Saturday, April 14, 2018

Law & Order: SVU Episode 18: Service

This week's episode seems like another routine case where a prostitute is raped and almost beaten to death. However, throw in a somewhat reluctant victim and three Army servicemen, two of whom want to keep to the military code of silence to cover up for their CO, and the SVU squad has it hands full. 




The victim, Sky aka Sandy, doesn't really want to pursue the case of her rape and beating, knowing what most people think about prostitutes. Eventually, she starts telling bits of the story of three men, one who raped and beat her, one that she hit with a lamp, and a fresh-face shy young man whom she was paid to have sex with. That man left his money clip behind which led the detectives to a local Army base where they locate one of the trio, Sgt Jim Preston, who had sought treatment for a gash on the chin and just happened to be off base with two other service men at the time of the attack. He refuses to speak of the incident though, simply citing his name, rank, and ID number as an answer to all questions. 

When presented with pictures of members of the Army from the base, Sandy picks out Sgt. Preston, Pvt. William Shaughnessy as the shy young man, and Staff Sgt. Tyler Jones as the man who attacked her. When confronted, Pvt. Shaughnessy says he's the one who raped her but the detectives already know this isn't true.

Benson goes to Stone with the positive IDs of the men and pushes for prosecution. Stone pushes back. I'm glad to see him not letting Benson pressure him into a case. He knows he needs more corroboration than just the victim's ID. He feels for her, but her word alone will not make a case. He tells Benson he needs one of the three accused to flip on the others. Olivia almost storms out of the office, not pleased with Peter's decision. And the look on Peter's face...  he's definitely not pleased with the attitude that just left. Annoyance, frustration, and tinge of disbelief all at once. Philip does it perfectly.


The Private eventually spills the beans about what happened and both Jones and Preston are arrested. Here we get to see a "Chicago Justice" alum come to NYC for a visit. Defense Attorney Olson, from the episode "Friendly Fire", reappears here to defend Staff Sgt Jones. And his attitude is just like most... "She's a hooker, Peter." As if that makes her less worthy of justice. Peter's reply: "And your client's a rapist."

It looks like Peter has this case in the bag though. He has the young Billy's statement saying exactly what went down, Staff Sgt. Jones raped and beat Sandy. But to Peter's shock, once on the stand Billy recants his story. Says he lied in that statement. Peter knows he's trying to protect the Staff Sgt out of a somewhat misplaced sense of loyalty to the man and the military code. Billy insists Jones is a good man. But what "good man" would rape, beat, and nearly kill a woman? Billy has perjured himself and will now spend time in prison and that doesn't bother him one bit. "I'd rather be a criminal than a traitor." 



With his case crumbling a bit, Peter turns to Preston, hoping to get him to realize protecting Jones isn't the honorable thing to do. Now we learn the real reason Preston is so reluctant to testify... the lab results from the blood on the lamp Sandy hit him with has the DNA markers of a female. Preston is transgender and he knows the precarious place transgender troops have in the military even if they are highly decorated and have a spotless record. Peter drops the charges against Preston with the understanding he will instead be subpoenaed as a witness and failing to appear will cost him.

And yet again, Benson is not satisfied with what Peter is doing.She wants him to convict Sandy's rapist yet says bringing Preston on the stand could ruin his life, knowing this is now Peter's only way of winning the case. Peter replies back: "And if he doesn't, you'll ruin Sandy's. It's your choice." I like that he leaves the decision in her hands since she is the one that pressed for it.

Preston proves to represent what the military stands for and does the right thing and testifies against Staff Sgt. Jones. In what is truly the best moment of the show, after having the fact he is transgender made known to the courtroom and the Staff Sgt. convicted, the members of the Army base that are present stand and salute him as he walks out.



Now, for what bothers me about this episode. Both during Sandy's testimony and Preston's, the judge allows the defense attorney to verbally attack both of them, ignoring almost all of Peter's objections. Philip was wonderful at showing his frustration at the judging letting it go on and I certainly shared it!  This would not have happened in a real courtroom. Yes, I know this isn't a real courtroom but doesn't SVU pride itself on it's realism? Just like in a real police unit, the commanding officer would have never let someone like Rollins, who also verbally attacked Sandy, remain on the case. Rollins' attitude, based on the fact her boyfriend was cheating on her with escorts, was completely ignored by Benson. After Rollins first outburst with Sandy in the interrogation room, Benson should have yanked her off the case and gotten to the bottom of the attitude, not let her continue to let Sandy be victimized and devalued. Rollins apology at the end didn't even seem to be enough to make up for the way she treated Sandy. The writers would have had much more powerful episode if they hadn't overlooked these issues.









1 comment:

  1. I totally agree with your review. As a nurse I can't watch medical shows because they don't get it right, and you want the judge to be like a real judge too. But I have to admit this is the first episode that really made me cry.

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