21.3: Finarisi Is My New Ship

The #42Minutes

In Hell's Kitchen, a serial rapist targeting men on the DL has stymied law enforcement, but celeb Mathis Brooks lands in the hospital with injuries consistent with the serial's pattern and he saw the perp's face, a shred of evidence previously unreported. At first, Mathis, his brother, and manager insist he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time but, in truth, Mathis is gay and turns the vicious attack into a platform for revealing his own truth and for advocacy for the gay community. In the meantime, Ken brings in another victim who provides enough of a description for the squad to create a profile and send new Deputy Chief Garland in on a UC mission to sniff him out. The assailant happens to be at No Inhibitions (The SVU-est of SVU bar names) that night and they get their man...the problem is, Mathis can't ID him and Benson quickly concludes Mathis is, himself, the copycat. With no other victims willing to testify, the case nearly falls apart, but Devon returns to the precinct, having held back key information in his original disclosure. The ADA's office has enough ammunition to force a plea, Garland agrees to let Mathis off the legal hook, and Noah starts dance class and finally smiles at his mother.

The Verdict

A + for reasserting SVU's core values.
B for everything else.

This episode felt like the writers were given a list of everything that went wrong in the past three seasons and were charged with reaffirming SVU's core values. The story fell flat, probably because the plot served mostly to provide an opportunity for Benson and Company to deliver lines such as "We don't blame victims here." That sentence was part call to arms and part slap in the face to the multiple victim-blamey episodes we've to endure, particularly those of Eidteen, and it was refreshing to hear our beloved characters fight the good fight again. The dialogue was on fire. Without it, the case wasn't all that captivating.

I did like that the writers didn't completely riff from Jussie Smollett and crafted a believable scenario--an epically famous pop star wanting to get out in front of potentially damaging personal information before the press drops a bombshell.

OMG. OMG. Fin has come a long way from making wisecracks about Carisi to sharing a table with him in a gay bar. That was hilarious to me. What was not hilarious was Benson shutting down Rollins' opinion on pick up lines because, of course, we all know the greatest pick up line of all time is "I think you should try the bourbon" so that little exchange was really just mean. Unless it's foreshadowing the return of BB, in that case, cool.

Headlining the list of characters I'm starting not to care about is Noah. We had to age him to help him get kidnapped to torture Benson more, then we had to make him into a baseball player to insert Peter Stone's masculine energy, now we're stuck with a too-old child actor who's a dancer so now Noah has to be a dancer. Are we supposed to believe Benson will be uncomfortable with her son's new passion? I don't think so. Will Noah's supposed friends tease him and Benson will have to mother him through it? Maybe. Either way, I don't care. The show does not need to be a Thursday showcase of Ryan Buggle's burgeoning dance career.

Forgive the Noah rant. I'll forever be disgruntled about how 19-20 played that whole thing.

I loved that Fin was the one who went to talk to Mathis. As tough-as-nails as he is, I love it when Fin shows his compassionate side and how he understood though Mathis may not have been a victim in this particular instance, he was battling buried traumas of the past.

Wardrobe

Benson blouses were a mix of something old, something new, and something blue. Mariska looks so good this season I can't stand it. Tucker, where are you?

Courtroom Carisi!

Quotable

"Gets more ass than a toilet seat..." What a perfectly crass comment from the manager.

"She calls her boss and he calls my boss..." I'm all in for Benson and Garland navigating city politics together. I'm 100% on board with the new guy.

"I don't care about her exploding clock. I'm not letting this go." Benson may not be Hadid's boss, but she sure as hell took control of the room. That scene at the end of the episode was Benson at her finest. Well done. On a related note, Benson also showed a hint of being protective of Carisi. I've said it before and I'll keep saying it--I'm eagerly anticipating the unfolding of the tension that's brewing between Carisi and Hadid and Carisi and his former coworkers.

"So why's he a cop?"
"Don't take this the wrong way, Chief, but you're his type." LOLOLOLOL

Is it Next Thursday, Yet? 

Carisi's got that damn camera out again. Are we invited to another Unitarian Church dedication ceremony?