Okay so, I just watched the new episode. I know some people haven’t watched it yet, so I’m going to be leaving the spoiler commentary under the cut.
Initial Thoughts
This episode was fairly well done with respect to the balance between the case and the “extra” scenes, and by extra I mean the look into the personal live. I thought the pacing was done well; the case was the main attraction, which I’ve said time and time again should be the formula of this show, always. As far as the personal story lines, I have some thoughts, which will be under the cut like I said above to respect those who don’t want any spoilers. I will say this though, I’m failing to see the point anymore with respect to the Sheila/Liv/Noah story line. The Rollins/Carisi scene was awkward at best, and almost seemed like different characters we were watching in my opinion. So...on to the spoilers...
The Case
I thought the case was innovative, and fresh. We really haven’t had a case like this one before, so I very appreciated that. We’ve catfishing stories, but none quite like this where it was both sides being catfished. Steve Howey was amazing as “The Monster,” I really enjoyed his guest star role, and it was kind of refreshing to see a pro fighter portrayed this way because not all of them are ‘tough guys’ in and out of the ring.
I also very much loved that he took that plea deal, because he could see that even though he was led to believe one thing, he did end up violating someone.
“That’s a man!!” is legit what I yelled out as I was watching the episode.
I loved that we saw plenty of Barba in this episode as well, and that the case and it’s complexities were center stage.
As far as the actual perp goes, I wish we had seen just a little bit more of how this evidence that Carisi found had been discovered. Now, granted this may have made for a bit of a boring scene, and I loved the bar scene between Liv/Rafael/Carisi but if the perp only had 6 followers on Instagram, and with her mother’s illness and her having to care for her, this leads me to believe that she didn’t post very often.
Also, a bit of a plot hole with the police officer from West Virginia saying, “her voice sounded familiar” and then identifying her as the poster on Reddit, but later Barba only references text posts. Does this mean that the WA officer was referring to her ‘voice’ as a writer? Or was he referring to her actual voice, which would make more sense to me-- if she didn’t have many followers, how would he recognize her writer’s voice enough to be able to say, she’s this user?
In the end, as a whole, I did enjoy the case as catfishing happens all the time and to so many people. It is something that needs to be brought to light that most times this seemingly “innocent” thing can very much go wrong, too far, and have a lasting impact on the unsuspecting victims.
The Rollisi-almost-kissed-and-then-Sonny-was-butthurt Scene
This entire sequence was awkward. Awkward, awkward, awkward. From the scene where they almost kiss to Sonny’s behavior the next day, and what we can infer was a day or two later. I don’t enjoy that the writers are so quick to have Amanda hook up with her partners (except for Fin because, let’s be real, Fin wouldn’t go there ever). Honestly, she’s changed as a character after she had Jesse, and while this scene was away from home, away from her motherly duties and a time where she got to just be a cop again, it felt as though we were watching the old Amanda.
I definitely didn’t like that feeling of “taking two steps back” with regard to her demeanor during and after. Not so much during, but absolutely after, where as @missjennifercole pointed out to me last night while she was watching the episode, she basically suggested that she would in fact sleep with Sonny if given the opportunity. This just doesn’t sound like the Amanda that she as a character has grown into. It sounds like the just-got-here Amanda.
Let’s also not forget that she and Declan (which if you remember, is Jesse’s father) parted on good terms. Eventually his assignment will be over, and he may very well come back to New York in order to try and build a relationship with his daughter, and for all we know he may even want to try building one with Amanda as well. The writers really should be keeping that in mind when they write for her. This isn’t to say that she can’t sleep with someone if she wants to. She is, after all a single mother, but she’s a mother first and foremost, so this thing with Buck the bartender likely happened because she was away from home and there was no way they would ever see each other again.
Had this scene taken place in New York, it likely would have turned out differently.
I’m sorry to the Rollisi shippers (whom if I’m not mistaken are also upset about how this scene went) but that almost-kiss was so awkward. It was not natural or organic at all. Now that I’m thinking about it, I’d like to offer a fresh perspective on this scene...
If you really watch their movements before the almost-kiss, one could argue that it wasn’t an almost-kiss at all, and that they were just super drunk and close together. The reason Carisi was so butt-hurt afterward was because as far as he knew Amanda had turned a new leaf after having Jesse with regard to her love life. Meaning that she was more weary of having one night stands with strangers, and it wasn’t that he was butt-hurt at all, but that he was disappointed in her as a friend.
I’m not saying this is what I think, especially with the last scene where they acknowledge (don’t acknowledge) their time in West Virginia, but it’s possible. Also, while she was talking about ‘sometimes you sleep with someone you love, and sometimes you sleep with someone you don’t,’ you would think she would have brought up their ‘almost-kiss’ and either tell him that she wanted them to stay friends, or that she was interested in seeing if there was anything there.
All of that said, Carisi’s initial reaction was realistic, but the shortness in his attitude towards her in that last scene was absolutely out of character. This is someone he’s grown incredibly close with in the last couple of seasons, and it almost felt like this incident with Buck the bartender had him reevaluating their friendship. He’s seen other people in the past, so this doesn’t make sense for Sonny if he was jealous and it was making him want to back away from the friendship.
Hurt, yes maybe, because it’s pretty rude to decline sleeping with someone and say that you’re tired, and then go out and bring someone else home and sleep with them. Now, we don’t know the circumstances; maybe Buck came to the motel, and Amanda just let him in. We don’t know for sure that she went back out to find him, so...that’s just some food for thought.
