I had a mixed reaction to this episode. It was certainly different from the norm, being done in a “day-in-the-life” style. With the exceptions of the flashback, the SVU handled 3 cases on February 24 and February 25. I wonder had they taken more time on these cases if the end results would have been less painful for all (the exception being Fin’s case as a hearing was imminent). Maybe it’s my short attention span these days, but I found jumping back and forth from victim(s) to victim to victim very distracting and it made the episode a bit hard to follow. It also made it impossible for me to connect with any of the victims. Each one of these cases could have been a compelling episode on their own. Instead, we got a bit of mental whiplash with every scene change. Rather than summarize the episode as it was told, I’ve broken the down by victim(s) in a attempt to set in my own mind what happened to each one.
Benson is quickly out of handling the cases in person. Noah has a fever and someone in his pod tested positive for COVID so she goes home to care for him. This leaves the rest of the SVU to handle three separate issues on their own, consulting Benson by phone as necessary.
The first case involves two sisters, Aneeka and Amani Coleman, who, as children, experienced a horrific assault at the hands of Darryl Clark. It was an old case Benson handled many years ago. As Benson left the office to care for Noah, she turns the case over to Rollins. Benson and Rollins discuss using restorative justice as the sisters want to confront Darryl. Benson can’t imagine Darryl would even agree to it as he’s not up for parole. But Rollins still wants to reach out. Later, Rollins meets with Aneeka and Amani and explains how this would work. Darryl agreed to the meet as he’s being transferred to a federal prison and is probably hoping it would delay the transfer. Normally the session take a year to arrange. Clearly the sisters aren’t on the same page relative to who was the victim in the assault – Aneeka seems to think she was the only victim. She wants the meet to happen NOW. It does happen very quickly, and things don’t go very well. Complicating matters during the meet, the prison goes on lockdown, leaving Rollins, Aneeka, and Amani stuck in the prison interview room. This gives the sisters time to fully discuss how this affected them BOTH, giving Aneeka a different view on how this has affected her younger sister all these years. When the lockdown is done and Darryl is ready to come back into the room, they decide they are done with him. This is one of those times that shows there is a need for counseling in some of these cases, at least to bring out what the victim’s (or in this case, victims’) expectations are for closure. It would have likely saved them the pain of having to confront their attacker face-to-face.
Kat’s first cousin Lily claims she was assaulted by Xavier Garcia, a tech entrepreneur. Benson thinks he is a smart guy with an army of lawyers, and they don’t have enough to arrest him. Kat gives some sass back to Benson, thinking because he is rich she has to back off. Benson explains no; she wants Kat’s cousin to text Xavier and see if he will meet her for coffee – Kat understands this would be a controlled meet and will get him on the record about the assault. When Kat mentions to get Carisi involved, Benson smartly decides SHE will call Carisi. It’s unclear to me why they jumped to a controlled meet rather than actually doing an investigation or at least get another person who is not related to the victim to question her. If it is that quick and easy to get someone to admit to an assault by a controlled meet, why don’t they do this right away and more often and forget investigating all together (rhetorical question).
Later, at SVU, Kat really nit picks Carisi, keying in on his “he said – she said” phrase for starters. Carisi later complains to Fin that he must “baby sit” Kat for the controlled meet. He asks Fin if he has any tips on how to deal with her because everything he does makes her angry. Fin wisely tells him, “Then don’t do anything.” I found Kat’s manner with Carisi to be extremely annoying, for starters. Why the massive chip on her shoulder? Things get worse when Kat completely blows the controlled meet by ignoring Carisi’s instructions that it is going in the wrong direction and they need to regroup. Instead she goes in full throttle, apparently thinking she knows better and can make an arrest. Later, at the courthouse, Lily approaches Carisi and Kat and says she changed her mind, she doesn’t want to do it. Kat thinks she can salvage things but Carisi tells her it is over – they have an uncooperative witness. But Kat still wants to try. She chases down Lily and Lily thinks now she and Xavier have a real chance. I suspect Liliy is in for a rude awakening. I also suspect Kat will not learn her lesson and she’ll continue to be her usual impulsive and immature self.
Fin, meanwhile, helps Nora navigate a hearing to decide if her rapist, Jimmy, can be released from prison. Letters that he’d been sending to her were being held back by the prison as she never requested to see them. Nora makes note that she can’t ask to see letters if she never knows they exist. When she meets with Jimmy, with Fin and a chaplain present, she tells him she was never able to trust her instincts and he took away her road map. Nora seems to be willing to forgive, that is until Jimmy uses some of Nora’s own words about what he did to her to his own advantage. Wisely, she realizes he’s been using her. She bravely makes a statement about what he did to her and how he’d just used her.
Benson gets back to work and explains to Fin and Rollins that Noah is negative for COVID. She hears Jimmy was denied parole because Nora stood up for herself. Rollins explains the lockdown gave the sisters a chance to work things out after all those years. (We DON’T see Benson confront Kat on her screw-up.) Fin also congratulates Benson on her “NYPD Woman in Law Enforcement” award. She doesn’t understand why they want to honor her now with the Javon Brown lawsuit hanging over her head and does not think this is the time to do a victory lap. But Fin tells her she needs to be there because she deserves it and she should own it. He also closes by saying “And you never know who might show up.” Benson ponders that statement as the episode closes.
