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SVU (10/7)

 This past Thursday gave us another wonderfully-detailed SVU script, and I'll try to highlight main ideas here.


First, a recap. A guy is targeting women with children: The rapes occur while the children watch, the women are forced to feign excitement, and if the child speaks, a retaliatory murder will happen. We think the villain is a nasty teen, but in fact it's a jocular ice-cream vendor. 

The vendor escapes the consequence of DNA evidence when he says "I visited Y's apartment only to give her daughter a toy she had dropped." But another rape occurs--and, this time, the victim can pick her assailant from a lineup. That's not the end. We'd tend to think both victims would get a moment in court--but the first victim is not "perfect" (she has had multiple partners, recently), and so she is unceremoniously dropped from the paperwork.

Olivia calls this act of revision misogyny, and she's right, and her boss tries to say that he was sparing Victim One from "a re-traumatizing hour." Olivia says: "This wasn't your choice to make." And we end on that uneasy note.

Of course my mind goes to the Golden State Killer, who would have family members balance tea cups on their chests during a rape. ("If you breathe or move too suddenly, and a cup falls, I will kill you.") I also thought of Epstein and his mysterious jail period; part of this episode concerns weird "accidents" that befall perps in jail. I also thought of Biden and Anita Hill: One kind of misogyny discussed in this episode has to do with calling a grown woman "a good girl," and offering condescending notes to a pro (Olivia) who doesn't need them.

Another great hour. I appreciate the Jodie Foster legacy; whenever Olivia is particularly angry, her voice gets quiet, and I think this may be an intended tribute to "Silence of the Lambs."
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Comments

  1. MarshaOctober 12, 2021 at 6:33 AM

    WE have BIG fans of this show forever.
    So well done and sometimes very hard to watch.

    ReplyDelete
  2. ReaderOctober 12, 2021 at 6:44 AM

    Yes! I had a hard time with portions of the Pablo Schreiber episodes. Olivia's big enemy.

    ReplyDelete

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