Here is the discussion topic for Law & Order SVU “Truth Embargo” which aired on Thursday, January 25, 2024. Please feel free to add any feedback you have about this episode in the comments!
Honestly, this episode did not make sense at most times. I was hoping that they continued the case from the season premiere. This episode was the worst out of this week's episodes.
The storming of the SVU squad room was hard to believe. Would their security be that bad to let so many people in like that. If they got into the first floor only maybe but I thought SVU was up a few floors and mostly accessible by elevator. Horrible security, ridiculous scene.
I'm already getting tired of Benson and her fixation on Maddie. They must be building this up to have Benson miraculously save her and be the hero.
I feel at this point I'm just hate-watching the show. Where to begin...
1. PTSD-induced B&E on a moving car? Possible carjacking? Not once did it dawn on Benson to at least flash her badge or something to identify herself as a cop instead of insane person trying to get in someone's car?
2. They sure were able to identify the suspect early, when all they could see was his eyes. Did SVU even have footage yet of the dressing room when the rapist lifted up his mask? Were there any other black participants in that smash-and-grab?
3. Um, if a group of thugs invaded a police station, stealing equipment and damaging property, why would you tell an armed officer to stand down when facing someone in the act?
4. Why not explain chain of custody in court? At least this can reasonably explain why the bathing suit liner was found days after the incident, and positively identify it as property of the victim instead of shifting the blame to ignorant CSU technicians.
5. You hate to victim-blame, but it's hard not to see she was flaking out. At the very least, tell her to drop the charges if she doesn't want to go to trial. Otherwise, be direct and tell her that her rapist will go free if she isn't truthful on the stand. At the very least, he should be facing other felonies like grand larceny and destruction of property.
:ugh:
No wonder why the new chief is always stressed. His captain is prone to consistent lapses of judgment, legal or otherwise.
If I could rename this ep it would be "WTF" cuz that was my experience for almost all of it. The intro has Liv losing her mind over Maddie and running recklessly into traffic, almost getting hit, to open a vehicle. I get that she is affected by the outcome of the last case but this is unhinged. It's not passionate. It's dysfunctional. I don't feel the last ep did enough to explain this mental health crisis she is now experiencing as a result since Liv has over 25 years of experience encountering all sorts of scenarios including unsolved cases (Hector was a case revisited over a few seasons). So what has affected her so adversely abt this one? She's not fired up. She's falling apart and I'm having trouble making sense of why so yes the opening scene for me was Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.
The part of the ep that keeps me from saying wtf to all of it was the case-of-the-week in it's embryonic stage. The story of the assault in the store, including the events that led up to it, was interesting on it's own. Ok, see, I can let that opening sequence go. This is gonna be a thumbs up episode. And then...back to WTF!
For alllll the guessing I was guessing as to what the victim was 'hiding' and why, I never thought "white guilt" and her needing to save this 'poor' Black man from the justice system. For as able as I usually am w words I cannot describe my disappointment and devastation to see the direction this ep was taking. I cannot. And it just went from bad to worse to "worser-er" as the ep continued. Im interested to know if there's research on court documents, for example, to know how prevalent this is: Victims unable to report or identify their abuser cuz they feel bad that they are White and their perpetrator is Black in America
Then, as if this ep could not be any more absurd it delivers another wtf. We get the ending scene with the perp making an act of contrition to Carisi & Carisi giving him his 10 Hail Marys and a "go and sin no more." For the love of Bob, this guy was brazen enough to rape a woman in the middle of the day in a busy store. This is not somebody who can be part of society regardless of age or color. He clearly has an inability to control his disturbing impulses even when at a high risk of being caught in the act. This cannot be mitigated by Carisi's motivational speech. And I don't know if this scene was meant to throw Black viewers a bone but it was gross in ways I am not yet able to explain. At the very least I will say I think many Black ppl can agree this perp needed to be put away. We didn't need the reassurance that the show thinks he can change. Even less so when this reassurance is being served on the platter of "white guilt". If that is the reasoning behind it then the conclusion cannot be trusted.
