Despite the Wizard of Oz references peppered in “We Dream Of Machine Elves”, we’re nowhere near Kansas. In this unsettling episode, Rollins pulls back the curtain – literally and figuratively – to see a former psych professor for what he truly is - mentally disturbed. Adam Arkin captured the essence of a creepy doctor who bought into his own hype, and who was also tormented by his own failures to solve his wife’s psychosis. Benson says that Rollins has a blind spot for men that she thinks are smarter than she, but I think it’s more complex than that. Rollins’ initial encounter was with Julius Adler while he was a guest professor in Atlanta for a psych course Rollins took. Maybe at that time, Rollins viewed him through rose-colored glasses and she is still wearing them in the present. Did something happen between them that he would recall Rollins attending his class in Atlanta after all this time? She seemed enamored with him. Her experience with previous SVU cases should have told her that where there is smoke, there is fire. Yet Rollins naively can’t believe that Adler could be involved in such horrific behaviors. Luckily, Kat is the only one that had the smarts to check Adler’s background to find his wife was not dead, which was the beginning of unraveling Adler’s story.
Did Rollins lie to Benson when claiming she didn’t inhale during the session at the brownstone? Immediately after the raid, Rollins starts to have mild hallucinations. It’s clear she inhaled or ingested *something*. I have no idea why she didn’t say anything about this; even if she didn’t inhale as she said, somehow *something* got into her body. Likely she didn’t want to admit she DID inhale, maybe thinking that Adler’s methods could help her with her own problems. Still, this is no excuse for lying, or at minimum hiding the fact she was hallucinating. I certainly hope she didn't get behind the wheel of a car.
The episode featured a very colorful depiction of the infamous DMT machine elves. One thing didn’t ring true right off the bat: Meghan knew what these hallucinations she saw were called, even though she didn’t seem the type to be familiar with DMT and its affects. If one is clued in enough to know what machine elves are, one should have been smart enough not to go with strangers OR accept any food or beverages from them. I also can’t believe she dug that huge hole in the ground with that shovel AND without anyone seeing them.
I laughed when Fin tells Carisi to trust them, and Carisi says he does but every time he goes out on a limb for them, somebody saws it off. I am sure Carisi regrets some of the "barbs" he threw at ADA Rafael Barba all those years.
Kat continues to be a a loose cannon, blurting out questions to Adler despite Fin outlining his more slow-paced approach. We’ve seen evidence that she is a bit confrontational and I suspect that this trait will come back to bite her in the near future. On a related note, a new title card in the opening credits has been added, reflecting Jamie Gray Hyder as a full cast member.
One burning – and amusing - question: For people who already wear glasses – what do they use to make themselves look smart, or go undercover, or both? This isn’t just an SVU thing, but it seems fairly common that eyeglasses are the go-to disguise for SVU when someone wants to NOT look like law enforcement.
As usual, I'm still proofreading the recap, please bear with me!
Here is the recap:
At night in the city, Meghan – from Kansas - looses track of her friends. Another young woman – a stranger – bumps into her, then offers to help her find her friends, saying she is local and says her name is Anais. After Anais talks Meghan into taking a pedicab with her, the pedicab driver offers Meghan a bottle of water which she accepts and drinks. Meghan realizes her phone is dead and Anais offers to have her come to her place to charge it. She accepts and then accepts something to smoke. Soon after, she is sitting on the floor inside a room, listening to a white-haired man talk, her vision blurry. A young man offers her something to smoke. Meghan later wakes up tied to a bed, breathing something from a mask. She sees bright colors and weird sights, and she calls for Anais. Anais walks into the room with three other people, and Meghan is shocked to see them turn into weird colorful beings with many eyes. She is horrified.
Later, she is in the park, digging a hole, and sees four colorful beings who tell her she spent her life as one of the walking dead and to climb out of her grave and find her true self.
In the morning, Meghan’s vision is still altered, and she collapses and falls in the park. Sometime later, Rollins and EMTs are on the scene and Rollins attempts to calm a terrified Meghan, who is babbling about elves who want to take her back to her world and they had her digging her own grave. Rollins assures her they will take care of her and then asks the EMTs to get a tox screen and pysch evaluation. Fin approaches and asks if the girl gave her anything, and Rollins explains she went on about machine elves, thinking it is drugs or a psychotic break or both. Fin hears Kat on the radio say she has something, and they find Kat standing at a huge hole, saying they tried to bury the girl alive. Rollins explains they got her to do it; she mentioned digging her own grave. Fin asks what the hell did they do to this girl?
Benson steps out of the elevator to a waiting Rollins and Benson questions the“machine elves.” Rollins explains Meghan is being tested for DMT and this is a common hallucination among users, Benson mentions it is a powerful psychedelic and she hasn’t seen this in years. She has ligature marks and she may be concussed and is not lucid enough to consent to a rape kit. Benson explains the Chief has called twice and she needs to find out what they are looking for. They ask a nurse how is Meghan doing and he explains she is still having a lot of terror and anxiety. They gave her diazepam to calm her down and they had to restrain her as they were afraid she would hurt herself.
In the room, restrained to the bed, Meghan asks where is she, commenting it is so light in there. Benson explains she is in Mercy Hospital in Manhattan. The girl is surprised she is still in New York, then says she wants to go home. When Benson asks if she knows where her home is, the girl answers it is at 190 Forest Avenue, Great Bend, Kansas, and her name is Meghan Gale. Rollins texts this information. At SVU, Fin gets the text and calls out to Kat that he has a name and address, and he hands her his phone. Kat tells him she is on it. Back at the hospital. Meghan explains it was dark, and they held her down. She cries as Benson and Rollins remove her restraints. Benson asks her to tell her about “they”, and Meghan mentions the machine elves. Benson and Rollins say nothing and Meghan continues to explain that before they came in, the room spun, flowers bursting. She mentions all the eyes, and when Rollins asks that the elves had eyes, Megan, crying, says they had a hundred, with purple yellow faces. They crawled all over her and inside her. It was like they were having sex with her. She tried to get away.
Back at the SVU, Kat is on the phone with Meghan’s mother to inform her. After she ends the call, Fin asks what was she doing in New York, and Kat says it was a bachelorette party and Fin wonders that they didn’t report her missing.
At Rixton Suites Express at 164 West 27th Street on Monday, October 28, Fin and Kat inform the friends. They has saw her at Fiddlesticks in Greenwich Village. They were just doing fireball shots and Meghan went to call her boyfriend and never showed up. Fin asks that they didn’t call police, and one girl explains they were there to party, it was their first time in new York.
Back at the hospital, Meghan explains she saw a hawk above her and she tried to jump on its back and fly away. Her hands melted into the headboard. Benson comments that she was on a bed, and as Rollins takes notes, Meghan says a woman brought her there and she thought she was helping her. She got them a chariot without a horse, The driver sat on a leopard and gave her water.
Elsewhere, Fin gets off the phone with Benson and tells Kat that Meghan is still not making sense and she said she got into a chariot with no horse. Kat shows him a picture of a pedicab with leopard printed seats. She says traffic cams caught them at Greenwich and 7th and it may make them easier to find. Fin tells her to send the still to Rollins and he can Kat will start walking.
