And so we come to the season finale of SVU, although thanks to Ten they still have two new episodes to show because it is apparently too difficult to actually show the episodes in order. Yeah, well done on that one Ten.
Now just in case you didn't know - and let's face it there's no real reason why you should - neither Adam Beach (Det Chester Lake) nor Diane Neal (ADA Casey Novak) are returning next season, so this episode was going to be the one that saw both of these guys written out (thankfully it doesn't happen between seasons as is sometimes the case with Law & Order characters who just don't turn up the following season for no reason whatsoever). I have to admit that Det Lake leaving the series doesn't particularly bother me an awful lot; although it's given the opportunity for Fin to actually do something other than sit behind his desk and spit details out to Benson and Stabler, it's meant that Munch has done bugger all this season.
Diane Neal, on the other hand, I'm quite upset to have lost. She is the longest running ADA in any of the Law & Order series (and indeed the only person in the DA's office who has been there longer is Sam Waterston's Jack McCoy) and maybe it's just that I have a bit of a weakness for redheads, but she's damn hot. And has the sexiest voice. It's great.
But from a character point of view, I always preferred Novak to Alex Cabot, her predecessor, as she was more by the book, but was quite keen to help out the SVU team in any way possible. It's somewhat sad, then, that her downfall comes about because she chooses not to follow the rules in court. The episode has a particularly depressing ending, not just with Novak being informed she's pretty much got no more career (and a return from the amazingly fantastic Judith Light as Judge Donnelly), but also with Tutuola pretty much giving Stabler the middle finger as well as Lake being arrested for a second murder, which it's pretty cleary he actually did commit. This has to to be the most depressing ending to a SVU season since season one.
That said, Lake's behaviour during the first half of the episode is completely bizarre. He escapes from hospital to track down the witness to the crime he has been obsessing about for the past ten years, and she agrees to testify and identify the cop who raped her. OK, fair enough, but...why not just do that? Why not tell Stabler or Tutuola about the witness and get them to bring her in? Stabler complains that Lake doesn't trust them, but Benson immediately leaps to his defence...except he's absolutely right. If Lake had just bothered to trust his partner in the very least, there would be no problems at all. In fact, Lake's reluctance to say anything just creates more and more problems for him,
all of which could be solved by simply trusting. It's bizarre behaviour from someone who has been so level-headed all season.
A great ending, and some wonderful character moments, but overall I can't help but feel disappointed by the episode as a whole.
"B-"
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