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

Let’s talk about Thursday night’s TV!

9-1-1: I don’t want Eddie to leave, but deciding it might be a good idea to move to Christopher might be the smartest thing he’s said/done all season. He misses his kid. This isn’t a situation where he can drive across town and visit him. Now, do I think he’ll leave? Of course not. But maybe this will inspire Christopher to come home.

I’m extremely over suicidal ideation being used as a plot device this month, and 9-1-1 may have been the most disrespectful take on it. It’s not the most harmful, to be clear (I’d still argue that was DOCTOR ODYSSEY), but they played it much more jokey than most of the other shows. And, sure, Brad got a suicidal person back from the edge by promising his HOT SHOTS character would survive. I guess that’s one way to write the character off.

(Fingers crossed we get any kind of meaningful Bobby and Athena scene in 2025. We started off the season so well, too.)

LAW & ORDER: Maura Tierney really has been a great addition to the show.

It was cute that we got Shaw and Riley bantering about their partnership, though the idea that they’ve been partners for over a year broke my brain a little bit; it’s wild since viewers were only introduced to them as a duo in January.

But Brandt pointing out they might not be asking Brady the right questions was a point I never pondered. (Complicated, because she’s their boss, but an interesting point.) And thankfully Riley listened and actually started asking Brady questions about Brandt. Their discussion about where the line is and when you stop protecting fellow cops was interesting to hear from their standpoint, as was Riley using his kids and what he would tell them as a guiding light. (Going to state what should be obvious, but not saying I personally agree with them in real life; breaking a rule is breaking a rule and there shouldn’t be protection among cops. Anyway.)

I’m also glad this won’t just simply be swept away. Brady admitted to knowing about a corrupt cop; of course IA should get involved. Presumably she won’t lose her job, but will the precinct be more closely watched? We’ll see.



DOCTOR ODYSSEY: I’m sorry: 50,000 RUBBER DUCKS? How was this the most insane themed week they have had so far?

I also hate the pregnancy twist post-throuple coupling, because it just feels so ridiculous. It would have been way more interesting if they were actually pursuing a throuple relationship and then she was pregnant, but a one-time thing turned into a pregnancy? A regressive cliche.

LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT: [I don’t normally do this, so just going to note this section specifically references my post-mortem interview with Peter Scanavino. There aren’t blatant spoilers about what’s to come, but this isn’t just about the episode that aired.]

Here’s the thing: Peter Scanavino was great. But outside of that, I have extremely mixed feelings about the episode.

On a basic level, it felt like the show wasn’t exactly sure what it wanted the episode to be. The elements inside the deli were completely chilling and claustrophobic. If they had stayed there, it wouldn’t have been a total bottle episode (since there were outside elements before and after Carisi got taken hostage), but it would have been bottle-ish. It was absolutely the strongest part of the hour, and the unconventional way they shot it (in chronological order, with the scenes unfolding for the actors in the same sequence it did for the characters, which is almost unheard of in any drama series) really, really, really paid off for me. I was increasingly tense as everything kept escalating.

But then they’d cut to what was going on outside (sometimes only very briefly) and the tension changed and/or dissipated. (Obviously) I love the characters who were outside, but seeing them added very little to the actual story and diminished the confined and intense vibe the show was truly setting up well. We could have still heard from the cops via Carisi’s side of the conversations! There were ways to make it work without flashes of them, especially when the more brief ones felt like they only served to sever the building tension. And if seeing the outside characters was an (understandable!) priority, there were ways to make it feel more balanced so it didn’t actually deplete the tension building inside the deli. To use GREY’S as an example, they also had characters in a robbery/hostage situation, but it was simply another part of the episode; SVU could have had the action split more evenly between the two elements of storytelling and it wouldn’t have felt like whiplash every time we left the deli.

There was also something I’m not even sure the show intended to set up in the hour, but felt like half a thought I wish they had either dug into more or pulled back on: Since Carisi moved to be an ADA, the show has struggled to know what to do with him. Court scenes have diminished, by a lot. (Which remains a total frustration.) But we’ve also seen him still being in cop mode so frequently in the years since he made the jump…it’s felt like he still wanted to be there, doing cop work. And now his detective badge number was his phone and bank pin? He hasn’t been a cop in five years. And paired with him talking about not being an action hero and lamenting not being a cop because he didn’t even have a gun in this situation—there was something that could be explored there. Maybe. It was something I wish they had either dug into further (because it would have been interesting) or done less with. (Like, his phone pin number easily could have been his anniversary or Nicky’s birthday.)

