____.16 :Jobs or Justice?

Recap:

During an interview with actress and rape survivor Davina Delucci, HNT host Heidi Sorenson begins coaching her through her story SO WELL that everyone on set and watching at home realizes something it terribly wrong. Heidi tells Benson she was raped by CEO Harold Coyle but quickly walks back the allegations, initially refuses to cooperate, is replaced (fired) by a younger version of herself, decides to cooperate but it still seems like a shaky case until a gazillion other women come out of the woodwork and pile on the accusations. Coyle obviously has a pattern, but Barba has a problemo because the old crimes fall into the misdemeanor category and the statute of limitations has run out on almost all of them. The detectives need more ammo for the jury so they get Heidi's co-host George Thannos on board or so they think, but he's a punk ass bitch, so the trial comes down to whether the jury will believe Heidi or Margery, the other punk ass bitch, or she was before she secretly filmed Coyle attempting to rape her, giving Barba leverage to apparently negotiate a plea which lands Coyle in prison for a measly eighteen months and Heidi gets a big fat settlement check. Also, Benson and Dodds not only make up but they seem to be on course for a less contentious relationship but R-- E-- does not believe in multi-ep arcs or relationships, so whatever.

Ramblings:

STORY BY WARREN LEIGHT AND ______________  ________________!

Well, I'll be damned. Warr-EN! Warr-EN! Warr-EN!

Maybe this season WAS all just a bad dream.

First of all, though, which one of you assholes decided to call the show HNT? SERIOUSLY? Ok, ok, ok, Maybe this was filmed when there was still a #Tuckson and maybe with the understanding that Tucker's move to CIU would have been explained and the letters H-N-T would not be salt in the very raw wounds of people like me who are still mourning our ship.

So, it was really nice for NBC to drop a 2.0-ish ep into the mix and also for us to see good old Chief Dodds again who I never liked all that much but who I developed a soft spot for thanks to The Newsroom. Peter Gallagher was fantastic. The explanation for his absence (he's avoiding SVU and still thinks he'll see Mike at his desk) made sense even thought he apologized for an outburst I don't recall seeing but I've been drinking a lot this season so forgive me for my memory lapse. While I'm thinking about that scene...when OMB tells him "it's alright" her TONE...I don't think I've ever ever ever ever heard her voice sound like that--sadness, relief, empathy, closure--those two words and the way MH delivered them could very well keep me up at night.

Truths:

1. Men enjoy an impenetrable network of protection, as a means to maintain power.

2. Women do not enjoy impenetrable networks of protection as a means to resist and fight back when the men close ranks.

Case in point: Margery. Trying to break into the biz. Her moment is upon her. She wants this so badly that she's willing to testify FOR someone who is clearly a predator. HEIDI TOLD YOU WHAT HE WAS!

3. When women attempt to dismantle networks of protection and threaten this power, they risk losing everything. Men do too, but usually they're not the ones forced to choose between a contract renewal or being forced to "walk around in his office in my underwear and make it all go away"

Fuck you, George.

Initially, I was annoyed with Dodds when he insisted on going with Benson to talk to Coyle and his attorney. Like, WTF, Chief? But then I remembered Dodds in Unholiest Alliance and in Star-Struck Victims, and realized he did the right thing. Dodds is in the Network of the Powerful Males, too. He went along not as "Chief" but as someone from "the club," someone with just as much power as Coyle, and holy shit I bet Harry's stomach was in knots when he saw the dynamic between Dodds and the stunning OMB which causes him to go low and threaten to investigate why the inquiry into Mike's death was resolved so quickly. Coyle's playing hardball and WASN'T THAT A PERFECT TIME FOR A TUCKER MENTION? Grrrr.

So, okay, a couple of things. I was a little bit disappointed in Heidi. Girls, WE HAVE TO SPEAK UP. She (and the others) let years of harassment continue and it really did seem like she was allowing it to happen as long as it benefited her career. Like, par for the course if you're a woman trying to break into the biz. I hate this I hate this I hate this. And then she tried to "protect" Margery, but Margery is a younger version of Heidi, and the cycle continues. We should NOT have to choose between jobs and justice, but the dudes aren't going to make that a reality, not on TV and not in real life.

I found it odd that OMB mentioned a civil case a few weeks after she manhandled Zoe into testifying with all that dignity talk and browbeat her for very nearly agreeing to bury her rape and take the $$$$$.

Hearing Judge McNamara gave me Munson visions which gave me Heartfelt Passages visions which gave me #Tuckson feels....please whoever is in charge, please can we have them back? I promise to be good.

Christopher McDonald, not that you care, but you are now on my list of "People Now Dead To Me Due to SVU." God he was gross.

The Barba-Benson dynamic was also on point, and ok, Barba was suspended, but I'm still a little annoyed at the clumsy way these episodes aired because Is Barba Coming Back? drama would have been fun.

Noah has an inflatable Statue of Liberty and a police car. I laugh, though, thinking about what they must have to do to get that child actor to cooperate. His parents deliver him to the set and he's probably like, aw, damn, pajamas and bedtime again? Fuck.

And, in all seriousness, did anyone else think the person playing Gwendolyn Gates was Caitlin Jenner?

Ain't No Party Like An SVU Party:

Unless you're at the pub when the show airs. Then you watch it the next day with a Venti Pink Drink. Side note: we lost on the final question in which we had to name the four cities in the world home to the most billionaires. Ummm, how 'bout the four SVU episodes in which Michael O'Keefe appears? That one, I know.

Fashion:

Benson in leather is never a bad option. 

I have one, too!

Anyone else not loving Rollins' hair? Speaking of hair, this ep must have been filmed over a wide span of time because OMB's hair length fluctuated from scene to scene.

Quotable:

"Well, there's no communication saying 'why did you rape me?'"

Benson wins sass. I love this show when it makes me laugh.

"And we don't give up this fight. You stop fighting, the bullies win."

DODDS! What are you doing to me, man? All this time I thought you were the Chief Bully. The Benson-Dodds scenes were so, so, so good and no, stupid Twitter people, we're not shipping them.

Is It Next Wednesday Yet?

I'm cautiously optimistic for next week. The episode looks not bad. However, Warren Leight having a hand in this one only made me think about how you-know-who squandered this entire season and made a mess of what was handed to him. It was nice to tie up the questions about Benson and Dodds, but it also would have been nice for that thread and those conversations to have gradually occurred throughout the course of the season as Benson and her squad moved on and healed together. 

I can't believe someone watching The Newsroom, even the most fervent you-know-who supporter, wouldn't recognize the distinct difference between this episode and the rest of S18. 

We don't know what came of the threats to Barba, we don't know about the Fin's promotion, we've never met Fin's grandson, we don't know how Kim's doing, we'll never put a face to Carisi's 34B, blah blah blah blah blah. Some answers may forever remain in the land of unwritten and unaired scripts.

But...