Law & Order: SVU Season 27 Episode 19 Created A Brilliant Ethical Conflict But Dropped The Ball Immediately Afterward

Critic’s Rating: 4.3 / 5.0

4.3

What was that?

Law & Order: SVU set up a brilliant conflict with a corrupt (or at least, non-objective) judge, a defense attorney asking a ridiculous question, and Benson choosing to go to jail rather than violate the Rape Shield law and a victim’s privacy.

But that lasted two seconds, only for Benson to instead face suspension from Tynan, just to move their annoying conflict toward its climax.

Law & Order: SVU Season 27 Episode 19 Set Up One Of Its Strongest Cases

There were a ton of things about this story that were far more compelling than most of what has happened on Law & Order: SVU recently.

There have been a million episodes about teenagers roofied at parties, but this one had the extra dimension of both the alleged rapist and the victim having been given the same drug against their will.

Monica Potter played the female predator who acted like a friend to the victims so she could roofie them and then watch them having sex — there aren’t a lot of this specific type of predator on TV, not even on SVU, so that made for a more interesting case.

And after all that, the legal side got messy in the best possible way.

I had to wonder what other recourse Carisi had when Judge Ryan wouldn’t recuse himself.

It was obvious that a judge who is close friends with the father of a defendant can’t be objective, but Ryan refused to recuse himself and instead tried to pressure Carisi into taking a deal, and when that didn’t work, Judge Federov tried bribing him with promises of lighter loads.

Talk about corruption! There had to be something that Carisi could have done.

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Of course, that was all set up for Benson’s ethical and legal dilemma on Law & Order: SVU Season 27 Episode 19, which should have lasted longer.

As soon as Emma told Benson she had been sexually abused before, I knew this was going to turn into trouble one way or another.

The uncle was dead, so there wasn’t an issue of mandated reporting, although I wasn’t sure whether the parents could still be reported for not doing enough to protect their daughter after she reported the abuse to them.

However, it was obvious this was going to come back to bite Benson. She was acting more as a victim advocate than a cop, and Emma was involved in a case currently being litigated, so how could it not?

Judge Ryan was drunk on his own power and determined to do whatever it took to get his friend’s daughter an acquittal, so naturally, he was pressuring Benson to divulge information she legally and ethically could not divulge.

This was great drama, and it would have been exciting to find out how Benson was going to navigate her way out of it.

Unfortunately, that conflict lasted about five seconds.

Emma’s Decision To Talk On Law & Order: SVU Season 27 Episode 19 Was Meant to Be Inspiring, But Felt Rushed

Benson was arrested for contempt with about ten minutes left in the hour, so the story either had to be wrapped up quickly or be continued next time.

Unfortunately, SVU chose to wrap it up quickly so that the procedural could move on to the Tynan subplot.

Did you buy that Emma was ready to come forward?
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Immediately after Benson was arrested, Emma showed up out of nowhere to announce that she was ready to tell the world what had happened to her.

It was understandable that she didn’t want Benson to go to jail on her behalf, but not that she was ready or even capable of telling her story in court.

The entire reason that Benson was testifying in the first place was that Emma was having such an intense panic attack that she could not possibly get on the stand.

A traumatized teenager doesn’t go from being that frightened to perfectly calm, confident, and able to tell their story without any fear within only a few hours, especially since Emma didn’t want Benson to talk to her parents about the incident with the uncle, nor help them get her a referral to a therapist.

This twist still could have worked if Emma had shown signs of being traumatized on the stand, but had tried to push herself to talk anyway because she didn’t want Benson to be punished for keeping her secret.

But none of that happened. She got on the stand, told her story with confidence, and gave the audience a moment of relief before the final twist.

This sequence undermined the threat against Benson. That threat barely materialized before Benson was released from contempt and was back on the stand.

Additionally, that gave the judge a victory he should not have had.

His detention of Benson was likely illegal. Under the Rape Shield law, she couldn’t be compelled to testify, whether he liked Carisi pointing it out or not.

SVU short-circuited the legal question by resolving it so quickly, all because they wanted a bogus reason to have Tynan suspend Benson, all in the name of punishing her for putting victim safety over an unnecessary presser months ago.

Tynan’s overreach will likely be her undoing, especially with Griffin determined to prove that Tynan is the one who deserves to be suspended, but it still seems like manufactured drama to me.

If I were writing this, I would have made Benson’s arrest the cliffhanger, so everyone has to tune in next week to find out how she gets out of it, instead of adding this Tynan nonsense.

At least Fin had more than two lines and said he was back for good. I loved his one-liner to that kid who tried to run away.

What about you, SVU fanatics? Did you like the way Benson’s legal conflict was handled, or did it seem rushed to you?

Let us know in the comments, and don’t forget to share this article with your friends so they can join the conversation.

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Law & Order: SVU airs on NBC on Thursdays at 9/8c and streams on Peacock on Fridays.

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