Here is the discussion topic for Law & Order SVU “Let Me Bring Pardon” which aired on Thursday, March 20, 2025. Please feel free to add any feedback you have about this episode in the comments!
Update: Photos were released late – I’ve posted them below!
Photos by:
Virginia Sherwood/NBC
Peter Kramer/NBC
6 comments:
This was actually a good episode, especially compared to previous episodes this season. Excavation (episode 2) and Undertow (last week's episode) are the best this season, but this episode is strong, too. I'm glad that this episode was not predictable, unlike the first episode of this case.
I was kind of falling asleep during this one. I was starting suspect the mother had set up her daughter wanting a "miracle," given how bat**** she was acting at the beginning. Even Olivia was super weirded out. I mean people grieve in their own way, but the woman needs some therapy. But I was happy she was just a fellow dupe instead.
This story has been done before on either Law & Order or SVU - or both! The mother was clueless, she couldn't have been with her daughter 24/7 and the fact she couldn't see this was an indication she was a bit wacky in the head. Why was Benson so involved in this case? I know that she is the "product of rape" but there was zero reason she was handling this case so much. It's always personal with Benson. This gets tiresome. Anyway I found the episode on the boring side.
Yup, another TLDR:
I liked the story for what it was. Not to my appeal that they used this same Gabby Petito character. It wasn't necessary to butcher the real story and this could hv been a stand-alone case. But it was done well enough for me to eventually step down from my high horse :)
I know a lot of ppl didn't like that the first iteration of this case lacked the "whodunnit" shock value. So maybe this was a way to do it over and give that effect. I mean, esp now w all the options of shows to watch- more than most of us hv the time to get thru- there are more than enough cop shows and episdes of non crime shows- scripted and unscripted- to get the whodunnit fix. Thru platforms like Netflix, we can even get wider access to similar whodunnit crime dramas from places like Sweden and Japan and parts of the world i never would hv had access to before. I've seen some really good ones recently- top tier. Endless supply of shows where the entertainment lies in guessing who the guilty person is. I don't need for every ep of SVU to be abt that. It can sometimes reveal that upfront and allow the ep to focus on developing other themes. Personally, I find those far more interesting. Tho I recognize I may be in the minority w that. I also find that sometimes an ep spends so long doing red herrings that by the time the true criminal is revealed it's not convincing. I remember one from a season w Kat where most of the ep had you believing the female CEO was the perp. It suddenly flipped over at the end that she was innocent. It was hard to move across 6 lanes and get my mind there right at the end. (1/3)
Thematically, I like that this ep underscored that every victim matters, even incapacitated ones. And tho, literally, it might seem like an ep like this might speak solely to ppl who hv been or are related to persons in a coma I think there are ideas and 'feels' here for anyone who would hv felt unseen in their case or for whom life has deteriorated to a place where others no longer see trying to connect w them as serving any point since they hv become a shell of their former selves. I think of Marie Adler's real-life story told in "Unbelievable". She was not literally in a coma but the ways in which she had been socially and emotionally immobilized by trauma made it hard for the police to see her as a victim at all or pay her the same due process they would to a more 'socially lucid' victim. An ep like this one is reminder to such ppl that they do deserve the same amt of respect as other victims of SA, regardless of whether or not they can reciprocate. Such 'comatose' victims deserve to hv those working w them conduct themselves as if they are still in there somewhere even tho to the naked eye and maybe even to the person themselves- it is as tho they no longer exist.
Benson, makes a pt in this ep that she made in an ep in the Fall that ppl in the victim's support system can become victims of the incident as well. A valid pt to make imo. And a further fleshing out of the theme of validating "unseen" or easy-to-disregard victims. Quickly, I will add, this is one of those traits that I feel has an overlap between the xter of Benson and the actor Mariska Hargitay. I don't know Hargitay personally ofc but from what I hv seen of her she has a real gift for making persons feel seen and validated. A characteristic that lent itself to this story as those scenes felt so authentic. (2/3)
There was some contradiction in Fin saying to Curry that he keeps their personal business private yet it was he who was dropping the hints to Bruno and Sylva that there may be some overlap of this case and Benson's personal history. And boy do I hate this kinda behavior irl, where a person drops just enough info to show there's smthg they know that u don't know but they 'can't' say more. Then shush!! The baiting is annoying and in this case, leaves 2 members of the team feeling like they are on the outside. For somebody who supposedly takes confidentiality seriously he made little effort to keep that confidence and far more effort to reveal that there was smthg there
It was nice to hv Curry back. She felt less like wallpaper in this ep and more like a pertinent character. It's funny- Giddish has left the show officially but her character has been getting far more development than ones actively still on the show. I say this as a Rollins fan but I wish they would put some actual effort into the xters making up the current Manhattan SVU squad. Maybe then it would feel like there is some chemistry between them and not like their interactions are robotic (3/3)
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