Law & Order SVU “In The Year We All Fell Down” Recap, Review, Discussion

Maybe it’s COVID tragic stories fatigue, maybe it’s because this wasn’t a special victims case - maybe both - but I could not connect with this episode at all.  Not one bit.    I disliked it more than any SVU episode I’ve seen in a long time.  It’s  not that I didn’t feel any sympathy or empathy  for what everyone was going through. I think it’s more that I thought the entire situation with Vanessa Blake could have been resolved WITHOUT Benson’s de-escalating.  I also am not a fan of the Rollins family drama.   The episode was far too “soap opera” for my liking.   This episode focused on two concurrent stories, neither of them resonated with me.

Typical impulsive Rollins, she brings her father to New York without thinking things through.  Rollins’ father had a mini-stroke and Rollins brings him there while he recovers.   Rollins’ mother isn’t coming.  Carisi is there to support her, and brings cannoli for her father.   Carisi still hasn’t told her about his relationship with Nicole. When Rollins asks about what he wanted to tell her before she got the news of her father, he avoids the situation.   When her father takes a turn for the worse,  Rollins has to deal with questions like power of attorney, living will, medical insurance, etc.  Rollins doesn’t want him to be alone through all this, and gets protective of her father and suspicious when his current wife Amber shows up.  After Rollins lectures Amber on all the care her father will need, Amber makes a quick exit.  How exactly does Rollins expect to care for him or pay for it if he doesn’t  have the right coverage or finances?    I suppose that Rollins is forgiving her father for all the times he abused her mother, abandoned the family,  and his drug/booze overdoses?  Does she fully understand what she’s signing up for? We are talking Rollins here, so I doubt it. 

Meanwhile, Vanessa Blake goes through a year of COVID by having her restaurant business dwindle, her husband leave her, her son alienated, and her mother dying from COVID, for which she blamed her son.  (During this recap of her year, our ears are assaulted by music that overpowered the scene.)  The last straw is the realtor pulls the plug on their restaurant (she is in partnership with Ira), finding a clause that allows the realtor to avoid the moratorium on evictions.   She decides to take  matters into her own hands and holds the realtor at knifepoint.   Benson happens to be stopping in the restaurant for some take-out and hears from an officer that a woman in the restaurant has gone crazy and pulled a knife. Ira explains that Vanessa pulled the knife on the realtor because she didn’t want to face closing the restaurant.   Benson decides to flash her badge and gain access. Inside, she sees two officers, one pointing a taser at Vanessa and another a gun.  Benson says she knows Vanessa but Vanessa wants her out. Benson asks the two officers to step outside, she’ll handle this.  She orders them to holster their weapons. 

Here’s my issue with Benson’s interference:    It doesn’t matter that she knows Vanessa; anyone unhinged enough to hold a knife (or gun) at another person could behave erratically at any time.  I’m not in favor of using deadly force (unless absolutely necessary) but I found myself thinking that a quick taser shot on the part of the officer would have stopped Vanessa in her tracks.  Instead, Benson decides to use her newly-learned skills of de-escalating and she prolonged the situation and the risk to others.  I found myself thinking like this: taser – situation over quick; de-escalation – situation carries on for hours with a large number of law enforcement outside with crowds and media coverage.  

Yes, Benson got the realtor out of the situation, but she put herself at risk. It’s possible that weighing on my mind was the real-life incident just days before where a 16 year old girl was shot by police as she tried to stab another girl.  That officer had a split-second decision to make to avoid someone being murdered right in front of him. His fast action saved someone’s life, despite the fact he took another.  Not every situation can be like this one with  Benson where she  knows the person holding the deadly weapon.    Benson and Vanessa talk things out – there’s too much talking; I started to mentally tune out. During all this airing  of grievances, Benson’s relationship with Ed Tucker comes up.  Benson tells Vanessa that Tucker got cancer then killed himself.  That’s not a very uplifting message to someone who is down on their luck.  

Bottom line, Vanessa’s husband still isn’t there for her but she reunites with her son and the situation is diffused.  Benson has saved the day again.   Vanessa, under arrest,  exits the restaurant to applause,   a customer raised $35,000 on a Go Fund Me page and even the realtor chipped in. Benson tells Vanessa to remember it was the worst day of her life and she made it through.  Sure, Vanessa lived through it but her problems are definitely not over.  Garland tells Benson to take a few days and let someone take care of her. (So who exactly is going to do that for Benson?)

Thankfully, the hour ends.