Don't pay attention to the naysayers -- overall, this is a taut, well crafted episode, all the more remarkable because it was made in the final quarter of the original show's run. But it's still miles ahead of anything that beings done with the reboot or the terrible, terrible SVU now. The problem is in the denouement.
Everything is in good form -- acting, writing, directing. The series still has that glossy yet hyper realistic look that distinguished it from so many other shows, then and now. This is Law and Order firing pretty much on all cylinders.
It's also a relative rarity in that even though there is a twist, it's not one you can really see coming based on what's planted in the episode. There's no clear Chekhov's gun in that respect. Yet, when it's revealed, it makes a good deal of sense, and it paints everything in a different light. Now that you know what really happened, it makes you wonder about all the ins and out legally and otherwise that led to the trial.
That's why the episode doesn't get a higher rating from me. It's not that it doesn't work as is -- it certainly does -- but that the ending actually opens the door to one final scene, where everyone should stop and question where their initial suspicions took them. After all, they get it so wrong, it's the sort of thing that should lead to a great deal of introspection, professionally and otherwise. It doesn't. That's the dodge and hustle SVU has taken for the past 10 years and the Law and Order reboot continues to do, too. But the original Law and Order was still written for intelligent, sensitive adults.
Just a few minutes at the end for such inward searching would have made this episode a 10. What a shame.
