For Your Emmy Consideration...

The #42 Minutes

Students on a field trip to the Museum of Natural History discover Laurel Linwood, barely conscious, on the exhibit hall floor. As advertised, very little else happens outside of the precinct as Benson works to piece together Laurel's evening so she and the squad can ID the rapist. Fin and Carisi easily find a suspect but they find him dead with a pair of scissors jammed in his face and suddenly Laurel is both suspect and victim (and if this had been an Eidisode there probs would have been bar video of her actively seducing the dude and also most of the ep would've occurred in the hospital emergency room with the detectives bumbling about trying to figure out how to get Laurel to speak).

Sorry.

The more Benson tries to draw out information from Laurel, the details become more convoluted, and we learn both Laurel and her sister are harboring deep-seated trauma. The abuse suffered at the hands of their father spills out over the sister's objections, and even the Lieutenant (who must have by now at least 20 years of SVU experience?), is shocked by the horrifying family secret.

Laurel predicts she's going to prison, but surely any mildly competent attorney would use her obviously fragile state of mental health in her favor. The detectives escort her out leaving a mentally and physically exhausted Benson to collect herself in the dawn of a new, sunny day.

Ramblings:

The episode's art--the camera angles, the lighting, the acting--was superb. Benson sounded like Benson, and surely there were many moments on set when she and Melora Walters left everyone speechless. It was, collectively, an extraordinary performance.

A +
Emmys all around!

Buuuuuuuut....the actual story lacked intensity. Maybe I've watched too much SVU or have too much of a morbid mind or both but as soon as the father's funeral detail emerged I knew he had something more to do with whatever happened to Laurel other than that he was dead. The sister's demeanor was aloof from the beginning and caused me to zero in even more on the father so much so that I doubted myself and snickered, "nope, not him, too obvious."

I suppose the redeeming quality of the script was the broader point about the irrevocable and far-reaching effects of domestic physical and psychological abuse on not only the immediate victim but the entire family. The soul is not dead quote will be tweeted and retweeted and included in bios and GIFed and tattooed...but Benson's ripple metaphor is the overlooked gem of the dialogue.

"...they grow bigger and bigger and bigger destroying everything in its wake...that's what your father did. He threw an insidious rock into your family and it covered all of you."

Speaking of dialogue...

Oh, wait...in my weekly I'm-still-pissed-about-Tuckson commentary...I am convinced the writers intentionally keep poking us in the shoulder with subtle references like smelling flowers and the phrase "collateral damage" which inevitably conjures memories of the masterpiece Collateral Damages and the official unveiling of #Tuckson and the arm grab and the "Ed just give me five minutes" and the "one of you wanna join me" and the hand on the small of her back, and, and, and...

They'll have to pry that ship from my cold, dead hands...

QUOTABLE

"Alone..."

"Hatred..."

"Father..."

"You could not be more wrong."

"I think I'm here to help you understand that. This I know."

Mariska absolutely killed this...she did a remarkable job of showing OMB exuding empathy one minute, struggling to keep her past at bay the next, and then giving in and allowing those demons to bubble back to the surface. Finally she goes all you really have no fucking clue, sister and it was so badass when she flipped off the audio and yanked the blinds closed. I am officially never ever ever taking any stock in a preview ever again, but even though I spent the #42Minutes bracing for OMB to expose a previously hidden wound I did think the juxtaposition of the two women both broken by fathers reemphasized why we love Olivia Margaret Benson so much. She has every reason to wear her damage and demons on her sleeve, but she's turned all that ugliness into a purposeful and heroic life.

"You couldn't get her to say word one." Sorry, Rollins. LOLOLOLOLOL

Wardrobe:

Not much to comment on this week, so let's just admire Mariska a little more.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears 

      Looms but the Horror of the shade, 

And yet the menace of the years 

      Finds and shall find me unafraid. 

It matters not how strait the gate, 

      How charged with punishments the scroll, 

I am the master of my fate, 

      I am the captain of my soul. 

Is It Next Wednesday Yet?

Not looking forward to Sheila absconding with Noah but, then again, maybe Benson or someone else will have to shoot her.

A #Secret Theory

What is the secret?

I've been cynical because the last (canon and aired) secret was the middle name, and I'm still hesitant to get excited about what I see as a hit-or-miss 19th season. However, it's been 24 hours and I can't shake this theory.

Benson's secret being that she was raped is a little too easy.

I think she was unknowingly in the early stages of pregnancy when she was first kidnapped by William Lewis and, as a result of her injuries and the entire ordeal, she miscarried.

This fits into the Benson-as-Mom-Centric arc of the season (even though I think I read somewhere this episode is supposed to be a standalone HargiShowcase), and it ties into her breakup with Cassidy and his subsequent S19 mini-rant about her unwillingness to talk to him. There is just enough lack of S15 detail to leave the door open to this possibility, and imagine how conflicted Olivia would've felt when she learned the news that she'd been carrying a child...and then thinking she was "over it" and wanting to be pregnant only to realize that Brian Cassidy was not and would never be the third piece of that puzzle. Imagine that Benson rock-bottom-ness...how excruciating it must have been for her then how exhilarating to...get her soul back...on Judge Linden's hunch...

