It's always fun when Rollins goes undercover, even if it's not realistic.
For some reason, these undercover stories always go way over the top, and Law & Order: SVU Season 23 Episode 14 was no exception.
Somehow, an investigation into a radio star's rape of a friend's wife morphed into a bizarre murder-for-hire plot, and Rollins was in on all the action.
Laura Kai Chen did great work the few times she appeared on-screen. She was the total opposite of the character she used to play on Days of Our Lives. Instead of being sarcastic and snooty, she was soft-spoken and vulnerable.
I'd have loved for her to have appeared in more than a couple of scenes.
SVU is supposed to be about rape and sexual assault survivors, after all, not random cases that have nothing to do with the unit's purpose.
Unfortunately, the rape was merely the jumping-off point for this bizarre story about a radio star who may or may not have murdered a man twelve years ago.
Rollins' undercover stint would have been more fun -- and more believable -- had the episode stuck to her trying to prove that Bob Flynn was a serial rapist.
It was the perfect set-up, with Rollins and Carisi pretending to be a married couple and Bob practically raping Rollins in the back room of a bookstore.
The rest of the hour could have included a lot of drama about prosecuting the case, especially since it involved the ADA's girlfriend and been a strong story about a powerful radio star versus the women he raped.
Instead, it quickly descended into an over-the-top investigation that was hard to follow.
It felt like there was just too damn much going on.
Bob went from being a sleazeball to a rapist to a murderer. Once we got to that point, the murder case became convoluted n and confusing, with Bob claiming the victim's wife had been blackmailing him and that she and her husband were part of a scheme to seduce wealthy socialities and then blackmail them into silence.
And if all that wasn't enough, then he wanted to hire someone to kill Lola, so we needed another undercover detective to facilitate that.
This was all unnecessary, and in the end, it turned out to be pointless. No sooner did Bob get out on bail for all the OTHER charges than Mitch executed him on air for the rape.
What exactly was the point here?
It would have been one thing if the story had focused on Ellen's rape throughout the hour and a frustrated Mitch decided to kill Bob because he couldn't get justice for his wife any other way.
That would have been a powerful ending, even if SVU has done something similar before.
But instead, the rape was mostly forgotten. The detectives spent the whole hour investigating this supposed murder, only for Ellen to decide off-screen to tell her husband, who promptly killed Bob.
While that gives new meaning to the episode's title, it made the whole story a giant waste of time.
Okay, so Bob was a douchebag who got his in the end. Did we really need this whole investigation to make THAT point?
Come on, SVU, you're better than this. And you're better than rapes being shoved into the background for highly sensationalized and unrealistic murder investigations, too.
The most annoying thing about this was that it could have taken so many interesting directions instead.
Bob was a sleazy right-wing radio host that Finn thought was a shock jock and Rollins thought believed his own BS. His politics would have come into it if he'd gone to trial, with fans convinced he was being persecuted for his outspoken conservative beliefs.
That would have been an additional obstacle to prosecuting the rape case and one that SVU hasn't tackled in a while.
Benson: I ran this by McGrath and he's not thrilled, but he's giving us a lot of latitude.
Finn: He probably has a signed copy of Flynn's book.
- Permalink: He probably has a signed copy of Flynn's book.
- Added:
And as much as Benson said his politics were irrelevant, they might not have been. Finn couldn't stand the guy and his beliefs, which might have influenced how he handled the rape investigation had there been one.
Such a story would have moved Fin more out of the background. Sure, he helped interview Lola. But he still mostly cracked one-liners or stood around being part of the team that had Rollins' back.
Fin is one of the most popular detectives on SVU, but he often doesn't have much to do anymore, and that's sad. A meaty story involving a suspect accusing him of bias would have been far more compelling than the silliness we got here.
That's not to say that there weren't enjoyable parts of the hour. Bob was one of the sleaziest characters in SVU history, and Rollins's interactions were suspenseful. And again, Laura Kai Chen's performance was stellar.
It was hard to take the story seriously, though, which distracted me from enjoying it.
Your turn, SVU fanatics.
Hit the big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know what you thought of Rollins' latest undercover stint.
And if you missed the episode, don't worry. You can watch Law & Order: SVU online right here on TV Fanatic.
Law & Order: SVU airs on NBC on Thursdays at 9 PM EST/PST.
