Writer’s Note: My apologies for this coming so late — the holiday and the adventures of a teeth five-month-old do throw a wrench in the writing works sometimes.
The Scene of the Crime (Episode Summary): Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) is in the final stages of adopting her foster son Noah, taking the next step to becoming a Lieutenant, and putting major sex trafficker Johnny D (Charles Halford – Constantine) away for good. But, this is Olivia Benson we’re talking about and it can never be that easy. Benson names Johnny D as the birth father on Noah’s adoption papers which prompts him to claim his parental rights – demanding visitation, and eventually full custody — all to tweak Benson. His attorney (The Wire’s Michael Kostroff) uses Olivia’s adoption to put doubt in the jury’s mind and attempts to make them believe Olivia is trying to railroad Johnny D in order to get custody of Noah.
The Lead Investigator (Favorite Performance): The villains take this accolade home for the final episode of Season 16. Charles Halford and Michael Kostroff were both excellent in their roles. Halford, who was one of the best parts of the criminally under-watched series Constantine, played Johnny D as the perfect oily, menacing, and intelligent foe that often seems to get the best of the SVU detectives. Kostroff excels beyond all imagination as a fast-talking attorney with a bent moral compass. He is perfect in this role in The Wire, and in his scenes in the finale he recaptured that same magic. One can only hope that like his Wire co-star Delaney Williams, Kostroff will be a regular guest star on the series.
The Devil in the Details (The Little Thing You Loved): The recalling of guest stars from throughout Season 16 was a nice touch. The Johnny D storyline hasn’t been a dominant story arc this season, unlike last year’s inescapable William Lewis storyline, but it’s been in the background. It’s evolved slowly, and it came together really well.
Objection, Your Honor! (The Worst Part): Did Nick Amaro (Danny Pino) seriously think he could become a sergeant? The man has been under investigation and on trial so many times, it’s ridiculous. This was obvious foreshadowing for Amaro’s departure, but the fact Benson even entertained this notion was a little bit of a stretch.
The Debriefing (Thoughts on the Episode): ‘Surrendering Noah’ suffered from time constraints. This episode could’ve run an hour and fifteen minutes, maybe even 90 minutes. Hell, this could’ve been a two-parter. There was enough meat on the bones to do more with this episode. While this may seem like a knock, this is actually a compliment. This episode had enough good material to be two episodes, and it made this writer want to see this material in two episodes. In short – I wanted more, and that’s never a bad thing. Some of the episode was a bit telegraphed – Olivia naming Johnny D as the birth father was the right thing to do in the world of the show, but it was obvious where that would lead. Also, Amaro’s desire to become a sergeant and then his subsequent rejection loudly signaled he was done on the series.
That being said, this was a solid finale. The court room chess match between Raul Esparza’s DA and Michael Kostroff’s defense attorney was a lot of intriguing fun. Esparza’s character is always the most entertaining when he’s going against a strong defense attorney (e.g. Kostroff, Delaney Williams), and there could’ve easily been more court room drama here. Mariska Hargitay turned in another strong performance, and it seems the writers have found a nice groove for Olivia as the boss. Benson is now a hybrid between her Stabler-era SVU character and Captain Cragen.
The ending was interesting, but a little too neat. Johnny D pulls a gun and opens fire in a court room just as the key witness is being undermined by all of Johnny D’s prostitutes in the room? Doesn’t make a lot of sense. Also, the shooting was a bit rushed, and the reaction to Nick getting shot needed a little more room to breathe.
Yet, at the end of the day, this was a much improved episode over the majority of the 2015 entries for SVU.
Rating: 7.5 out of 10
Season 16 Post-Mortem: The 16th season of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit was the best season of the post-Stabler era. The series added a great new character in Sonny Carisi (Peter Scanavino), although he did have a very rough start. Carisi can bring moments of levity, but also has evolved into a smart, tough and empathetic character. As mentioned before, the series has finally stabilized Benson. Her partnership with Amaro felt second rate compared to her and Stabler, so making her the boss makes perfect sense. She’s better as the quarterback of the series, not one of the receivers. Danny Pino leaving really does not impact the series at all. The Amaro character became set dressing in the second half of the season, sometimes not even appearing in episodes. The character was stretched to absurd lengths, and it was time to ship him off. The same goes for Rollins, who we guess is sticking around. They’ve rung her dry of all her dramatic potential, and they kinda made her a bit silly. Ice-T remains the coolest guy on the planet, despite very, very limited screen time.
The series also trimmed a lot of the personal drama from the detectives and focused mainly on the cases. The past two seasons the show focused way too much on the personal (Benson’s relationships, Rollins being a mess, Amaro’s divorce and long-lost son) and it really detracted from the show’s core make-up. And while the detectives were also less gullible and inept this season, they seemed to be more apt to victim blame. This is definitely not a good thing in the world of the series nor is it enjoyable to watch. Episode-wise, the series really had a strong start, and particularly killed it with the Glasgow Man episode. However, when the series returned from holiday break, all momentum was lost. The victim blaming, undermining the endings and heavy handed message delivery really left a bad taste in your mouth. Also, the distinct lack of Raul Esparza’s DA Barba was a crime. He’s one of the best actors on the show, why not use him more often? Yet, despite all these flaws, this definitely was the best SVU season in quite a long time.
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Bill Bodkin is the Owner, Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of Pop-Break. Most importantly, however, he is the proud father of a beautiful daughter, Sophie. He is beyond excited that Pop-Break will be six years old in 2015 as this site has come a long, long way from the day he launched in it in his bachelor pad at the Jersey Shore. He can be read every Monday for the Happy Mondays Interview Series as well as his weekly reviews on Law & Order: SVU, Mad Men and Hannibal. His goal, once again, is to write 500 stories this year (a goal he accomplished in 2014). He is a graduate of Rutgers University with a degree in Journalism & English. Follow him on Twitter: @PopBreakDotCom
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