But, largely, I’m most frustrated with when this episode was aired. Carisi has been struggling for large parts of this season, in ways that sometimes have made no sense. It would have been so much more interesting if this was one of the earliest episodes of the season and everything we’ve seen since, spiral-wise, was in the aftermath. Carisi’s hyper-focus on proving Cottle was a perp last week would have been way more understandable and intriguing if it was a side effect of him feeling so helpless post-hostage situation.

On the flip side, it could have been interesting if this served as a breaking point for Carisi; if he realized he had been off all season and needed help. But…no. He’s in denial. And I get it. But rather than this being a real turning point for the character, it just feels like more trauma and drama to add to his plate.

This brings me to the other thing that has been bothering me: The Carisi (overall) turmoil feels like a repeat of Olivia’s…arc…from season 25. Both characters had a split-second interaction with a stranger they became convinced was more and trying to get that justice consumed them. Both overreached what was professionally and ethically responsible. Both recruited colleagues who seemed wary about their state of mind, but didn’t really do much to put the brakes on anything. And, now, again, Carisi has been dealt a big blow; in some ways, “Cornered” feels like it could be his “Children of Wolves.” Will the show actually handle the healing process better? I’m skeptical given it feels like they’re totally ignoring what Olivia went through last season and are just pretending she magically got better over the hiatus. And it certainly doesn’t seem like it was an intentional parallel (or at least not one conveyed to Scanavino), which is also quasi-frustrating. The one big difference, I guess, is that people are actually acknowledging that Carisi isn’t okay. Outside of one brief scene with Fin, none of Olivia’s friends or colleagues seemed to care or acknowledge how much she was flailing last season. Fingers crossed the show handles everything better in 2025.

(Also: Look, I have absolutely no doubt Olivia would swap places with Carisi in a nanosecond in a hostage situation. Not questioning that at all. But…she was about to hand herself over, to potentially be used as a hostage for an international trip and she didn’t have anything to ask Amanda to tell Noah while she was gone?! It could have been her literal last message to her son; these men had already killed one person and brutalized another, so she knew they weren’t just all talk and no action. I will absolutely never understand how the show has wiped Noah’s importance to Olivia out of the show this season.)



CRIME SCENE KITCHEN: Oh my God, Katelyn and Ronan being taken out by coffee when they can’t even drink it?! That is…yikes. Obviously this show is not scripted (in the traditional sense), but that was a made-for-TV-level sucker punch. Yikes for them.

GREY’S ANATOMY: Midori Francis was just fantastic. Bravo to her and (presumably?!) the makeup team that helped amplify the absolutely haunted look Mika was walking around with for much of the hour. And the freakout when Bailey couldn’t save a coding patient? Just chilling. (Mixed feelings about the way they handled Mika and Jules, though. It felt cruel to start that baiting as she was on the way out the door…I guess they at least had their moment? But also doesn’t necessarily make sense Mika would leave her, even if she’s leaving the hospital.)

Look, I’m sure Lucas will be fine (only because we just lost two other characters), but I didn’t even think about his grandfather dying in a robbery when this storyline started…what a great (terrible, bittersweet) bit of history to play with. (And, truly, the difference between a writing staff knowing its show—considering Derek is long, long, long gone—and others that…don’t. Or don’t care.)

Owen, can we not…?



FOUND: Sir luring Zeke outside?! Oh, WTF. Clearly, Sir has plans, but what are they?

Margaret. Oh, Margaret. This was—as insane as this feels to write—probably the most kind depiction of suicidal ideation on TV this month, but my heart broke for her. And, of course, for Gabi, who desperately wanted to comfort her friend, but also blamed herself for breaking Margaret further.  (I cannot believe I’ve had to write about this topic twice in one ALN.)

And, man, that final scene was something out of a horror film. (I mean that in a positive way.) The set-up, the framing, the lighting, the isolation…an absolute nightmare situation for Gabi. Looking forward to seeing what comes next.

Which shows did you watch last night?

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