Yes. there is a halo!
Farewell and rest in peace to Ed Tucker, the guy that, for many years, Law & Order SVU fans loved to hate. (Much appreciation to Robert John Burke for his layered portrayal of Tucker over the years.) His career in IAB, with his near-obsession with nailing the SVU, morphed into near-marriage with Olivia Benson. It was an odd match which strangely worked, that is, until Benson broke it off (in Law & Order SVU “Chasing Theo) I believe) .
In “The Longest Night of Rain”, Benson fears seeing him for the first time since she broke it off, but before the episode ends, she is forced to deal with the fact that Tucker has terminal cancer, and he later takes his own life and disappears from her life forever. It was a rare multi-tissue tear-jerker for Law & Order SVU, coupled with relaying a very serious message about suicides in law enforcement. The writing was exceptional, with the story by Peter Blauner and Warren Leight, teleplay by Peter Blauner.
Benson visits her psychiatrist, Dr. Lindstrom, because of fears of seeing Tucker at his retirement party, and at least she acknowledges the incongruity of it, considering the more horrific things Benson has experienced. She has regrets about the pain she has caused him, but later finds that Tucker has moved on and recently married. During his retirement party, a former police officer throws a drink at him, saying Tucker is evil. When Tucker appears evasive about what that was about, and when the officer kills herself in her car outside the party and leaves a video message, Benson switches into SVU mode and gets suspicious about Tucker's involvement in the assault or covering it up. It bothered me a bit that Benson was unsure about Tucker, a man she knew so well that they nearly married. But as the episode progressed, it was clear that because Benson DID know him so well she felt he was hiding something. It just wasn’t what Benson expected. Sadly, we learn that Tucker has lung and brain cancer, and has only 6 months to a year to live. He decides to not let nature take its course.
Benson may not have much of a relationship in the future with Dr. Lindstrom. Not only did she ask to meet him under false pretenses, she also pressured him for information on his patients that she knows full well she can’t get by simply asking for it. Benson’s singular focus on her cases can annoy me and I’m glad that Lindstrom put her in her place when she started making unreasonable demands. Having Carisi take Lindstrom to court to get patient information won’t help mend fences either. After Lindstrom has put in the effort to build trust between him and Benson during their sessions, she destroyed that trust in a matter of minutes. Fin wondered why anyone in the force would tell Lindstrom anything, for fear of being sent to the “rubber gun squad” but now we know that Lindstrom won’t breach any patient confidentiality (unless forced by the court I suspect). I’d be surprised if Lindstrom even continues to work with the NYPD after this. Bill Irwin finally got a chance to bring a spark to Dr. Lindstrom.
In all this sadness, there is one thing that gave me a chuckle. It was when Benson asks Carisi if the case with Gary goes to trial, how long this will take, suggesting months and Carisi says it could be years. As most SVU cases we see are wrapped up usually in about a week, why would this one take months or years? Maybe I missed something, but I thought Gary’s admission to Tucker that Benson and Fin overheard would be enough to move the case along with the usual SVU speed. This was one case where it would have been satisfying to see the victim – who took her own life early in the episode – get justice.
The episode was also a visual delight, with plenty of location scenes and interesting camera angles. My favorite shot was near the end when Tucker and Benson revisited the walkway at the water’s edge with the Statue of Liberty in view as seen in ”Heartfelt Passages”. It closed the loop perfectly from those happier times he and Benson shared together.
Update February 5, 2020 - a video of a deleted scene has been added after the recap.
Here is the recap:
Benson enters Dr. Lindstrom’s consulting room and thanks Lindstrom for staying late, and he replies “Of course…Captain.” He congratulates her and she thanks him, adding she owes some of that to him. He laughs and asks if she is coming to thank him, and she sits down and says no. She mentions Ed Tucker, saying she has been invited to his retirement party tonight and she hasn’t seen him since she broke it off. She tells him it’s crazy; she’s had guns in her face and she is afraid to see an ex-boyfriend. Lindstrom asks if she knows what she is afraid of, and Benson says regret, or the pain that she caused him. He advises that whatever her regrets and her guilt, it’s harder in the long run to leave things unsaid.
Elsewhere, Rachel Wilson dresses for the evening and then adds a gun. The Reverend comes down the stairs and asks if she is headed out, and Rachel explains that an old police colleague is retiring and she wants to help with the send-off. The Reverend comments it is NYPD and asks if she is sure that is a good idea. She replies that she won’t stay long and won’t drink.
Benson arrives at the bar where Tucker’s retirement party is being held and she comments to Fin, who had already arrived, that she didn’t expect to see him at Tucker’s retirement party. He explains he is there for Benson, not for Tucker. She sees Rollins and Carisi, and says she sees Rollins brought reinforcements, Rollins commenting they let Carisi out for an hour. Benson thanks them all. Benson sees Tucker standing next to another woman, and she asks the detectives who is the woman with Tucker. Fin questions why she is asking them, and Carisi wisecracks that they got Benson in the divorce. Rollins says the bartender told her that is his new wife, she is a nurse and they eloped a month ago. Benson, with a look of surprise, says, “Oh. Good for him.”
As Tucker’s friend Gary Wald makes a speech, Gary jokes that when he decided to hold the farewell party for Tucker, as he was IAB, where would they hold the party, in phone booth? Everyone laughs, and Tucker comments to his wife that this is how it’s going to go. Gary adds when you have a friend like Ed, you are blessed. As Gary continues to speak, Fin asks if he is giving a toast or bragging.
Meanwhile, Rachel sits in her car, drinking.