It's interesting that in last week's ep they flashed back to the Sealview ep among others. The Sealview ep is dear to the Fandom, I know, because this is where Olivia is first sexually assaulted. While that part has been endearing for me there is a lot that I never liked. It is SVU in its era of peak Black stereotyping. Among these- the raging Black victim who can't trust the white woman who simply wants to help her and the ick I feel in the ending when Benson makes this dramatic shoulder strut out the prison as all the Black female prisoners watch her in awe, one with these "crazy eyes". I could go on and on but interesting that that ep is referenced and here we are just one week later.
Anyway I know this is way too long. I will think abt it some more and maybe decide to delete cuz right now it's just serving as a vent so I can get some sleep. I only watched the ep tonight. I said I was done w these rants especially after seeing John Oliver's deep dive on this show and realizing even more how intentional it's ignorance on the intersectionality between race and policing actually is. And I think I've watched this show long enough to know Black ppl will never truly fall under the 'advocacy' this show claims it is dedicated to. This one is gonna bother me for a WHILE.
Crazy episode but what i noticed and maybe i'm crazy but when Olivia stormed that van when she was jogging i recognized the person driving as an actor i have seen before on tv. Which makes me think this will come back up in the investigation. What is really annoying is that Benson is some super cop that falls over evidence all the time.
How many times have we ween a rape case on this show where the victim is scared to testify and the detectives use the same response,paraphrasing "If you don't testify against your rapist, he will be let go and it will allow him to go out and rape again". This is a complete change of pace for a SVU episode, where the victim's reputation is usually put in jeopardy. But here, the victim y. didn't want to give the rapist a bad reputation. Is this a new kind of format that SVU wants to try and explore? They want to throw out different scenarios now, and see what sticks to the wall. What was even weirder was shortly after the victim finally identifies her rapist, the perp surprisingly confessed and agrees to some plea bargain and told everyone he thought that prison will probably straighten him out. It all just seemed like a forced plot to fit the narrative that the writer or producers wanted to get across.
I didn't think this show could get any worse after their " conservative women deserve to be raped" episode (Info Wars , back in 2018). But they have now descended to " ALL white women should let themselves be raped by black men as penance for their privilege. And anyway, the real victim is the rapist". I don't know how you all keep watching it.
8 comments:
Honestly, this episode did not make sense at most times. I was hoping that they continued the case from the season premiere. This episode was the worst out of this week's episodes.
The storming of the SVU squad room was hard to believe. Would their security be that bad to let so many people in like that. If they got into the first floor only maybe but I thought SVU was up a few floors and mostly accessible by elevator. Horrible security, ridiculous scene.
I'm already getting tired of Benson and her fixation on Maddie. They must be building this up to have Benson miraculously save her and be the hero.
I feel at this point I'm just hate-watching the show. Where to begin...
1. PTSD-induced B&E on a moving car? Possible carjacking? Not once did it dawn on Benson to at least flash her badge or something to identify herself as a cop instead of insane person trying to get in someone's car?
2. They sure were able to identify the suspect early, when all they could see was his eyes. Did SVU even have footage yet of the dressing room when the rapist lifted up his mask? Were there any other black participants in that smash-and-grab?
3. Um, if a group of thugs invaded a police station, stealing equipment and damaging property, why would you tell an armed officer to stand down when facing someone in the act?
4. Why not explain chain of custody in court? At least this can reasonably explain why the bathing suit liner was found days after the incident, and positively identify it as property of the victim instead of shifting the blame to ignorant CSU technicians.
5. You hate to victim-blame, but it's hard not to see she was flaking out. At the very least, tell her to drop the charges if she doesn't want to go to trial. Otherwise, be direct and tell her that her rapist will go free if she isn't truthful on the stand. At the very least, he should be facing other felonies like grand larceny and destruction of property.
:ugh:
No wonder why the new chief is always stressed. His captain is prone to consistent lapses of judgment, legal or otherwise.
If I could rename this ep it would be "WTF" cuz that was my experience for almost all of it. The intro has Liv losing her mind over Maddie and running recklessly into traffic, almost getting hit, to open a vehicle. I get that she is affected by the outcome of the last case but this is unhinged. It's not passionate. It's dysfunctional. I don't feel the last ep did enough to explain this mental health crisis she is now experiencing as a result since Liv has over 25 years of experience encountering all sorts of scenarios including unsolved cases (Hector was a case revisited over a few seasons). So what has affected her so adversely abt this one? She's not fired up. She's falling apart and I'm having trouble making sense of why so yes the opening scene for me was Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.