I'm sure the more savvy  SVU fans will rabidly toss this aside quickly, but, like I said, I can't stop thinking about it.

But, then again, maybe I've become too attached to This is Us.

Nooch.6: When Not Everyone Is Sorry For Your Loss...

The #42 Minutes:

Natalie Curtis is discovered raped and dead from an overdose in the East Village and the investigation leads SVU from an overly tatted and grilled heroin dealer to a high-end rehab center to a shady sober house, and back again to the rehab center and its seemingly principled yet corrupt director, Dr. Barkley who ends up getting a taste, err, of his own medicine.

I'll never understand the allure of the grill.

In a pleasant departure from the previous five episodes, the case was less a "whodunit" and more of an indictment against the array of nefarious people who prey on addicts and their families.

Sheila continues to linger...but hopefully we're headed for denouement as far as she's concerned. The whole thing has run its course; however, Sheila and the Curtises and Rosemary illuminate and reinforce for Benson the reality that parents can do almost everything right and still be powerless when things go totally wrong.

Ramblings:

Gotta admit, I thought Rosemary (Annie Corley did an a had something to do with whatever Lux was hiding and I also thought Rollins' undercover assignment was going to involve her being a patient rather than an aide on a trial run. Given the way the episode opened, I was sure Amanda was going to be Kristy's strung-out roommate and something a la Sealview would ensue, but...wrong-O! Nice job keeping us guessing Elizabeth Rinehart.

Rosemary did offer up the aide opportunity a little too quickly but I guess people aren't flooding her with resumes for a job like that.

Lucy, I recommend you start looking for other gigs because Grandma Sheila went from awkward tea and convo and no-you're-not-staying-with-Noah to one of Manhattan's preferred babysitters, so Luc, you need to get on the #ByeFelicia train but maybe you're done nannying anyway. While I no longer think Sheila's planning to do anything wicked like kidnap Noah, I am annoyed that suddenly she gets an all-access pass to Benson. Maybe poor Tucker's coffee invite in Chasing Theo was ill-timed and it wasn't Noah-related but stillllll...Sheila calls and Benson drops everything to meet her at, um...the same fucking place as "we've got a good thing going here the three of us"...like, come on set people, you couldn't pick literally ANY OTHER SITE IN MANHATTAN?

I consider all of this felony Tuckson taunting.
Oh, and also, I'm not so sure I woulda sipped that cappuccino. 

And, just so we're clear, three of us is with Tucker, not her.

But, okay, okay, I get it...the story of Natalie sort of paralleled Ellie's in a way and one minute everything's fine and she was playing soccer and Ellie was buying prom dresses and the next minute they're gone...OMB realizes she has compassion for everyone but Sheila and the hand grab was sweet and at least she's at peace with her presence in Noah's life so now can she just be relegated to a few mentions here and there?

Quotable

"I gotta get over it, right?" You recall Ellie left the safe house only to end up found incinerated on the side of a road. And maybe OMB harbors some guilt that someone's worst nightmare ended up bringing her such happiness, but yes, OMB, you gotta get over it.

"Figure out another way in." Ahhh, some Barba-Rollins collusion just like the good old Yates at Green Haven days.

And ya know, sometimes Rollins doesn't have to speak:

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

"Illegal search...illegal search...illegal search..." Okayyyyy, Lieutenant we get it; however I do appreciate you letting her off the hook because after all you forgave Fin for his little extralegal jaunt to Cuba but maybe OMB would like to consider a gentle Come-to-Jesus with those two.

"What are you? A bat?"
"What?"
Poor Carisi.....

"I'm the bitch that's gonna..." Twitter loved this line but I guess I'm in the minority in thinking it was slightly OOC but I know we're all craving badass Benson and that was pretty fucking badass especially since I'm gonna have nightmares about that guy for the rest of the week. Scarrrrrryyyyy.

But then "Find Mr. Stache..."

LOL

Wardrobe

Just when I thought I could love no trench more than her black one...

"You will get nowhere in this field without the requisite drab, heavy sweater."

I don't blame ya, Rosemary, I loved that one, too. 

Is it Next Wednesday Yet?

Well, I'll be looking to see if Noah's room has been rearranged once again because wasn't the door in the wrong place in this episode? And his bed is now against the wall? And he's an infielder who likes the Yankees because, of course, "Eddie's" taken him to a game or two...riiiiight? Because Tucker is totally a Yankees fan.

Before the premiere I sat back on the sofa with a satisfied smile and thought oh good, I won't be brooding over this fucking show for three weeks only to watch the promo for "Something Happened" and how in the hell am I supposed to work and prepare Thanksgiving dinner for twelve people when I'm going to be predicting and unpredicting and repredicting OMB's secret until next, next, next Wednesday?