Photo by: Virginia Sherwood/NBC 2020 NBCUniversal Media, LLC
Here is the discussion topic for Law & Order SVU, “The Long Arm Of The Witness” which aired on Thursday, January 21, 2021 at 9PM ET on NBC. Wentworth Miller returned as Isaiah Holmes, as did Elizabeth Marvel as Rita Calhoun.
The episode was fast paced yet gave all the key players the chance to contribute to moving the story forward. I enjoy episodes like this which feature the ensemble while at the same time having the guest stars shine as well.
Elizabeth Marvel is always marvelous (pardon the pun) as Rita Calhoun, despite the fact that Calhoun is defending some of the worst scumbag clients. Rita’s true feelings are exposed when she admits they won’t let her “into the ring” to fight and that if Benson stays on the wrong side of this, she’ll be marginalized for the rest of her career. She then tells Benson to “lie back and pretend you’re enjoying it.” I don't think Benson will be taking Rita's advice any time soon.
It was nice to see Wentworth Miller return in a role that “checks every diversity box.”
Rita Calhoun is defending a man accused of rape, and the fix was in as the case was assigned to a sympathetic judge, Chip Gallagher. But just because the case was dismissed didn’t mean that Carisi couldn’t attempt to establish a pattern of behavior with the judge to expose the judge’s bias and past sexual assaults. Luckily for Carisi, he knows ADA Holmes – recently promoted to the Brooklyn DA’s Civil Rights Unit. Holmes has a past with Gallagher and this points Carisi and the SVU in the right direction to dig up some of the judge’s past nasty indiscretions. The judge also has his sights on becoming the New York Attorney General, making this a politically touchy situation.
While a few past victims take the risk and testify against Gallagher, it’s Holmes who gets Gallagher to incriminate himself in the men’s bathroom, and Holmes records the encounter. Gallagher accepts a plea deal worked out with Calhoun and Carisi, but gets the surprise of his life when the presiding judge decides to disregard the deal and impose a much stiffer sentence, shutting down the judges political career. Will Carisi suffer any blowback from him taking on Gallagher? Gallagher lofted some hefty insults at him, but will Gallagher have any power left to get revenge?
The next new episode is February 19, 2021.
What did you think of the episode? Comments welcome - join the discussion!
13 comments:
Meh Episode
No Sneak Peek to the next episode.
Must Wait until Feb. 18th!
I liked this episode... but I’m not sure what to make of those final two minutes.
i thought Calhoun's comment to Benson was very Victorian. The whole season just seems small to me scripts with missing dialogue and the team needs a new male member have they had budget cuts lol.
I honestly loved this episode and loved Judge Annette Lewis, especially towards the end (although 1 year isn't enough), I hope they bring her back. On top of Gallagher's actions, his slurs and bigotry disgusted me. I also liked the different location shots. And to me, everyone brought a great performance.
Since the judge was a pretty obvious Donald Trump expy and this episode aired just fine, can they please finally release Unstoppable?
I liked this episode a lot. There WAS a good balance between the use of guest stars and top cast members. I've been enjoying how Fin seems to be growing in his new role. I can't completely explain how I see he's changed. Maybe a more serious outlook toward the crimes and victims? Sometimes he seemed flippant about things, not so much anymore.
Elizabeth Marvel is wonderful. Rita Calhoun is another one of those lawyers I sometimes love to hate. At first she acts like she doesn't have a problem defending the worst creeps. At the end it sounds like true frustration with a system she can't fight anymore. Benson will continue to be Benson and won't give up as Calhoun has.
Carisi was angered by Gallagher's crass comments and I think Carisi will face some backlash for taking on a judge. It will make good drama if that happens - but he will be okay!
The only disappointment was no promo for "Return Of The Prodigal Son"
I liked this episode. It's been different because of the covid and the restrictions thet make filming difficult.
Is there a reason for this hiatus? It's to make us more anxious about.
It's often an experience on this show to feel like I'm watching actors (cast and guest stars alike) acting out their lines instead of really feeling drawn into the characters as tho they really exist. This was definitely one of those episodes where the acting was excellent simply because it didn't feel like acting and I was able to immerse myself in the experience.
