Law & Order: SVU Episode 19: Sunk Cost Fallacy

This week's episode was another tough one for our ADA Peter Stone but not in the courtroom. He is told by the doctor in charge of his sister, Pamela's care that she is suffering from tardive dyskinesia, a disorder resulting from long term use of anti- psychotic medication. It manifests itself in uncontrolled and repetitive body movements such as jerking, smacking lips, grimacing, and pursing of lips among other symptoms. The doctor informs Peter that one possible treatment is to up the dosage of her medications even though it seems to be completely counter intuitive. Peter asks about taking her off them all together, but the doctor tells him the last time they stopped her medications, she attempted suicide. Peter does what anyone who is unfamiliar with medicine would do, go with what the doctor recommends. Unfortunately, the doctor cannot make the choice for Peter.

I do not know what Philip draws on to bring out his emotions but he always seems to get it right. The struggle and pain and uncertainty of what to do is written all over his face. I know what it is like because this, once again, hits a nerve with me in regard to my mother. My family was faced with the same type of decisions toward the end of her life. Given two options, not knowing which one will work because the doctors can only give you a list of "what might happens", but knowing once you make a choice there is no going back to try the other if the chosen one doesn't work. Making the decisions even more stressful is having to make the choice "sooner rather than later", just like the doctor told Peter. Once you make the choice, if the results are not what you had hoped for, you constantly live with the agony of "what if I had made the other choice".

For Peter, the stress he faces is only compounded with the case that was brought to him by Benson. What started out as a kidnapping of a woman and her daughter, veered in murder charges against the husband/father, and culminated in a $50 million lawsuit against Peter, Olivia, the DA's office, and the city when the mother and daughter were found to be alive. Their "deaths" and the planting of evidence that pointed toward the father/husband was orchestrated by none other than former ADA Alex Cabot.

While her intentions are great, trying to get victims of domestic abuse away from the abusers when the system fails them, her methods are very illegal. She doesn't deny the fact when Benson asks if there are other men sitting in prison for murder because of what she has done. Why she is not brought up on charges by Peter is beyond me. Again, I feel the writing of the show fails big time in this episode. Is the husband/father in this a total dick? Absolutely! He likely did orchestrate his wife's death at the end and injured a police office in the process but the investigation into that just falls flat and nothing is done to Cabot, who is now costing the city $50 million because of her actions. I know, it's only an hour long show. However, it just seems like everyone is happy to let everyone walk away from their misdeeds. Two wrongs (Cabot & the husband/father) don't make a right.

Benson's speech to Peter after all is said and done with the case is misplaced coming from her. She made it known that the wife and daughter were still alive because it was her obligation to the law, but, since when has "taking yourself out of the equation" (as she said) ever made a difference in her decisions? She has consistently made ones that push, if not completely step over, the lines of what is legal because of her emotions and sense of morality. I was equally shocked earlier in the show when Peter jumped right into charging the husband/father with murder without so much as one piece of hard evidence. Maybe he was just heading Benson off at the pass because he knew she'd push him on it. Maybe the thoughts of his sister weighed too heavily on his mind. Or, maybe it could be chalked up to inconsistent writing along with Benson's speech.

In any case, Benson's words struck a cord with Peter and the tough decision he still had to make about Pamela. He decided to up the dosage of her medications in hopes of stopping the tardive dyskinesia or at least keep it from getting worse. He asks the doctor what if he had chosen to stop the meds all together and the doctor said "That would have been the right choice, too." Peter then goes to sit with Pamela and hold her arm. He loves his sister, even if she doesn't know who he is, and thanks to Philip's beautiful acting, we see he is still struggling with the choice that he made. I dearly hope, somewhere in this season we get to see more than just a few minutes of Philip's acting. I understand this is an ensemble show but please, let him show off what he can do in a character centric episode! And delve into the past relationship between Peter and Pamela.

As a last, but no less important note, mad props must be given to Amy Korb and her portrayal of Pamela.