18.11: Great Expectations

The Recap:

Whitecaps member Jack Wilson misses a wide open net (which didn't look that wide open, btw but the camera angle was a little weird) and the Whitecaps suffer an uncustomary loss to another team with a seafaring-sounding name (I don't feel like going back and rewatching to find out and it doesn't matter anyway). Afterwards, the team's seething with thirteen-year-old teenage male hyper-masculine angst and for a second it appears the assault is going to happen right there in the middle of everybody, but Kyle Turner steps in and tells the two angry teammates to back off. Later, Jack collapses as he approaches his mother's SUV. We get a cringe worthy shot of his blood-soaked pants (Unorthodox, anyone?) but we all know someone raped him with a hockey stick because...duh. Being thirteen and embarrassed and humiliated, Jack refuses to talk about what happened, but Rollins tricks him into saying it was Kyle, but Kyle turns out not to be the sick sonofabitch we're supposed to think he is because his Dad is the actual sick sonofabitch. Jack dies.

Kyle refuses to incriminate his dad at first. Brother Adam Turner, the only one with a backbone and also a conscience, helps SVU change Kyle's mind by "pushing Jim's buttons" and also surreptitiously recording it which gets Kyle to talk, his mom, Helen, to crack, and Jim's wall of protection to crumble.

Benson bargains with Kyle to talk so the case is sent back to family court so he can do less time because that's what SVU18 is all about. Even though Kyle is thirteen he turns into an adult, making all his legal decisions and setting up his father at the ice rink after which the squad takes Jim Turner into custody.

Ramblings:

The following tweets sum up my thoughts, but I'll give it a go anyway.

First of all, as soon as Kyle and his Dad showed up at the hospital, the cat was out of the bag. ANYONE with a modicum of an eye for detail could spot Jim Turner's control over his son, I mean, Kyle's approval-seeking glances at him were enough, Jim didn't even need to snatch the card from Benson. Obviously, something's not right in the Turner family. 

Did Raul Esparza drunk dial Rick and Dick or something? Moon everybody at the Christmas Party? Am I just too difficult to please? Because this was one episode where I would have preferred more courtroom or legal wrangling not just Benson offering the (now requisite) softer deal to the "complicated" perp. Yes, I know, I used THE WORD. My bad.

One of two things is happening: creativity is being stifled or writers are out of ideas. I mean, Kevin Fox, THE Kevin G. Fox of Manhattan Transfer and Unholiest Alliance, and Internal Affairs among others certainly has more ammo in his pen than this predictable script, so I suspect R*&% has 2.0 people on a short leash. Then again, removing all evidence of the characters' personal lives is straitjacket enough I suppose. Oops, I'm sorry, Rollins was allowed to mention Jesse and, on that note...

Carisi, I love you. I really do. But your little lecture to Rollins about it not being easy to be a hero and the mother is a victim too and, okay, we found out your pretty (unscarred) face was once slammed through a plate glass window and you kept your mouth shut and you harbor guilt about the guy your attacker stabbed to death, but ease up on the sanctimony and the preaching, brother. In return, I'll ease up on the run-on sentences.

Aside from Carisi annoying the fuck out of me and the victim/perp (I'll get to that in a second), I did like Benson in this episode. I was ready for her to go off at some point in response at the frustration at having to squeeze information from victims and perps and even doctors throughout the entire episode, but she did it with her customary empathy and coolness, but I would have preferred a scene in which Tucker stops by, she slams the office door, and vents for a few minutes, like dropping f-bombs vents, and then he calms her down, goes to get Noah, and tells her he'll see her at home for dinner.

*yanks self back into fictional television reality...

Tuesday, February 14, in family court was really evil considering last Valentine's Day we also had a tough day in court but it ended with "Wherever you wanna go, you tell me" and ARM GRAB and officially making Collateral Damages one of my favorite episodes of any television show ever.

FINALLY...can we shelve the whole "imperfect perp" twist? First of all, it's no longer a twist. I mean...we've had the terrorist/spousal abuse/rape victim, the sexually reckless but sufferer of untreated bipolar disorder pole vaulter, the guy who likes to have sex with women on quaaludes but he's old, the falsely accused, recently exonerated rapist who becomes a rapist, the woman who can't use Google to look up what an admissions officer looks like...

Secondly, I don't like the message and the implication that the legal proceedings must always include some sort of apologist quest to ameliorate things for the perps.

Thought we were all about the victims?

Ain't No Party Like An SVU Party:

Since I no longer make it a point to watch when the show airs, I allowed myself to get really happy at happy hour and I was in bed by eight.

The remnants of today's cold brew.

Quotable:

"Everything will not be okay. That ship sailed once Jack stopped breathing."

"For God's sakes, don't you get it?"

The whole exchange with Mrs. Turner reminded me of Benson and Pippa (which occurred one year ago in the episode Collateral Damages which is one of the best SVU episodes ever written and aired, but I think I might have mentioned something along these lines already). Yes, Rollins, I know, you wanna shake some sense into the mother and I also know the scene was intended to show how abusers isolate and manipulate their victims but I lost sympathy for Helen very early in the episode.

"Where are we with these bang brothers?"

"Bash brothers, like McGuire and Canseco."

"Naw, like Reed and Portman....Mighty Ducks II?"

OMB's look is priceless but do we have to portray her as totally out of touch? Echoes of her convo with Fin in Intimidation Game. So I guess the Mighty Ducks trilogy is not appearing in Noah's Netflix queue?

"It couldn't have been a Whitecap."

Oh, puh-lease, Coach.

"This wasn't a couple of kids playing grab ass. We need answers."

I appreciate the resolve, OMB, but "grab ass" is the understatement of the century.

Fashion

Benson in the burgundy leather trench YES PLEASE, Mama keeps KILLING IT with the outerwear. I'm still wondering how she affords all those duds on on her NYPD salary but I forgot, S18 protocol is for me to not worry about the characters' personal lives which would, of course, include finances. Okie dokie, moving on.

Fic Writers Could Fill In The Blanks With:

Put on some jazz, burn one, and engage your imaginations, writers, because this episode offered nothing to latch onto unless you ship Rollisi and you want to explore the plate-glass window thing as Carisi cooks dinner at the Rollins apartment for the 1000th time.

Is It Next Wednesday Yet?

It is. Then another break which, I am sorry to say, does not upset me all that much.

Alright, production crew, you're on the clock. Double check those time stamps.