Reviewer Rating: 5/5.0
5
Some SVU cases are hard to find words to talk about.
Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 4 is one of them. The story is unsettling and unsettling and works on multiple levels.
As a bonus, after the last two cases, we finally get the support we’ve come to expect from Carisi.
Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 4 featured a messy and disturbing case in which two young girls were choked during sex, one of whom died.
Cases involving children always sadden me the most, and in this case it was doubly difficult because what happened involved so many neglectful parents.
Benson: That’s not a coincidence.
Carisi: No, more like an oversight.
Josh Black set off a chain reaction that resulted in his son suffocating and raping his girlfriend and his nephew doing the same thing to a 12-year-old girl who then died.
12 years old. Let’s take a minute to understand this.
Of course, the kids aren’t completely blameless, although I think SVU does a good job of showing how parental neglect can lead to these situations.
I find it difficult to discuss this case because I don’t want to cross the line into apologizing for rape or the rapist.
In this case, however, the responsibility is greater for the parents, especially that terrible Josh Black, or at least that’s how the case is presented.
Ryan should not have attempted suffocation, at least not without discussing it with Hannah, even if it was his first sexual experience.
But at the same time, he was an inexperienced kid who trusted his father, who showed him a VR simulation of suffocation and told him that women loved it.
This is how rape culture spreads, so I’m glad SVU is addressing this issue in a more nuanced way than it has in the past.
We know there are a lot of boys and men who believe women exist to give them sexual pleasure, but they don’t understand what the big deal is that Hannah doesn’t want it.
These terrible attitudes come from somewhere, and SVU does a great job of exploring this angle on the issue.
Ryan seems like a sweet kid and he would really stop if he knew Hannah didn’t like it, but she can’t tell him because he’s suffocating her.
Josh: Remember, son, women are buyers.
Ryan: What does that mean?
Josh: That means they have a choice. We are sellers. Therefore, we must do everything we can to reach an agreement.
However, his father filled his head with questionable statements that would have caused him to grow into one of those entitled men who fully embraced the idea of women being there to satisfy his sexual needs.
Josh knows how to sound like a decent guy, but in reality he’s not a decent guy at all. He paid lip service to women with agency, and his admissions in court sounded anything but sincere.
Carisi was right, Josh was a neglectful parent who gave his son the tools to hurt the girl.
Josh is the most egregious, actively encouraging inappropriate behavior, but he is not the only neglectful parent involved in this situation.
Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 4 was filled with just that.
Hannah’s mom probably thinks she’s being a cool parent by going out so her daughter can have sex at home, but that seems too permissive to me.
That doesn’t mean what happened to her daughter wasn’t a horrific crime. Hannah’s luck that her mom got home in time to rush her to the hospital and save her life cannot be ignored.
But being so cool about your sixteen-year-old having sex with her boyfriend doesn’t seem realistic, nor is it good parenting.
Mrs. Black is the funniest of all these parents.
At first, she seems like your typical clueless mother, often appearing in police procedurals unaware that her son is having sex and convinced that he is an innocent angel who has never seen a porn video.
But by the hour, I saw her differently. She looked like an abused wife – not physically, but traumatically, the signs were there.
She knew what was on her husband’s mind, but she kept denying it to herself until she could no longer deny it. That’s how she ends up when her nephew is arrested for murder due to a chain reaction that started with her husband.
She rejected him and everything he stood for, and was so angry about it that she was willing to bare all their dirty laundry in front of her son until Benson stopped her.
Benson’s fight for justice is less clear-cut
The scene where Benson promises justice to Eliza’s grieving parents is one of the most heartbreaking scenes in SVU history.
Nothing can bring their daughter back, so what does justice look like?
It’s only fair that Ryan and his cousin face charges. The kids and parents who initiated this need to be held accountable.
But it wouldn’t be justice if the boys were sent to juvenile prison while Josh Black walked free.
However, it seems difficult to find any charges against him that would result in only a minor punishment.
Eventually, Josh confessed, but his disingenuous apology meant nothing and certainly didn’t bring Eliza back.
Carisi finally had the meltdown we were all waiting for on Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 4
Carisi has been carrying a heavy burden the past few weeks.
The cold case he tried on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 26 Episode 2 must have reminded him of Jesse. The victim was exactly the age she was when her powerful stepfather began molesting her.
However, Carisi had no reaction. True to form when Rollins visited Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 3, he didn’t say anything about it to Rollins.
Sadly, this is very realistic. Trauma survivors—including those who, like Carisi, have suffered vicarious trauma—often try to carry on with their lives as if nothing happened until they can no longer.
There should have been signs over the past few episodes that Carisi wasn’t coping as well as he claimed, but SVU can be forgiven for that since the mask is now off.
In Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 4, Carisi’s final straw was when someone on the street leered at his 9-year-old.
(Side note, I love that Carisi thinks Rollins’ daughter is his.)
It’s risky to be in that guy’s face. Jesse could walk away or be taken away by someone else while Carisi wasn’t looking, and that person could become violent.
Still, it’s important to stand up to this crap, so I can’t blame Carisi for how he handled it.
However, it’s clearly had an impact on him, along with other things he’s been dealing with recently related to the case.
He’s so angry that these teenage boys and their parents are getting away with it that Benson has to question whether he needs to withdraw from the case.
This is unusual for Carisi. Once he starts standing up for Jesse, he can’t get out of protective mode.
This is what being triggered looks like, and it’s so important that SVU shows the toll this job takes on all genders.
Part of the mental health crisis in this country stems from men being taught that expressing emotions or having difficulty with them is a feminine trait, so the more shows that depict men emotionally without losing their masculinity, the better.
Random Thoughts on Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 4
- Silva finally appears, but it’s just a cameo. I still wonder why she was introduced if they weren’t going to use her very often?
- The look on Benson’s face when Josh Black “apologized” said everything that needed to be said.
- Does anyone else find it weird that Carisi calls Benson by her last name when talking to Benson about Rollins?
Over to you, Law & Order: SVU fanatics.
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Law & Order: SVU airs Thursdays at 9/8c on NBC and Fridays on Peacock.
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