It was a combination that hasn’t been seen before in the Law & Order universe – a Law & Order Criminal Intent character coming over to SVU. “Acceptable Loss” brought Kathryn Erbe’s character Alex Eames back into the Law & Order brand, this time as a Lieutenant working for a joint Homeland Security task force. Eames has her work cut out for her as the SVU team goes rogue again and risks completely screwing up her investigation. Despite Cragen’s announcement that they will start following the rules, he and his team quickly look for ways to get around them. (Will they never learn?) This is one of those times that the SVU team’s sanctimonious attitude got on my nerves. Benson was too self righteous and condescending with Eames (an example was Benson saying that SVU is too important for her to make a change). If there is a trend that I don’t like with SVU as of late, it’s the behavior that the SVU team is above following any rules because they perceive the crimes they work to solve are more important than any others. While I don’t like the idea of criminals being allowed to do whatever they want because a terrorism investigation takes precedence, it would be nice for the SVU team to find ways to play nice with their colleagues in law enforcement. This time things worked out well for both SVU and Eames, but things usually do in a fictional world.
All that aside, this episode had plenty of action and drama, and again the writers crafted an excellent story that brought out the best – and the worst – in the characters. Nice location shots and camera work, too. I was amused during Eames questioning of Sofia when she used the Goren head tilt, and I was sure that all the Criminal Intent fans who were watching picked up on it. For fans waiting to hear about what happened to Goren, all we know is that he’s moved on. (I’m sure Criminal Intent fans are hanging on to hope for Vincent D’Onofrio’s appearance on SVU.) At the end of the episode, when Eames mentions with all the time she and her partner had together that it was like they were married, and Benson reminds here that they weren’t, SVU fans knew that Benson was speaking from her own experience with you-know-who. I am sure SVU fans would love to have “he who shall not be named” back on the show as well.
Here is the recap:
Cast:
Mariska Hargitay – Detective Olivia Benson
Ice-T – Detective Odafin “Fin” Tutuola
Richard Belzer – Sergeant John Munch
Dann Florek – Captain Don Cragen
Kelli Giddish - Detective Amanda Rollins
Danny Pino - Detective Nick Amaro
Guest stars:
Kathryn Erbe – Lt. Alexandra Eames
Richard Kind - Dworkin
Doug E. Doug - Wiggins
Alon Moni Aboutboul - Lou
Joey Oglesby - Mikey
Angela Sarafyan - Anna
Karen Tsen Lee - Medical Examiner
Evgenia Radilova – Sofia
Jamila Velazquez – Pilar Morenas
Derrick Baskin – Officer Gillette
Shezi Sardar - John
Jack Haley - Reynolds
Captain Cragen walks into his office, pauses, and then begins to unpack. Benson walks in and greets him, asking if he is glad to be back. He says sure, he’s just checking that Harris didn’t steal his favorite stapler. She begins to talk about what happened to him, and he cuts her off and says “Let’s get back to work.” He walks out into the squad room and says he’s glad to see the place hasn’t fallen apart. The rest of the detectives are there to greet him. Cragen noted that Harris had them filing daily memo books and mileage looks. Benson refers to it as busy work, and Cragen tells them to keep it up and try following the rules for a change. When Amaro says there are rules and then there is bureaucracy, Cragen tosses a binder to him and tells him to try following both, adding it wouldn’t hurt to color inside the lines for a while – all of them. He also thanks them.
At the airport, Dworkin talks on the phone and sees a waiting limo driver with a sign that says “Dorkin” and he asks “Dworkin?” – it turns out it is his car heading to the Duchess Hotel. On the way to the hotel, Dworkin complains about the flight from Kansas City. He asks the driver if he has any vodka but the driver says he can get that and more if he wants to let off tension and really relax. When Dworkin asks what he has in mind, the driver says “whatever you do.”
At the Duchess Hotel, one of Dworkin’s colleagues sees him leaving and mentions the open bar, Dworkin says he’ll be there and to save some for him. The car service driver opens up the back door of the car and introduces Dworkin to Pilar. Dworkin is upset, saying he can’t bring that in there, it is a sales conference. The driver explains there is plenty of room in the back seat.
As they drive, Pilar performs her services and Dworkin tells the driver to keep his eyes on the road. The driver tells him the vodka is in a cooler in the floor, $5 a pop. The driver opens a bottle and takes a drink, and then drops it. He takes his eyes off the road, drives through an intersection, and the car is t-boned by a garbage truck.
Later, Benson and Rollins arrive on the scene and the officer explains that SVU was called because a male passenger had his pants down in the back – Dworkin is in pain – and the girl, who is on a stretcher, has a bar code on her neck. Benson is shocked, saying that girl is someone’s property.
At the hospital, Benson and Rollins speak with Pilar. She gives her last name as Jones and says she is 18. When Benson said they found no ID in the car, Pilar says she does not like to take her purse with her. Benson says Pilar means the man she works for does not let her take her papers with her. Pilar says she was on a date. Rollins says they have her date’s ID and asks what his name was again, and Pilar says she does not remember. Benson tries to reassure her she is not in any trouble, and they want to help her and get her away from the man who bar-coded her, But Pilar says that is a joke and does not mean anything,
Meanwhile, Fin and Amaro are speaking with Dworkin who doesn’t know why they are talking to him as he wasn’t driving the car and didn’t cause the crash. Fin reminds him that paying for sex is against the law. Dworkin insists all he paid for were drinks, he came to town and got lucky. Amaro asks he Dworkin noticed the bar code and his friend’s neck, and he replies he was not looking at her neck. Dworkin doesn’t know the name of the driver, he met him outside the hotel and he was going to take them to a club downtown. Fin informs him he was headed north, and Dworkin says driving in a limo is not illegal and neither is having sex, unless Bloomberg passed a law he hasn’t heard about. Amaro sarcastically thanks him for his help, and as he and Fin move to leave, he mentions calling Dworkin’s wife.
Outside, Benson, Fin, Amaro, and Fin share their findings. They realize neither party will talk and Rollins suggests if Pilar sneaked in from Columbia maybe they can hold her. Benson thinks then they can talk to her and help her come to her senses. Amaro get a message and he informs the other that patrol picked up the driver of the town car and they are bringing him in.
Back at SVU, the driver – Wiggins - says he was in a daze and he just wandered off. Fin informs him leaving the scene of an accident is a crime. The driver says to just give him a ticket, but Amaro says then can do better than that. He explains they found the bottles in the car and the driver says the others were drinking. They ask about the girl and he said he met her in the Meatpacking District and she wanted him to drive her around to socialize, and 50 drunk 20 year olds from New Jersey saw him pick her up. She gave him cash, and shows them a passport she gave him, saying she asked him to hold it in case she got drunk.
