Archives for January 2013

This was a strong episode blending serious, cutting-edge issues like gay-on-gay hate crimes with the sparkling entertainment provided by dressing up the detectives to infiltrate gay bars and strip clubs.

Recap:

A handsome young man is luring rich, closeted gay men to hotel rooms, where he ties them up, beats them, sodomizes them, and steals their valuables. The victims, all hoping to keep their secret lives secret, refuse to talk to SVU’s detectives. What are the police to do? Swathe Ice-T and Nick in their best Banana Republic and send them out as bait in a gay bar called Hotmale (what else?). This gambit doesn’t work (did anyone think it would?), but it did provide some fine eye candy.

Meanwhile, another man becomes a victim – and dies because of his weak heart. Using actual police methods like talking to witnesses and tracing stolen credit cards, our good detectives soon find the apparent murderer: a blond male stripper with the appropriately soft-core-porn name of Jeremy Jones.

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Confidential informants can be great sources for police, but also present challenges to their police handlers, especially if they’re accused of crimes themselves. Tonight’s episode took that issue and ramped it up into a tight, twisty story that got a lot right.

Recap:

Pretty single mom Jessie gets ready for a date night and drives to her boyfriend Tommy’s house (which – note – is in Suffolk County, outside of our SVU’s warm and happy jurisdiction). Instead of dinner and movie, we jump to a 911 operator getting two calls about Tommy’s house: (1) a couple screaming, and, soon thereafter, (2) gunshots! The cops bust into Tommy’s house and find him bleeding on the floor, with a gun by his head. Jessie is kneeling over him. Despite remarkably thin evidence, the Suffolk police arrest her for murder.

Olivia is devastated by the news. See, Jessie is also a victim in a Manhattan rape case from Labor Day that’s still awaiting trial.

Back in September (picture this in faded-colors flashback mode), Jessie fought with Tommy, went for a girls night out, and was found unconscious, drunk, and bruised on the street. When she awoke in the hospital she at first said nothing happened. Then she said she didn’t know who hurt her. Then: she was kidnapped and raped by a stranger. Only on story #4 did Jessie finally say that she was raped and assaulted by Michael Provo, her sometimes hookup, who she phoned for a tipsy booty call after a night of clubbing. And, um, can we keep this on the down low, because Tommy would kill her if he ever found out. [Read more…]

Sure, there were hookers in Santa hats, pedophile priests, and a gory Christmas Eve shootout. But the one question SVU fans were buzzing about by the end of “Presumed Guilty” was this: Whose masculine mystery hand Olivia was holding as she flew to the Bahamas for a winter holiday tryst?

Recap: We open with a montage of Christmas goodwill featuring Father Shay, a priest with cheeks so rosy and a smile so benevolent you just know he’s hiding something dark and terrible beneath those robes. Indeed, your sex-offender radar probably started chirping when he sat in his car with adorable eight-year-old Sofia, who handed him a handmade Christmas card. Did he hover over her just a little too long before leaning down to hug her? Someone certainly thought so. The car door is yanked open, the priest dragged out and viciously beaten. Sofia screams and runs.

The primary suspect is Sam, Ice-T’s ex-brother-in-law, who’s found dazed at the scene. Sam swears he was just trying to pull the real assailants off the priest, but as a thrice-convicted parolee, his credibility is slim. Sam is arrested.

Here, folks, is where SVU’s involvement would have ended in real life. Two big reasons: (1) There’s no sex crime. Catholic Church sex-abuse scandal notwithstanding, it’s still not a crime for a priest to sit alone in a car with a girl. (2) Ice-T cannot investigate a crime where his family member is the prime suspect. Neither can any of buddies on the squad.

But this is SVU, and the night is young. Moving on…

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