I liked the twist at the end with the judge making him carry out his sentence in prison. For all the rapes he should have gotten more than a year.
It was interesting to see so many black characters throughout the episode without being a 'Black episode' and I quite enjoyed it. But there are some other things that bothered me. It's like they tried to do something different but some of those old beliefs/narratives about Black people, and in this case, Black survivors, still managed to leak out.
Fin. It might seem obvious that the person to interview Black survivors and Black suspects is the Black cop. All survivors are not the same and different things will represent triggers and different things will rep safety. For some maybe it will be more important that the cop is Black (I don't know that you always get that option) for some it will matter more that the cop is female and a male cop, regardless of his race, will feel unsafe, for some none of those matter as much as being able to have somebody engage you with respect and patience. Fin is not *always* going to be the one that a Black person feels safe with. (1/2)
Any survivor can be defensive and angry when being interviewed. They can also be timid, numb etc. But when it comes to Black survivors on this show there is no range of response. They are angry and in a way that feels inappropriate. This brings me to my other point: Maya's attitude towards Amanda. There is a repeat experience on this show of Black survivors lashing out at Rollins over her whiteness. In one episode about a basketballer accused of rape the 'survivor' (turns out she had lied) when being pressed by Rollins retorts angrily with, "oh hello white girl". In another episode the Black survivor says "oh hello Elsa". And I know for darn sure no Black person wrote those lines. Unnecessary aggression at the nice white lady just trying to help. In this verbal abuse we again enshrine this belief that anger in Black people is inappropriate and their contentions have no basis. Maya comes very close to saying something similar and the scene suggests that she is irritated by Rollins' whiteness and would rather speak to a 'brother'. As someone who is very drawn to the character of Rollins and has repeatedly and vociferously defended her in these comments and who happens to be Black, it is disappointing and dare I say hurtful to realize that when SVU imagines Rollins and a Black survivor interacting that this is *consistently* what comes to mind. When I watch her I'm not thinking "I'm Black she's White, I'm Black she's White..." but this is where the show always takes it. I am happy for Black representation but that does not mean I will only be able to relate to Black xters and depending on how they are portrayed I may not be able to relate to them at all. I think similarly they can't expect that Kat is for all lesbian women to relate to most. They may appreciate the representation but there may be things in other xters stories that they are more drawn to.
This is a cop show and as such it can be tricky to truly reflect the experiences of survivors. There are just things that are hard to get into, accurately represent when a big chunk of that time is catching the criminal, interrogation and prosecution all in about 40 mins and when there's a different victim to focus on in each episode. To think that the length and breath of why Maya never came forward and didn't want to now was because she wanted to protect her partnership or what was most difficult for Rollins who shared a similar experience of continuing to work for her rapist was that people would think they were sleeping together feels like such a trivialization of the complicated, multifaceted reasons why someone might stay, or leave but not report. I'm not too mad at SVU because I know they have a lot more to accomplish in the timeframe in order for it to be truly a cop show. To deviate too much changes the genre of the show. I get it. But it does shortchange the viewer on complexity and nuance when discussing survivors. (2/2)
Did anyone else feel like Rita's last comment to “lie back and pretend you’re enjoying it” was alluding to her also being raped by Gallagher?
I think it's going to be another season finale where Gallagher is going to try to either ruin Benson's career or go after her, her family and friends.
Come on, it's been done. The ending is going to be just as predicable, the bad guy ends up in prison, the hospital or the morgue.
The only possible twist is Benson taking her son and going to ground.
My thought through most of the episode, was why are they doing a second Kavanaugh episode? And even using allegations against him that were never credible? And then the ending where it was made explicitly political brought that home. Never mind that some of the biggest issues for prosecutors-and that includes prosecutors in sex crime cases-do not come from judges or politicians of the type that Calhoun referred to; the discovery laws that were referenced in the previous episode, were passed after the NYS legislature moved considerably leftwards in the 2018 elections.
Also, they were explicitly conducting an investigation simply because he was running for political office (they had pretty quickly dropped discussion of an appeal in the original case - which should anyways have included the Suffolk county DA), and then offered a deal to let him off in exchange for him not running. That is extremely inappropriate, and in the real world would likely have resulted in consequences to them, and possibly the case.
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