“Wednesday’s Child” started with Benson, away in her imagination, thinking of William Lewis holding a ticking metronome, and ended with Benson in Family Court with the same ticking sound invading her thoughts. Her biological clock is ticking like mad. She suspected a pregnancy, which drove her to get a OTC pregnancy test, and then to Dr. Lindstrom’s office to confess that the possibilities of a pregnancy made her imagine another life. While some fans hope and pray for Benson to have (or adopt) a child, this episode likely left them disappointed as in the end, there is no baby for Benson, at least for now. I’m thrilled, however, that there is no baby and I hope the Benson baby story line drops into oblivion. Full disclosure: I have no children by choice. I wanted a career and I worked hard to get a great one, and I simply did not want my life complicated by children. I continue to be amazed at, over the decades, how many women have told me they wished they’d made the decision to be childless. Each person has to make their own choices and I am not saying mine is better than others, I am only explaining why I cannot relate to the Benson baby story lines one bit; I’ve never felt that biological clock ticking in my head. The whole baby story line bores me, but I do accept that it is important to some fans.
Benson also admits she is unprepared for the caretaking required in her new role as Sergeant. That surprises me, seeing that she worked in the same squad for so long and should have already been aware of the dynamics of the group and how each person dealt with Cragen. Still, I can imagine it is daunting for Benson as now she is responsible for making everyone play nice and do their jobs, while before it was Cragen’s problem. (Welcome to management!)
Like last week, this was another episode where the ADA didn’t seem to be on top of their game. It should have been obvious that, despite the law in Connecticut, that both parents had to agree to “re-home” a child. I like my ADAs with brains and a backbone, not ADAs who look for excuses to avoid getting involved.
The episode also didn’t have much to grab my interest, and I admit that I fell asleep about a half hour in while watching it.
In my opinion, this episode had a major continuity flaw. I thought at first that the episode was aired out of sequence but after checking, I don’t think that was the problem. (Bear with me here.) In this episode, the first date I saw while they were working the case was January 21, with Fin and Rollins at the child care center. Then, on January 22, Rollins was at the Pearson's home with Amaro and Fin, Later that same day, Benson and Rollins were at the Cross Island Motor Lodge. Last week’s episode “Betrayal’s Climax” happened in early February. In the episode previous to “Betrayal’s Climax” - “Jersey Breakdown” - the team was at the Federal Task Force with Connie Rubirosa on January 22 and later that same day, Rollins was at the jail where the young girl was being held in New Jersey. I don’t see how Rollins could have worked both those cases at all those places at the same time. And, wasn’t there tension between Amaro and Benson in “Jersey Breakdown” because he was on desk duty, yet in this episode he was clearly not on desk duty yet the dates are the same? Confusing...or am I missing something?
There is one thing that makes me crazy with SVU (although it happens on other crime shows too): why do the police announce themselves when they are so far away from the perp? Why not wait until you are almost right behind them? Why didn’t Fin and Rollins split up in the store so if the perp bolts, they would have a better chance of catching them at another exit point?
Here is the recap:
Cast:
Mariska Hargitay – Sergeant Olivia Benson
Ice-T – Detective Odafin “Fin” Tutuola
Kelli Giddish - Detective Amanda Rollins
Danny Pino - Detective Nick Amaro
Raúl Esparza - ADA Rafael Barba
Guest stars:
Rosanna Arquette - Alexa Pearson
John Benjamin Hickey - Dr. Tom Moore
Jodie Markell - Lisa Moore
Jessica Phillips - ADA Pippa Cox
Jayne Houdyshell – Judge Linden
Pablo Schrieber – William Lewis
Constance Shulman – Daycare Manager
Andre De Shields – Keys
Giselle Eisenberg - Madison
Mark Boone Junior - Roger Pearson
Josh Pais – Commissioner Hank Abraham
Bill Irwin - Dr. Peter Lindstrom
Duncan Nicholson - Nicky Moore
John Sousa - Lenny
Giselle Eisenberg – Madison
Mark Doherty – Lt. Frank Ryan
Mimi Quillin – Abby Stans
John Sousa – Lenny
Misha Seo – Caitlin
Shania Li - Stella
Nayab Hussain – Jhumpa (Pharmacist)
William Lewis is standing in a room holding a working metronome, and saying “tick tock tick tock” and smirking. A teapot whistles at 4:48AM and Benson snaps herself back to reality and pours the hot water into a mug. She has a strange smile on her face.
