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

Let’s talk about Thursday night’s TV!

LAW & ORDER: It’s very funny Baxter immediately fell into the L&Overse trope of a brand new DA/ADA getting a little too involved at a crime scene. (It’s practically an SVU tradition.) I was expecting this episode to be a bit more law-focused given that shake up; I’m curious to see how things shakeup going forward. Will his scene count per episode be on par with what we saw of in the McCoy the past few seasons?

NEXT LEVEL CHEF: As someone who also doesn’t eat meat, I’m wildly amused that Gabi won the challenge. (To be clear, there is not a chance in hell I would do the same.)

9-1-1: I’m not saying the therapist has the literal biggest “I told you so” coming to him, but…he absolutely does.

The juxtaposition of Chimney-Maddie wanting a honeymoon life with Athena and Bobby’s less-than-romantic actual honeymoon was well done. (Bobby was all-in on the honeymoon! Poor Athena was correctly scarred from childhood and, man, she deserved an actual vacation. I think it’s fair to say Lola might be bad luck?!)

And Chris’ struggle with not having his mom? And the letter? My heart. Oh, my heart.



GHOSTS: Hetty and Pete laughing over how Carol died? Oh, I laughed. (I’m sorry, Carol. RIP.)

I am intrigued to see where the Pete and Alberta relationship goes this time. They played with his crush for a bit, but the storyline was pretty thoroughly dropped for a bit. This is the first real time we’ve seen her enamored with him. Will it last? Will it at least leave the door open a crack? I do hope they explore it more thoroughly.



LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT: Finally. Hands down, without a question, the best episode of the season so far. A complex, heartbreaking case. Memorable sequences. A good episode. This was the first episode all season that felt like it actually lived up to what this 25th season should be. Fingers crossed the rest of the episodes come close.

That being said, I am guessing this will be an unpopular opinion, but I am extremely torn on how the show handled Maria.

As someone who fiercely loves Olivia Benson and wants what is best for her, I’m absolutely thrilled the show revisited this storyline. This was a pivotal case for Olivia, a tangible instance where her instincts without question saved a life; it’s an incredible showcase of why she has been so good at her job for decades. And Olivia is struggling. We’re seeing it, even now, in big and small ways. She’s clearly trying to swim out of the murky waters into something better. With so much of her life a question mark, it makes sense she wants to see the long-term effects of her help, a bit of tangible proof what she’s doing has made a difference.

And, seemingly, not only is Maria thriving, but she’s a cop. Clearly her experience in “911” shaped her and now she’s (in theory) trying to be someone else’s hero. The moment at the end was lovely, because Olivia Benson has saved countless lives. She rarely gets to be thanked like this, with time and space and immediate trauma removed. Olivia and Maria both deserve this moment of possible closure.

But I also struggle with how wildly inappropriate and unprofessional this therapist has been. Even if we exclude her gross line-crossing the first time we met her, there is the very valid point that Olivia needs to see Maria—but no one in this equation is actually thinking about what this could do to Maria. Forgetting for a second the questions about whether Maria remembered her or if it made as big of an impact on her as it did Olivia…this was (hopefully; dear God, hopefully) the very worst day of her life. This wasn’t Olivia discovering Maria was a cop and going to therapy to figure out the right approach to potentially seeing her again. This was actively seeking her out to insert herself back into her life, even if for a moment. Maria could be so thrilled to see her and also absolutely emotionally unprepared for the trauma it brings up for her.

And it did work out, from what we saw. That’s good. I’m not denying or undercutting that. And, honestly, I don’t even blame Olivia for her mindset…this therapist seems to have zero awareness of boundaries and keeps telling Olivia to go down paths that could be extremely dangerous to her fragile state and I’m baffled by it. (Yes, TV therapists are notoriously awful and unrealistic, but this seems egregiously bad.)

Again, I am so thankful Olivia is in therapy and she’s working through the struggles she’s having with it. That’s important. But I so deeply wish she was seeing someone else who seemed to have any idea of what she was doing. Or actually was thinking about potential long-term harm because…this therapist clearly is not.

• My frustration with the therapist aside, I do hope the show brings back Maria next season. She’s obviously still green and I doubt she’d be assigned directly to SVU, but it would be nice to see her pop up again in this capacity.
• Cannot overstate how much I loved the Fin and Olivia conversation at the end. That man is her best friend and he is seeing everything she is going through. He’s seen everything she’s gone through. He’s the only person who could talk that honestly to her and the only one she’d listen to. And he’s also very careful with when he does push her. He so frequently backs her play with no questions asked, that when he does choose to actively push against her like this, it means more.
• I really loved how they all handled Curry’s aversion to the chopped up, DEXTER-like, corpses. If you’re not regularly in the field, yeah, dead bodies are going to be a lot.
• THE BODIES?! Nightmare fuel.
• Did Olivia move again, or…?
• (I do wish they had brought Warner back for this. It’s so rare we get an episode where the ME has more than a single scene. Alas.)

GREY’S ANATOMY: When I tell you I literally clapped at the end when Bailey started her “five rules…” speech…my heart, man. I can’t wait to see how she guides these interns. (And I laughed when she brought up Izzie’s LVAD-cutting days to Meredith.)

The thing about GA is that they have so traumatized us through the years, I did not actually believe Teddy was fine-fine until the very end. (We all know what they pulled with Mark.) It’s the great—okay, great-ish—thing about long-running shows: The history can work to make something even more dramatic than what was on the page/screen. (That being said, a DENTAL INFECTION?)

The self-driving car taking control and repeatedly slamming into an ambulance? The robots are going to kill us all. I’m glad Kwan finally punctured a tire, because that was my only thought, too.



LAW & ORDER: ORGANIZED CRIME: Leave it to Elliot Stabler to be literally crucified at the time he is arguably the furthest away he’s ever been from his faith. I hope his therapist has, like, a week free to unpack this all.

I’m so fascinated with the man we saw in this episode: It was a version of Elliot with simultaneously nothing to lose and everything to lose. And he was at his purest sense on both ends of the spectrum. Yeah, he’d jump through the hoops he needs to in order to keep his job—when it just involved him. But he would not allow a serial killer to go free, nor would he let a young cop potentially lose his wife and unborn kid, just so he could keep his badge. Elliot was right: He loves his job. He’s made mistakes, but he’s good at it. But he’s also seen (both literally with this case and, presumably, during his years pre-returning to the NYPD) that he can do good in the world without this specific badge. The important thing is he wants to do good and help people.

I’m also in awe of how the show has been utilizing the Bonner family. One of the main things this particular chapter of the franchise has done well is making us care about the characters that inhabit these guest arcs, and, wow, Meredith has been quite the presence. Jennifer Ehle has been extraordinary. (Also, to be fair, pretty sure she wins Most Traumatized Character of the Week, because she had to deal with the revelation that her brother was a serial killer, kill him in self-defense, and then learn her mother was almost certainly killed by a family member.)

At this point, there is no show I’m more excited to watch and no show I anticipate more during the week. I can’t believe we’re halfway through the season.

• JOE JR. WHAT DID YOU DO?
• Juan J. Campanella, the director you are.
• In hindsight, it is wildly obvious Moses Warren’s agenda was personal and related to Joe Sr., and I cannot imagine what kind of mess we’re in for going forward. Even if Bell and Cragen know the truth, proving Warren’s findings are biased will be hard. (Honestly, those are the best kinds of twists: When you realize the clues were all there and they just didn’t click at the time.)
• And, man, it’s so clear these writers did their homework. Bravo.
• Boy, I missed Bell and Stabler together. Loved their sweet scene together.

Which shows did you watch last night?

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