“A Story of More Woe” was clearly full of woe, but at least it ended on a happy note, with Rollins finally having her baby, a girl named Billie. But during this process, Rollins came to the realization that she doesn’t love Dr. Al. Al seems to accept the news of Rollins’ refusal of the proposal and that she doesn’t love him, but why do I feel that Dr. Al will go psycho at some later date over this issue? Will he take steps to get custody of the baby? He seems far too controlling just to sit back and let Rollins, or the baby, go without a fight. After all, this revelation wasn’t quite in his plans. Two deleted scenes were released a few weeks ago that implied that Rollins was going to move in with Al, but we never see if she actually did it. If she did, this could be a problem detaching from a man that she now says she doesn’t love and won’t marry. I’m making an assumption that Rollins never went all in on moving in with Dr. Al. If that was a hospital room in which Rollins was staying, I wonder if Dr. Al paid the tab? I can't see Rollins being able to cover the cost of such an expensive, well-appointed room. (Update February 5th - there was a third deleted scene where Carisi and Rollins are on a video call and he asks her how is life living with Dr. Al, and she replies it is going great. So this deleted scene indicates they moved in. Maybe they had second thoughts about this which may explain why the scene was deleted...?)
One message contained in this episode is that love is much more than just a ring. And having – or not having – a ring doesn’t mean you love someone or are loved. The large rock that Dr. Al offered didn’t mean much to Rollins as she doesn’t love him, but 13-year-old Laura thinks the ring means she is loved, and assumes Benson’s lack of a ring means she is not. A ring is just a piece of jewelry and does not have magical powers to bring everlasting love.
The case of a pervert guy preying on a young neighbor - leading to murder - felt predictable, but I still enjoyed it for some reason and I can’t put my finger on exactly why. Maybe it’s because it’s another episode where everyone in the main cast contributed to the story, maybe it’s because Carisi and Fin have good chemistry while working a case, maybe it’s because they did a good job bringing Rollins’ pregnancy to an end. The whole episode was nicely balanced and well written. I usually prefer episodes with some action, but for this episode I didn’t mind that there wasn’t any.
It was smart of the one sister to go off-script while she was being observed talking to Greg. She showed more smarts in pushing Greg’s buttons than the SVU. Sadly, they didn’t prepare well for the oldest twist in the book: victim gets revenge while under the watchful eye of the NYPD. I’m not sure that Benson was right by telling Britney that neither she nor her sister were at fault for the murder of their father. I know they were young but at some point, even teenagers know that murder is wrong. I was surprised that all they got was probation and counseling for what was a calculated killing.
In one scene, Benson hears from Stone that the lawyer is right; they can’t talk to the girls without a guardian’s consent. I’m perplexed as to why Benson had to ask Stone for this validation. With Benson’s work experience she shouldn’t need Stone to tell her this. If anything, the question to Stone should have been that she knows she needs the guardian’s approval to talk to the girls, but could Stone think of any loopholes to allow for this as the guardian is a possible suspect in a murder plot.
Here is the recap:
A room of 911 operators take calls. One caller is a woman who says a man broke in and tried to make her and her sister have sex. She says he is hurting her dad. She yells out about her and asks the attacker not to hurt him, and the line goes dead.
Sometime later, at 697 West 140th Street on Monday, January 14, Benson is on the scene with Carisi and another detective. He describes the generic attacker and says there was no doorman. They are checking for cameras. The victim was stabbed in the jugular with a kitchen knife and the perp left the weapon. The girls are traumatized and in shock and are with a neighbor until the ambulance arrives. There is no mother in the picture. As they look over the body, the detective wonders how they deal with kids all the time and Carisi says sometimes they don’t know either.
Benson and Carisi talk to the neighbors who are watching the girls - Greg Callahan and Susan. Benson and Carisi speak with Britney and Laura Moore, and the elder sister, Britney, breaks the news to the younger sister, Laura, that their daddy is dead, then insists that Benson tell Laura he’s dead. Benson looks stunned as Laura begins to cry.
Later, Rollins arrives at the hospital where Benson is waiting, sleeping. Rollins says there is no sign of the guy and Benson says Britney’s rape kit is negative but Laura has genital trauma. There is no next of kin, the grandparents are deceased and the mother committed suicide two years ago. A woman exits the room and she says she is the acting guardian. She explains the girls can talk but she should be in the room. Benson asks for a couple minutes alone and the guardian agrees.
Laura explains she was doing homework and heard a smash, and looked up and saw a man on the fire escape, He opened the window and she screamed for Britney who was in her room. Britney ran out and yelled for the man to get away but he was already inside. He went into the kitchen and grabbed a knife and he put it up to her neck and said he was going…she can’t finish the sentence. With some gentle prodding, Laura explains that the man kissed her and put his fingers inside her and she couldn’t move. Then her dad came home.
In the other room, Britney explains the intruder started going toward her dad with the knife and her dad told them to run. The ran into her room and locked the door. She regrets not saving him. It got quiet and they opened the door and she saw her dad on the couch and she tried to stop the bleeding but he was already…she cries.
At the office of the Chief Medical Examiner at 421 East 26th Street on Tuesday, January 15, Carisi and Fin hear from the ME that Douglas Moore allegedly walks in on the assault and fights back, gets killed. When Fin says that is what the daughters told them, the ME says he has three problems with that: there are no defensive wounds; the stab was shallow and he didn’t put any pressure on the wound or call 911; he found undigested wine in his stomach and a whopping blood alcohol level – he would have been passed out or at least extremely drunk. Fin wonders if the daughters are telling the whole story.
Back at the apartment, Fin and Carisi look things over and determine Doug was home drinking. They look at the blood on the couch and Fin comments Doug managed to fall straight back when he was stabbed, and Carisi wonders that he was already on the couch. He also thinks the perp smashed the window and undid the latch from the inside. Carisi goes out on the fire escape and puts his arm through the hole in the glass and sees he couldn’t reach the latch from the outside.
Later, the guardian brings the two girls in to the SVU and Benson and Rollins separate the girls to talk to them. First they speak with Britney and confront her with what they know about his dad drinking at home and how the window got broken. Britney gets irate and says she doesn’t care, her father is dead and doesn’t think it makes a difference who killed him. As they continue to question her, Benson says if she is trying to help or protect someone, they can help her. Britney says nobody can help her, she had to protect her sister from her own father; he was raping her sister. She cries that she had to kill him. Benson and Rollins looks surprised.
Later, Benson brings in Alexis Farrow, who tells Britney if there are any questions Britney is uncomfortable with to check with her first. Rollins asks when Laura first told Britney she was being abused, and Britney replies a few weeks ago. They usually come home from school together except for Thursdays when she has band practice. When she came home that Thursday she came home and the bathroom door was locked and she heard Laura inside crying so she told her she had to tell her what was wrong.