Listen guys, I love all my Rollisi shippers, I truly do, but I maintain that these two are just better served as friends. One, because Rollins is the kind of character who has immensely benefited from having a platonic male friend in her life, that truly cares for both her well-being and that of her daughter’s. Secondly, I really want them to break away from having Amanda sleep with all of her partners. That was the old Amanda, she’s grown since then. If you’re going to give her a love-interest, have it be with someone that reflects her growth, not brings her back to old habits.
I’m sure some will argue that Sonny is no Nick, and they would be right, but we’ve seen that having relationships within the squad never works. And I would hate to lose the camaraderie that we all love between Sonny and Amanda.
The Liv/Noah/Sheila Trainwreck
I’m not gonna lie, this story line is not looking good. It seems to me that the writers simply wanted to give Olivia something interesting to work through this season, and thought, “Okay, let’s make Ellie’s mom actually be alive. That’ll cause some friction.”
The problem is that it hasn’t been handled very well at. Let’s start with the fact that Live seemed like she was against Sheila even being in Noah’s life in the first place. This could be explained by the fact that Sheila was coming at her sideways, and luckily that was resolved relatively quickly.
Now the whole, Noah asked about Ellie thing; he never said, my mom or my real mommy. He just said, “Ellie,” which would indicate to me that Sheila (as she later clarified) mentioned her in passing, but likely did not identify Ellie as his real mother. What is the problem if Noah gets to know Ellie as Ellie now while he’s young so that when he gets older and Liv decides to tell him the truth about his mother, he already has some kind of attachment to her? Honestly, what the hell would be so bad about that?
I don’t believe that Sheila slipped in the sense that she revealed to Noah that Ellie was his real mother because she is wanting to stay on Liv’s good side. Therefore, she would be cautious about saying things like that. Mentioning Ellie in passing, however, is more realistic and in my opinion totally harmless. Ellie could be anyone; she could be an aunt or a cousin as far as Noah is concerned. So Liv lowkey freaking out over Sheila mentioning Ellie is a little over the top.
Now the damn kidnapping. This is obviously and more than likely something that will tie back to Olivia, but what the hell is this show-runner trying to pull? Honestly. I suppose it could be someone that is somehow tied to Ellie, but who would possibly do that? And I swear if they’re trying to pull the, “Oh my Gosh! Ellie isn’t dead, she was just afraid of testifying against Johnny D! WHAAAAAAAATTTTTT?!” they are seriously going to fuck up with this fandom.
It was one thing that Ellie’s mother was still alive, but to put this baby, this child through hell and have it be for absolutely nothing at all would be a huge disservice both to the show and to the fandom. So I’m hoping this isn’t the case.
But then who else could it have been?
William Lewis is dead. So is Johnny D.
This leaves either a random perp whom Olivia convicted or investigated some time ago (we’ve seen that before) or someone who is connected to Ellie, but is not Ellie herself.
I suppose it’s also possible that there is no connection at all and this was just a random stranger/kidnapper. It does happen. Though, Noah didn’t make a sound, so this might be indicative to him either recognizing the person or being drugged, in which case, is there security footage available? We won’t know this until the show comes back.
Also, I just need to say this as a mother myself-- Did anyone else arch a brow at Liv’s reaction to the phone call, that likely went something like this:
Sheila: *hysterical voice* Liv, you need to come meet me right now. I can’t find Noah. I only took my eyes off him for a second as I was grabbing a coat off the rack, but he’s gone Liv! He’s gone! I can’t find him! Please come now!
Liv: *almost-facepalm*
Seriously? That’s it? You were just told that your son is missing, and that’s the reaction you have? Now, being frozen is one thing-- we saw that with Sheila. She froze, but slowly we saw the panic setting in as she looked around frantically, low-key hyperventalating while she looked for her grandson. We could see the thought process in her facial expression going from, “Please let this be a joke, and he’s just hiding somewhere,” to “Omg, where the fuck is he?! No, this can not be happening!”
Liv, however...she gave me the “not again” feels big time. Had she expressed facially similar emotions as Sheila, I wouldn’t be pointing this out, but if anyone has a screenshot or made a gif of that last shot in the episode, please reblog and leave it up and just look at that damn mug right now.
Are you for real?
Beyond that, they need to leave Noah alone. The story line is getting old already, and it’s not as though they don’t have other characters they could do story lines with, first of all. Secondly, if this shit keeps happening to Noah because Liv is his mother, how are we supposed to believe that child services won’t get involved at some point?
Why can’t we have parenting story lines that are relatable? I want to see Noah throwing a tantrum because he doesn’t get his way. How does Liv deal with that? I want to see Noah getting into trouble at school or Noah mouthing off, because it happens. He’s a kid. Give us kid troubles to grow the character and grow Liv as a mother. Don’t put a kid who’s already been through a lot of trauma through more trauma for the sake of making things interesting.
It isn’t fair to the Olivia Benson character and more over it isn’t fair to the viewers. Period.
Final Thoughts
Ultimately, I enjoyed the episode but as far as the subplots are concerned, we’ll just have to see how they handle the aftermath/resolutions. It’s hard to gauge at this point, but both plot points had very rocky jump-starts. I did however love that the case took center stage, as that’s how all episodes should be formatted. And there was an acceptable amount of Barba in the episode, so there’s always that.
Let me know in the comments below what your thoughts were! Do you agree with the things I pointed out? Do you have different interpretations/views? I’d love to hear from you!!
