Here is the discussion topic for
Law & Order SVU “Duty To Hope” , the season finale, which aired on Thursday, May 16, 2024. Please feel free to add any feedback you have about this episode in the comments!
Update May 17, 2024
I'm making the time to comment on the Law & Order SVU season finale. I can't let this season ender go by without releasing some of the pent-up displeasure I have with the episode and the season as a whole.
First, the speed at which they resolved this case strains credulity, especially after having some sort of group symposium to discuss the difficult case. And why did Benson need all her detectives, plus Carisi, and Carisi's boss, to be there? So each one of her detectives can utter one sentence apiece? Couldn't one detective - or better yet - just Benson, be able to relay the story to the group? And why would Carisi and his boss need to be there; shouldn't the pressure to solve the case be coming from One PP? I know it was probably just to bring on Carisi's new boss to annoy all of us, without adding to the solving of the case.
Fin getting shot was something I didn't expect, but I really didn't expect that he'd let it slide AND that the hospital and Benson let it slide as well. Clearly the hospital should recognize the difference between a gunshot wound and being cut by a mirror, and it should have been reported. I understand Fin feeling sorry for the kid, especially since the kid's father was wrongfully jailed, but I'd want to report it just to get the guns out of the house where that child lives.
Olivia Benson becomes even closer to sainthood as, while bullets fly all around her and everyone else goes for cover, she gets in her car to help an officer who'd been shot. It's like Benson has a death wish, or that she thinks no one else can save anybody but her. Making Olivia Benson the center of the SVU universe on every episode is making this show dull.
The ending was...horrible. I'd already had enough of the Maddie storyline, and Benson attending her birthday party was too much for me to bear. Adding salt to the wound, Benson gives the necklace that Stabler had given to her - with so much thought behind it - to Maddie's mother. I don't think Stabler gave Benson that necklace for it to be passed on - and returned - like a good luck charm after it works its "magic". And that phone call between Benson and Stabler - how much more lifeless could that dialog have been?
I hope that next season they can get this cast stabilized and bring back episodes that utilize the entire ensemble, and avoid the weekly "Olivia Benson" show. In my opinion, they should keep Fin and Bruno (Kevin Kane) and - gasp - bring back Rollins (Kelli Giddish). (I can't believe I said that.) I'm indifferent to Velasco (Octavio Pisano) but I'd be open to someone new in his place. Something is missing with the cast and they need to get things back in balance, and the one thing that can help is bringing back someone the fans know and like (like Kelli) to glue things back together.
