This is the worst-written episode of the series up to this point in my opinion.
First problem: I like that Stabler has to sometimes balance his job with his home-life. But, I think the writers quite often go too far to show Stabler's short fuse. He is a seasoned detective who often appears to never learn from his mistakes when it comes to both his temper and his quickness to assume someone's guilt. We see these shortcomings on steroids in this episode. Yes, his son is involved. Even so, a veteran detective shouldn't have acted so much like an out-of-control rookie in this situation.
Second problem: A. D. A. Cabot and the prosecution are accused of suppressing a recanted statement by the alleged rape victim. And yet no one involved in the case provides any evidence regarding the mysterious recant statement. It makes no sense that the A. D. A. And SVU would be held responsible for withholding such information whenever no evidence is presented in court that the recant even occurred.
Third problem: With two cases occurring simultaneously, and with SVU having to continually allocate few resources to both cases, it makes no sense that Detective Benson would make time to formally request a new A. D. A. Be assigned to their department. That request is also inconsistent with how SVU typically handles internal problems.
The one aspect of this episode that I liked was seeing SVU have to deal with more than one serious case at a time. I enjoy this series very much. But, I've often thought that in real life there would often be more than one serious case under investigation at any given point in time. We see that in this episode and it's a rarity.
There was probably a good story here - a story that could have been much more consistent with what we saw from SVU until the past couple of seasons, which became much more inconsistent.
First problem: I like that Stabler has to sometimes balance his job with his home-life. But, I think the writers quite often go too far to show Stabler's short fuse. He is a seasoned detective who often appears to never learn from his mistakes when it comes to both his temper and his quickness to assume someone's guilt. We see these shortcomings on steroids in this episode. Yes, his son is involved. Even so, a veteran detective shouldn't have acted so much like an out-of-control rookie in this situation.
Second problem: A. D. A. Cabot and the prosecution are accused of suppressing a recanted statement by the alleged rape victim. And yet no one involved in the case provides any evidence regarding the mysterious recant statement. It makes no sense that the A. D. A. And SVU would be held responsible for withholding such information whenever no evidence is presented in court that the recant even occurred.
Third problem: With two cases occurring simultaneously, and with SVU having to continually allocate few resources to both cases, it makes no sense that Detective Benson would make time to formally request a new A. D. A. Be assigned to their department. That request is also inconsistent with how SVU typically handles internal problems.
The one aspect of this episode that I liked was seeing SVU have to deal with more than one serious case at a time. I enjoy this series very much. But, I've often thought that in real life there would often be more than one serious case under investigation at any given point in time. We see that in this episode and it's a rarity.
There was probably a good story here - a story that could have been much more consistent with what we saw from SVU until the past couple of seasons, which became much more inconsistent.
