Benson may need needed to confront her biases… however she wasn’t there.
On Law & Order: SVU Season 25 Episode 3, Benson’s obsession with the Maddie Flynn case dragged her out of the squad room proper after studying that an escort was a second sufferer, not a rapist.
While the sequence missed a possibility to confront implicit biases about rape survivors and perpetrators, Ray Goldberg’s story was some of the shifting survivor tales they’ve had shortly.
SVU has all the time been about supporting survivors, and Benson has been extra like a social employee than a cop for the reason that starting. Neither of these information modified throughout this case.
Her empathy for the Flynns and guilt over not rescuing Maddie earlier than it was too late interfered along with her specializing in the case in entrance of her. But perhaps that was the purpose: she’s unable to shake the sense of duty in Maddie’s case in order that she will do her job successfully.
This places a contemporary twist on Benson’s 25 years of going above and past the decision of responsibility to help survivors. She’s gotten herself into bother doing an excessive amount of for the victims she works with earlier than, however that was when she was younger and overly idealistic.
This time, it is unhealthy, which permits her to have a shifting psychological well being storyline that’ll proceed all season lengthy.
I used to be glad she went to remedy on the finish. I’m uncertain if it was with Dr. Irwin or a brand new therapist. Still, both manner, this growth normalizes remedy for cops and others who face vicarious trauma and is a step ahead in her try to maneuver previous Maddie’s kidnapping.
I nonetheless would have preferred extra of her response to Dr. Goldberg’s case, although. Although Benson understands that males may be raped, too, it may need been tougher for her to empathize with a male sufferer, and I’d have preferred for her to attempt.
Naturally, she assumed Tess was a sufferer from the start. Tess got here to the police station to report a rape and was in tears — there was no motive for anybody to imagine she did something flawed.
Tess: I did not wish to do it. I did not really feel proper about it. But then one of many guys, he put a gun to the again of my head… and I did what they informed me to.
Benson: Tess, you did not rape anybody. You have been raped.
But she was additionally fast to say that Tess could not have raped anybody due to her small dimension. Ultimately, that was correct, however she did not know that.
Ray’s rape was drug-facilitated, although it wasn’t completely clear how that occurred.
It appeared like he ended up smoking crack with the 2 weirdos he met, however he remembered nothing. Yet nobody questioned whether or not he had been roofied — they solely questioned whether or not he was telling the reality about not remembering.
That delicate distinction demonstrated that male survivors are handled otherwise than feminine survivors in some methods. It would have been much more potent if Benson had interjected her opinion into this case as an alternative of simply giving her patented Olivia Benson supportive speeches.
Nevertheless, this was nonetheless a shifting story — each due to how the case was dealt with and due to Benson’s PTSD-related obsession with Maddie’s case.
Ray’s reluctance to confess he was raped, his marital difficulties afterward, and his self-blame have been sprinkled all through the hour, giving viewers simply sufficient of a glimpse into his life to know how the rape affected him.
Ray: It would have been really easy to comply with the record my spouse gave me, as an alternative of screwing up my life.
Fin: You have been victimized. I do know what occurred to you wasn’t straightforward to take care of.
Ray: I did not wish to see the lights of town. I wished to be certainly one of them, not less than for one night time.
He went to the membership as a result of he was bred together with his life. It wasn’t an excellent determination, however that did not imply he deserved to be sexually assaulted.
We did not want fairly as a lot of his pre-rape story — the chilly open went on for too lengthy — however his rationalization afterward of why he did what he did and his pleasure over attending to be a part of the sting operation have been efficient.
Sadly, although, the rationale he got here ahead primarily was for Tess. He did not need her to get in bother for what had been accomplished to them, and his determination that he wished justice for himself, too, appeared like an afterthought.
The scene between him and his spouse on the membership was unusual. I did not perceive why Fin stored telling Velasco to hold again moderately than divert Denise’s consideration, and people two perps ought to have been suspicious after the interplay along with her.
At least he did not find yourself coping with a breakup for the sake of drama. Denise appeared turned on by her husband working undercover with the cops!
Well, they’re idiots, however not less than they’re constant.
Carisi
Carisi was proper when he pegged these two guys as idiots. They thought that it was okay to threaten Tess with a starter pistol as a result of it wasn’t an actual gun and that they have been doing Ray a favor by forcing a stranger to have intercourse with him.
This is without doubt one of the areas the place SVU nonetheless has some work to do. It’s necessary to show how US tradition contributes to some males feeling entitled to intercourse by any means obligatory. Still, when the perps are such caricatures of such males that it is unbelievable, that is an issue.
Meanwhile, Benson placed on her social employee hat once more to look after Eileen Flynn.
Maybe telling Eileen to handle herself first woke Benson as much as the necessity to comply with her personal recommendation. Still, did anybody else suppose Benson would discover a clue in Maddie’s room?
Going in there underscored her guilt and grief over Maddie’s disappearance, however it will have been nice if she’d discovered one thing that would transfer that story alongside.
Instead, she’s caught up within the hamster wheel of emotion about this. Maybe that is why she stared at that ballerina going round in circles when she was in Maddie’s room.
She’s lastly getting assist for her obsession, and that is good. But it wasn’t misplaced on me that she touched the compass Elliot Stabler gave her whereas ready for her therapist.
Benson and Stabler’s paths ought to cross whereas fixing this case. Stabler’s busy going after fentanyl sellers, and this George man provides his victims the identical drug.
Could Benson’s fidgeting have been foreshadowing? Or did it merely show that she felt misplaced?
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Law & Order: SVU airs on NBC on Thursdays at 9/8c.
Jack Ori is a senior employees author for TV Fanatic. His debut younger grownup novel, Reinventing Hannah, is out there on Amazon. Follow him on X.
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