Critic’s Score: 4.8 / 5.0
4.8
Benson doesn’t usually cope with homicides.
The extreme Regulation & Order crossover with Regulation & Order: SVU was an exception, however that made sense as a result of there’d be no purpose to contain Brady if there wasn’t a homicide.
Nonetheless, did it should be THAT sufferer?
Maria’s Loss of life Made It Really feel Pointless To Have Introduced Her Again
I get that the 2025 Regulation & Order crossover wanted Benson to have a private connection to the sufferer to gasoline the story.
Nonetheless, it felt pointless to deliver this character again after 20 years if the one glimpses we’d ever have of her had been her commencement from the police academy and one scene earlier than she died.
I all the time questioned why SVU introduced Maria again within the first place. Her story on Regulation & Order: SVU Season 7 Episode 3 was iconic, however we didn’t must know her future.
Plus, she returned whereas Benson was in the midst of that obsession with Maddie Flynn, making me fear that Benson would swap her hyperfocus to the grownup model of Maria.
And now she’s lifeless.
Why flip one in all Benson’s most heroic tales — the rescue of a little bit woman that everybody within the squad room thought was a prank caller — into this tragedy?
In fact, many murders are merciless and mindless, and bringing Maria again solely to kill her off hammered that time residence.
Nonetheless, there needed to have been one other strategy to deliver Benson right into a case with the murder detectives that didn’t undo what she had executed for Maria throughout “911.”
This pointless loss of life got here near being the fridging trope, wherein a feminine character is killed solely for plot functions — often to present the hero a purposeful quest.
SVU doesn’t need to do that. The fridging trope means that feminine characters are disposable, which undermines SVU’s core message.
That stated, Benson did combat as exhausting for justice for Maria as she as soon as fought to save lots of her, so in a method, “Enjoying With Hearth” bookended “911.”
Benson and Brady’s Battle Started As a result of Of Brady’s Lack Of Understanding Of Trauma
The scene the place Benson kicked Brady out of the interrogation room—and Brady took offense at it—completely illustrated the difficulty of trauma colliding with regulation enforcement’s want to shut instances.
Ana was traumatized by your complete sequence of occasions that led as much as Maria’s loss of life, along with having narrowly escaped an ICE raid. Brady coming at her as if she had been a suspect relatively than a scared witness was solely going to make it more durable for her to inform the cops something.
The distinction between Benson’s trauma-informed method and Brady’s case-closing one was extraordinarily clear in that scene.
Sadly, Benson’s method wasn’t sufficient to maintain Ana from working away, most definitely as a result of Gomez received to her one way or the other, leading to Ana’s loss of life.
I couldn’t assist questioning if Brady felt partially accountable and that was why she and Benson continued to butt heads.
Brady was already feeling responsible about frequently discovering her theories had been unsuitable in order that she was no nearer to solutions about Rosa’s loss of life than earlier than, so Ana’s demise in all probability made it worse.
The later argument she attributable to telling Benson to again off throughout interrogation felt petty to me, as if she had been interfering with Benson’s interrogation strategies as a result of Benson had interfered with hers.
Nonetheless, Benson did her greatest imitation of Stabler in that interrogation room, so I couldn’t blame Brady for attempting to rein her in.
Carisi’s Concern Throughout The 2025 Regulation & Order Crossover Was Hypocritical
All the dialogue about Benson being too emotional to see this case clearly aggravated me.
Benson is way from a rookie detective. This lady has 25 years of expertise underneath her belt and has gone via years of remedy to assist her handle her PTSD.
Sure, she typically will get overzealous, however I couldn’t shake the sensation that these different characters had been pushing her to recuse herself as a result of she was a lady, whereas nobody would query a person’s capability to separate his emotions from his capability to do a tricky job.
Carisi’s insistence that Benson was reacting emotionally was the worst, most hypocritical, although.
His Regulation & Order: SVU Season 26 arc has been about him being too emotional to be goal.
Even earlier than the hostage state of affairs, he was reacting out of pure worry for his daughters due to all of the trauma he’d witnessed on the job.
Gomez’s menace in opposition to Noah was way more credible and fast than the menace he thought that man on the road posed to Jessie when he stalked him with the hope of proving he was a felony, so what proper does he should criticize Benson for being emotional?
I used to be glad Benson stood agency in opposition to recusal. Her conduct didn’t rise to that degree, and he or she didn’t need to be handled like that.
It Was Apparent It Was Gomez, However Fixing The Case Wasn’t The Level
I pegged Gomez because the rapist and killer quickly after he was launched.
His clarification for why he fought with Maria was believable, however Ana’s disappearance and getting killed quickly after crossing paths with him within the police station wasn’t.
It’s like yelling into the void typically — so in the event you’re on the market, holler again.
Feedback, shares, and good vibes all hold this little ship afloat. Thanks for studying.
I’m upset that Stabler was so misused on this investigation, although.
Gomez’s plan was so difficult that Stabler’s abilities as a detective accustomed to Organized Crime instances may have been higher used than a quick cameo to threaten Gomez’s henchman.
The case wasn’t all that completely different from the one on Regulation & Order: Organized Crime’s season premiere, both — they each concerned the trafficking, disappearance, and homicide of weak women and girls — so they may have, and will have, made Organized Crime a part of the 2025 Regulation & Order crossover occasion.
By the way, whereas it was nice to meet up with Noah for a minute, that kidnapping state of affairs made no sense. Noah is sufficiently old to know to not get in a automotive with strangers and too previous for his mom to be choosing him up at college.
In Some Methods, The 2025 Regulation & Order Crossover Was A Rerun Of A Earlier Story
When Benson final visited the Murder Unit on Regulation & Order Season 24 Episode 2, she butted heads with the prosecutors as a result of she needed to guard a rape sufferer they usually needed to extract testimony from her.
Then, as now, she couldn’t get on the identical web page with the workforce as a result of they didn’t make defending survivors their precedence.
Nonetheless right here? You’re our sort of folks.
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Moreover, the story featured Rita Calhoun — and neither one in all these Regulation & Order Season 24 tales addressed the strain between Benson and Calhoun that stemmed from Calhoun turning into a protection lawyer who focuses on serving to rapists beat the costs in opposition to them.
Calhoun went from unhealthy to worse.
Her overzealous protection of her responsible shopper included objecting to the solutions to questions she requested when she didn’t like what the witness needed to say!
I really like Elizabeth Marvel, but when all we’re going to get of Calhoun is her being an unethical lawyer, I’ll go on any extra appearances.
She must have one other uncomfortable dialog with Benson. There isn’t any level in bringing her again if Regulation & Order: SVU is simply going to disregard the issues between these two ladies.
Your Flip, Regulation & Order Fanatics
Let’s hold the dialog going — it’s the one method the great things survives.
Say one thing within the feedback, share in the event you’re moved to, and vote in our ballot to rank the episode. Impartial voices want readers such as you.
I’d particularly like to know whether or not you felt Maria’s loss of life was justified or if anybody else was as irritated with Carisi’s hypocrisy as I used to be.
Regulation & Order and Regulation & Order: SVU air on NBC on Thursdays beginning at 8/7c and stream on Peacock on Fridays.
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