Summary: Debra Messing guest-starred as a TV journalist hosting an intense version of Dateline’s To Catch a Predator. (How intense? Debra tased one of the predators. Holy civil liability, Batman!) In her spare time, Debra is obsessed with hunting down the man who killed her sister 25 years ago. She is very public about her hunt, which gets the killer upset. The killer starts stalking Debra. The police discover he’s killed forty-three women. Along the way, he slices the throat of the salty, alcoholic DA. (Whoa! I kind of jumped off my couch when that happened. I wasn’t expecting any of our recurring characters to get killed.) In the end, they catch him and he confesses to all of his crimes.
Verdict: B-
What they got wrong: I laughed at the subplot where the bearded guy caught on Debra’s show was actually just a concerned citizen at the house to help the girl. Come on. Half of the men caught on To Catch a Predator (carrying condoms, lube, and teddy bears) claim they’re there to help the girl rather than have sex with her. It’s never true. It took me approximately 30 seconds to find such a clip on YouTube:
Maybe I’m just super-skeptical as a sex-crime prosecutor, but I think the idea of a computer-hacking concerned citizen who goes to the Predator house to stop a statutory rape, rather than perpetrate it, is totally unbelievable. Men who have sex with kids have a variety of lame excuses, but this one was particularly silly.
And I’ve never heard of a serial rapist who stalks one of his past victim’s family members – no matter how vocal she is about trying to catch him. Attackers like that tend to pick their victims based on things like proximity (someone they see every day), studied vulnerability (choosing the one woman in an apartment complex who keeps her sliding doors open at night), or the random bad luck of wrong place/wrong time.
What they got right: Debra’s assistant, who was dating the serial killer, couldn’t believe he was a bad guy. Even though there were all kinds of weird things in their relationship (he couldn’t be reached on a phone, he asked about Debra all the time), the assistant thought everything was hunky-dory. This interaction is really common. Women in love are reluctant to believe their boyfriend is a bad guy, even if the evidence is loud and clear. A girlfriend might delude herself just so she can keep thinking that her serial-rapist-boyfriend is actually just a nice guy who loves her dearly. These guys often employ charm to do their bad deeds: both to lure victims, and to get unwitting accomplices. The fact that the stalker used Debra’s assistant to get access to Debra didn’t seem far-fetched to me.
As a side note, did anyone else notice that this was yet another episode where Elliot and Olivia were apart most of the time (with Elliot video-conferencing from Quantico)? Some commenters have speculated that the actors haven’t been getting along. I wonder. Post a comment if you’ve heard anything about that!
All the views on this website are mine alone, and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Morgan says
17 February, 2011 at 3:42 pmI thought Pursuit was a great episode. I just wanted to comment on the issue of Olivia and Elliot being apart. Last nights episode was one of the tandem episodes for SVU which is when they separate the main partners (Elliot-Olivia) and and either showcase one character (like in Dirty and Spectacle) or switch up partners (like putting Olivia and Fin together). They just do this every season so they can film two episodes in the time it usually takes to film one because separate actors are working on each episode.
Im sure the actors are getting along just fine, especially if you have seen the photos of them filming upcoming episodes. Everything seems to be going great.
Thanks for the reviews, I really enjoy reading them every week!
Allison Leotta says
17 February, 2011 at 7:06 pmHey, Morgan, that’s really interesting. I hadn’t heard that before. Thanks for filling us in!
TokoBali says
17 February, 2011 at 3:47 pmI think Elliot’s absence was simply to give the other characters (Fin, Cragen) some screen time. The beginning of this season focussed on Elliot/Olivia so much, it became annoying.
Speaking of screen time for characters, where the hell was Munch? Belzer on vacation or appearing in the next couple of Bill Maher shows or what?
Allison Leotta says
17 February, 2011 at 7:06 pmHa!
Andrew MacKie-Mason says
18 February, 2011 at 3:48 amWould cops/prosecutors really team up with one of those sleazy television shows on stings?
Roger A. Canaff says
20 February, 2011 at 9:52 pmI don’t want to speak for Allison, who knows this stuff as well as I do, but I do think there are some municipal departments and agencies (more likely than state or federal ones)that would at least consider teaming up with what they considered to be an appropriate production company in a ‘catch a predator’ effort. If a department were going to do that, they’d be well advised to consult with the local DA as well. “Catch” shows sometimes make for great television, but legal issues can abound.
Allison Leotta says
24 February, 2011 at 2:01 pmRight. On many episodes of Dateline’s To Catch a Predator, they do get local police to work with them and arrest the predators after Chris Hansen confronts them.
Amanda says
18 February, 2011 at 8:37 pmIn actuality, the lack of Benson/Stabler together in the last four episodes is what they refer to in tv as “tandem” episodes. Because SVU shoots 24 episodes a season (which is more than a normal show), they occasionally split the main actors up into a shooting schedule that allows them to shoot two episodes at a time, but leaves them lacking together on screen.
Hope that clears things up for your readers.
Allison Leotta says
24 February, 2011 at 2:02 pmThanks, Amanda! Great to know.
Anne says
21 February, 2011 at 3:41 amI just found your blog and I love it! I’m a wanna-be lawyer and SVU addict and I’ve always wondered how much they get right.
Allison Leotta says
24 February, 2011 at 2:03 pmI’m glad you liked the blog, Anne! I’m also a TV crime junkie, so this blog has been a lot of fun (and more constructive than constantly yelling at the TV). 🙂
Mike says
22 February, 2011 at 6:54 amHow about the liability the tv show would face for cutting and pasting the words of the non-predator to make him seem like a monster?
Allison Leotta says
9 March, 2011 at 8:15 pmGreat point. Yeah, huge civil liability. I think the non-predator could pretty much bankrupt the show.
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