Whew! Speak about a disturbing case.
After a principally lackluster twenty sixth season, the penultimate episode of Regulation & Order: SVU delivered a darkish case that was unimaginable to look away from.
From starting to finish, this Hitchcockian case saved the viewers guessing whereas the cops investigated a specific heinous crime.
How The Chilly Open Was Just like the Basic Film Rear Window
I’m thrilled that the chilly open was truly quick, moderately than losing 10 minutes earlier than attending to the purpose.
Even higher, it was a takeoff on the Hitchcock traditional, Rear Window, that went in a fair darker course than the unique.
Rear Window stars Jimmy Stewart as a housebound man who witnesses a homicide by wanting by means of a telescope at his neighbors’ home windows to move the time, similar to the man within the chilly open.
The setup is traditional and has been lampooned and imitated dozens of occasions. It was good for a disturbing episode of Regulation & Order: SVU.
The scene was ambiguous. Though it seemed like a rape in progress, it simply might have been individuals filming a film or exploring a BDSM-style roleplay the place an actor pretends to be a gunman and forces them to have intercourse.
The cops didn’t know till they started investigating, and that added to the ability as soon as info started to come back to mild.
The Workforce Made One Main Mistake Throughout Regulation & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 21
I used to be fairly positive Atlas was responsible after the scene the place he didn’t perceive why he was in a position to get it up — his dialogue with Fin sounded extra like guilt over raping his stepsister than disgrace over being sexually assaulted himself.
Nevertheless, the semi-obvious resolution wasn’t almost as a lot of an issue as Curry and Velasco’s preliminary dialog with Josie.
Insisting {that a} survivor has to report is a standard trope on police procedurals, however Regulation & Order: SVU ought to know higher.
Survivors aren’t required to report, and deciding to take action is extraordinarily private.
Whereas some survivors discover it empowering to get assist, others discover it extra so to stroll away.
That’s typically laborious for non-survivors to know, nevertheless it’s nonetheless an equally legitimate selection, and Regulation & Order: SVU Season 26 has not been doing job of explaining that.
Curry and Velasco meant effectively. They thought it might assist Josie reclaim her sense of non-public energy to report.
However their conduct got here off as in the event that they had been pressuring her to do one thing she didn’t wish to do. That’s the very last thing a survivor, who has been robbed of her capacity to say no as soon as, wants.
Reestablishing a way of management is extra essential than reporting, even when it might make the cops’ job simpler if each sufferer had been cooperative.
It’s past time for Regulation & Order: SVU to cease pushing the false narrative that reporting is necessary and that failure to take action is cowardly or causes additional crimes.
Fin Lastly Had A Massive Function On Regulation & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 21
Fin has been absent for a lot an excessive amount of of the season.
Though Ice-T continues to get second billing behind Mariska Hargitay and has been with the sequence for 25 years, Fin is generally a background character.
He makes snarky feedback or questions whether or not the suspect is telling the reality, nothing extra.
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Not this time, although.
I used to be thrilled that Fin had a serious function on this investigation.
It’s too unhealthy Atlas was taking part in him and was the true rapist, as a result of his speech about the way it wasn’t Atlas’ fault and that the physique simply responds was spot-on.
We want extra of Fin supporting male survivors, however not ones who prove to secretly be perps.
Regulation & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 21 Was Lacking One Character (No, Not Noah This Time)
As highly effective as this episode was, there was one lacking character who would have made it much more so: Dr. Huang.
Atlas wasn’t the primary rapist to precise a severe psychological well being challenge that was on the crux of his crime.
Nevertheless, this time there was no psychiatrist to assist the SVU squad perceive the perp or consider him to see if he was match to face trial.
Huang returning might be a pipe dream, although Tamara Tunie had a cameo on Regulation & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 Episode 5, so that you by no means know.
It’s too unhealthy, although. He was simply the most effective out of all of the psychiatrists, and this episode wanted one.
Josie was traumatized, and Atlas was most likely each a sufferer of abuse and a perpetrator.
It’s uncommon for somebody who abuses their step-sibling to have by no means been abused previously.
Huang might have fastidiously teased that out, holding Atlas accountable whereas additionally understanding the elements that led him to suppose that his therapy of his stepsister was applicable conduct.
I truthfully suppose Regulation & Order: SVU has not been the identical and not using a psychiatrist on board. Huang, Olivette, and different courthouse psychiatrists performed a vital function in earlier seasons.
They not solely helped the detectives perceive rapists’ conduct so they may cease them, however had been out there if a detective wanted somebody to speak to.
Exhibiting the psychological well being points that result in such a traumatic crime is a part of supporting survivors, and it’s been lacking since Regulation & Order: SVU Season 17, so if BD Wong isn’t going to come back again, the present wants to rent a brand new recurring psychiatrist for Season 27.
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Regulation & Order: SVU airs on NBC on Thursdays at 9/8c and streams on Peacock on Fridays. The season finale will air Might 15, 2025.
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