Later, at the Wexton Drug Store, Benson reaches for the drug store brand pregnancy test.
Elsewhere, Tom Moore is buying a gift at an airport gift shop in Finland, complaining on the phone to his wife Lisa that his flight from Bangkok got diverted to Helsinki, saying hopefully he will be home before Nicky gets to college. He asks how he did last night and Lisa replies better, a little, he was up all hours and adds he is still sleeping, thank god. He tells her to hang in there, he loves them both and will be home as soon as he can.
Benson arrives at SVU with her bag from Wexton Drug Store and Fin hands her his mileage and log book, saying he is all caught up. Benson says great and asks Rollins about hers, and she replies she is working on it. Amaro approaches and hands her a cup of coffee and she thanks him as she puts the bag in her desk drawer. Amaro asks if everything is OK, and she looks up and says “Yeah, everything’s fine” as she quickly closes the desk drawer. She takes a deep breath,
Later and outside, she is on the phone with Cassidy, telling his she tried calling earlier and asks if now is a good time.
Afterwards, Benson is in Dr. Lindstrom’s office, who comments that it sounds challenging. She tells him she can handle the job but she wasn’t prepared for the caretaking; everybody needs her attention and if she focuses on one, the other acts out. Lindstrom comments that the boss if often a parent figure, and they may be projecting their feelings towards their mothers on to her. She looks at him and says nothing, and he asks her what’s up. Benson replies nothing, she wasn’t going to mention it but these last few days she thought she was pregnant. She held off on taking the test. Lindstrom comments “until today” and Benson informs him it turns out she is not, she guesses she should be relieved, adding that Brian is. Lindstrom suggests that instead of telling him how he feels and how she should feel, can she tell him how she DOES feel? Benson smiles and says, getting emotional, that these last few days – waiting, thinking that door wasn’t closed - she just imagined this whole other life.
Elsewhere, Tom arrives home and find Nicky’s bed empty. He finds Lisa in bed asleep and he wakes her, asking where is Nicky. She sleepily says he is in bed, but Tom says no he is not, he’s gone. Lisa becomes alert and looks surprised.
Later, outside the Moore home, Amaro tells Benson that she didn’t have to come he told her they had it under control. Benson counters that the father works at the U.N. and is high profile. She asks what they’ve got. Amaro informs her is it Nicky Moore, 7, there is no ransom demand or forced entry; the mother, Lisa, is a stay at home mom and the father is Dr. Tom Moore who just won a humanitarian award for third world neonatal care who flew in early this morning. Benson adds he discovered his own kid was missing. Rollins and Fin speak with a neighbor who says Nicky is lost, adding she hopes he didn’t run into traffic again, adding that little boy has been hell on wheels since they moved in. She’s seen him almost tear Lisa’s arm off screaming “you’re not my mommy, I wanna go home.” Rollins looks at Fin and then asks “Home?
Inside, Lisa tells Benson that Nicky is from Georgia – what they used to call Soviet Georgia - and the adopted him 2 years ago, they tried everything to get pregnant. Tom found Nicky at the orphanage and it was a godsend. Benson asks if Nicky adjusted well and were there any problems, asking if he ran away before. Lisa replies that sometime on the street he bolts ahead but never in the middle of the night. Benson asks if Lisa opened a window, and Lisa says yes, because of the heat. She wonders if someone came in and took him. Benson informs her that stranger abductions are rare but this is a ground floor apartment and it’s possible Nicky climbed out himself. Lisa asks why would he do that, but Benson asks what he was wearing. Lisa says it was blue pajamas with trains, and Benson notices his winter coat hanging on the coat rack. Benson asks if she has any idea where he would go. Lisa sighs.
Meanwhile, Amaro speaks with Tom who says Nicky doesn’t have a lot of friends, he is a little wild. Amaro says he is a 7 year old, but Tom says this is different, he spent 5 years in an orphanage and has ongoing socialization and developmental issues; global delays in gross motor and fine motor language, insecure attachment issues, it is difficult for him to bond with other kids and even with him and his mother. Tom says if he did wander away, he has this indiscriminate friendliness; they tried to teach him social order – first family, then friends, and then neighbors. Amaro asks if this means he has no fear of strangers, and Tom replies just the opposite. On top of that, there is his medical condition.