The part of the ep that keeps me from saying wtf to all of it was the case-of-the-week in it's embryonic stage. The story of the assault in the store, including the events that led up to it, was interesting on it's own. Ok, see, I can let that opening sequence go. This is gonna be a thumbs up episode. And then...back to WTF!
For alllll the guessing I was guessing as to what the victim was 'hiding' and why, I never thought "white guilt" and her needing to save this 'poor' Black man from the justice system. For as able as I usually am w words I cannot describe my disappointment and devastation to see the direction this ep was taking. I cannot. And it just went from bad to worse to "worser-er" as the ep continued. Im interested to know if there's research on court documents, for example, to know how prevalent this is: Victims unable to report or identify their abuser cuz they feel bad that they are White and their perpetrator is Black in America
Then, as if this ep could not be any more absurd it delivers another wtf. We get the ending scene with the perp making an act of contrition to Carisi & Carisi giving him his 10 Hail Marys and a "go and sin no more." For the love of Bob, this guy was brazen enough to rape a woman in the middle of the day in a busy store. This is not somebody who can be part of society regardless of age or color. He clearly has an inability to control his disturbing impulses even when at a high risk of being caught in the act. This cannot be mitigated by Carisi's motivational speech. And I don't know if this scene was meant to throw Black viewers a bone but it was gross in ways I am not yet able to explain. At the very least I will say I think many Black ppl can agree this perp needed to be put away. We didn't need the reassurance that the show thinks he can change. Even less so when this reassurance is being served on the platter of "white guilt". If that is the reasoning behind it then the conclusion cannot be trusted.
It's interesting that in last week's ep they flashed back to the Sealview ep among others. The Sealview ep is dear to the Fandom, I know, because this is where Olivia is first sexually assaulted. While that part has been endearing for me there is a lot that I never liked. It is SVU in its era of peak Black stereotyping. Among these- the raging Black victim who can't trust the white woman who simply wants to help her and the ick I feel in the ending when Benson makes this dramatic shoulder strut out the prison as all the Black female prisoners watch her in awe, one with these "crazy eyes". I could go on and on but interesting that that ep is referenced and here we are just one week later.
Anyway I know this is way too long. I will think abt it some more and maybe decide to delete cuz right now it's just serving as a vent so I can get some sleep. I only watched the ep tonight. I said I was done w these rants especially after seeing John Oliver's deep dive on this show and realizing even more how intentional it's ignorance on the intersectionality between race and policing actually is. And I think I've watched this show long enough to know Black ppl will never truly fall under the 'advocacy' this show claims it is dedicated to. This one is gonna bother me for a WHILE.
Crazy episode but what i noticed and maybe i'm crazy but when Olivia stormed that van when she was jogging i recognized the person driving as an actor i have seen before on tv. Which makes me think this will come back up in the investigation. What is really annoying is that Benson is some super cop that falls over evidence all the time.
How many times have we ween a rape case on this show where the victim is scared to testify and the detectives use the same response,paraphrasing "If you don't testify against your rapist, he will be let go and it will allow him to go out and rape again". This is a complete change of pace for a SVU episode, where the victim's reputation is usually put in jeopardy. But here, the victim y. didn't want to give the rapist a bad reputation. Is this a new kind of format that SVU wants to try and explore? They want to throw out different scenarios now, and see what sticks to the wall. What was even weirder was shortly after the victim finally identifies her rapist, the perp surprisingly confessed and agrees to some plea bargain and told everyone he thought that prison will probably straighten him out. It all just seemed like a forced plot to fit the narrative that the writer or producers wanted to get across.
I didn't think this show could get any worse after their " conservative women deserve to be raped" episode (Info Wars , back in 2018). But they have now descended to " ALL white women should let themselves be raped by black men as penance for their privilege. And anyway, the real victim is the rapist". I don't know how you all keep watching it.
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