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Thursday's SVU

 "SVU" is like a sprawling campus novel with a focus on power. This season, cops have been explicit about how crime works: One person identifies an especially vulnerable member of society, and preys on that member.


If you're vulnerable, you can't defend yourself. A gang leader targets and rapes migrant women--because it's not clear how the women would fight back. The gang leader then enlists the children of these women to carry out attacks in bodegas and in subways. Elsewhere, in a jail, a powerful prisoner identifies a terrified new inmate as a candidate for rape: Once "branded," the voiceless inmate is violated again and again.

Last week's "SVU" centered on Dutch, an enraged man in his thirties who spent years in jail because of a negligible drug incident. Having been terrorized in jail, Dutch chooses terror in the present day: He breaks down a door, waits in darkness, then points a gun at a cop. Later, he comes close to killing the man who assaulted him in prison. Dutch is compelling because a part of him seems conflicted: He holds a gun, but it isn't loaded, and after his various meltdowns, he is generally receptive to reasoning. In a moving and "earned" Third Act, he attempts to clean up his life by reuniting with a daughter he once abandoned, in his teens.

At its best, "SVU" throws light on a gray area. It's uncomfortable and ironic that Fin--the "avenger" in this script--may be just as guilty as the rapist he is going after. It's Fin who *created* the prison situation, years and years ago. A by-the-book approach to drugs robbed one decent guy of his life, for a decade or more. Fin is right to feel sick to his stomach. Olivia says, at the end, "Regardless of the past, you did everything correctly for at least twelve consecutive hours today." This is comforting--but it's not an absolution. It's interesting, and difficult, to "sit" in that moment, on-screen.

Anyway, can't wait for the next one.
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