and a bigger mystery.

• Elliot, buddy, we don’t LICK random things we find in the trash?!?! You’ve been drugged before!!! And there isn’t a Bell (or an Olivia) to immediately have your back and save your potentially high self.
• (Oh, Joe Jr…)
• I could not love Bell and Stabler more if I tried. “Wonder where they learned that from?” The entire hospital scene. Her trying to comfort him over the phone about Rita. Ugh, they’re so great.
• Am I thrilled the team is being so thoroughly disrupted by IAB given we know there was no wrongdoings? Of course not. Am I delighted it’s Malcolm Goodwin who is playing the man interrogating them? Absolutely. (And, yes, it’s important IAB investigate cop-related incidents, but this should have been a relatively easy/open-shut case. BELL WAS SHOT! Elliot didn’t shoot the kid, he tried to disarm him from firing again while they were on the stairs.)
• I’m so deeply thankful ORGANIZED CRIME is respecting and acknowledging the importance of the Elliot and Olivia relationship/history, because, yeah, there is no universe in which she hears Bell has been shot/he’s been suspended and she doesn’t check in with him. It’s unfortunate it’s so one-sided, show-wise, but I’m grateful OC is giving us a little bit of continuity there.
• (I’m sorry, I don’t want to start this debate again, but….uhhhhhhh…when is OC? Quite pointedly, we picked up the day after the last episode/the Stabler family dinner. [Updated to say it’s actually two days later.] And the bulk of that episode took place over the course of a day. We had similarly structured episodes so far this season. Again, this may end up meaning nothing whenever the shows do properly cross over. But are we going to have a tiny time jump in the near future to accommodate Bell’s injury recovery? Or are we supposed to just hand wave it away?)
• The scene where the team comes to Elliot’s motel room is an understated favorite of mine. Yes, it’s genuinely laugh-out-loud funny (and I did), but it’s also so telling: They have this man’s back, no matter what. Bell is the boss, no question, but he is the de facto father figure and they respect the hell out of them. They’re willing to do what it takes to make sure he’s safe, has the backup he needs, and they can solve the case. (And he knows them, so he knows when he tries to leave they’re going to try and follow him, so he shuts it down. He’s also right: If this blows up in his face, it can’t impact them. They can’t leave Bell alone, without her team.)
• So, who is the chief related/connected to and trying to protect…? (Or am I just being too suspicious?)
• I am so sad we didn’t get one scene of Rita and her Officer Monte Cristo.
• (Am I the only X-FILES fan who thought of “Sein und Zeit” with the mass grave reveal at the end?)

Which shows did you watch last night?

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