The only witness to a horrific crime couldn’t leave her home… until she could.
Law & Order: SVU Season 25 Episode 8 felt like SVU’s take on Rear Window — a classic movie in which Jimmy Stewart played a homebound man who witnessed a murder from his window.
The series put its unique spin on the same trope, offering a compelling story where Benson had to find a way to help the frightened witness come forward. Miraculously, she did it without falling into the obsessive behavior plaguing her recently.
Benson’s interactions with Anne only comprised a small portion of the hour. There was a lot of solid police work before she got involved with encouraging Anne to come into the squad room.
As a bonus, Benson did quite a bit of directing the other cops’ investigation. While she did question a few witnesses herself, this story was much closer to what she ought to be doing as captain.
This was a welcome reprieve from Benson’s trauma-driven obsessive behavior. It felt like Olivia Benson was herself for the first time in a while.
Law & Order: SVU Depicted One of Its Most Horrific Crimes Yet
The assault was nauseating, with the perps continually beating Javier after he was down on the ground and only running away after leaving him for dead.
Making them attack Javier for his perceived sexual orientation was an intelligent choice. Gay bashings have become a tired TV trope that many viewers are desensitized to, but the truth is that hate-based violence affects everybody.
Straight people who are perceived as gay don’t get any less hurt than gay people when someone attacks them based on their perceived sexual orientation, and Law & Order: SVU did an excellent job bringing that point home.
Benson: Javier swears neither he nor his cousin is gay.
Carisi: It doesn’t matter if they are or they aren’t. Perps thought they were, that’s a hate crime.
It would have made more sense for the perps to attack them immediately after they left the gay bar they decided not to go into. But despite this minor criticism, the set-up was effective.
The World’s Dumbest Perps
I’m not sure whether making the perps so mind-blowingly stupid was the best move.
On the one hand, they engaged in extreme violence for no reason other than they were drunk and observed two guys with their arms around each other.
But unfortunately, there are people with brains who engage in destructive behavior like this, too. Law & Order: SVU has often stood up for LGBTQ+ rights, but this time, they may have inadvertently sent the message that we only need to be scared of stupid people who can be caught easily.
These perps were something else. All of them blurted out that they weren’t the ones who did it or asked the cops what one of their friends claimed before they were accused of any crime.
Bruno’s Outburst Was Old-School
When Law & Order: SVU first began, people weren’t as concerned about police brutality, and Elliot Stabler did more than his fair share of getting in people’s faces. That behavior is more frowned upon now, but that didn’t stop Bruno from doing it anyway.
Surprisingly, neither Benson nor anyone else had much of a problem with Bruno’s threats against the suspect. Carisi wasn’t concerned it would hurt his case, either.
The entire story felt more like the way SVU was in the early 2000s, so it was par for the course for everyone to find Bruno’s behavior acceptable, though it felt inconsistent with current attitudes.
Anne’s Agoraphobia Was Handled Sensitively Despite One Major Flaw
Benson’s interactions with Anne were classic SVU, too.
Anne wasn’t simply afraid of retaliation if she came forward — she hadn’t left her house in five years. I wondered what trauma she’d suffered in the past since she kept saying the city was too violent for her to interact with people outside of the safety of her apartment window.
Ann: I sit at my window all night. That tells me all I need to know about the world.
Fin: How about you come down to the station?
Ann: No. I never leave this apartment.
Benson was gentle, accepting, and encouraging, while Anne’s mental health issue was displayed accurately and sensitively.
Unsurprisingly, Benson got Anne to agree to come to the station to look at a lineup and made adjustments to the office environment to help Anne feel comfortable. But why was that necessary?
Couldn’t Anne have looked at a photo array of potential suspects in her apartment? The team has shown witnesses suspects on a tablet before, so why not this time?
Perhaps that wouldn’t have been as strong an identification as an in-person lineup, but that should have been explained in the dialogue.
Since it wasn’t, it felt like Anne was forced out of her comfort zone for no real reason.
Her strong, positive ID of each of the suspects was more dramatic than pointing at photos on a tablet would have been, but that’s not a good enough reason to make someone do something that will aggravate a mental health condition.
Could This Case Be the Beginning of Benson’s Healing?
Throughout the hour, Benson was in her element, offering support to Javier and Anne.
When she suggested that Javier could turn his pain into something beautiful someday, it felt like she was talking to herself, too. She also seemed to connect with Javier, having seen, or thought he’d seen, an angel.
This case might have restored her faith and hope the way the belief that someone was there for him did for Javier.
It’s unlikely that Benson’s mental health issues will be resolved in the space of an hour, but this was a great start.
What did you think, SVU fanatics? Hit the big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know.
Law & Order: SVU airs on NBC on Thursdays at 9/8c. New episodes drop on Peacock the day after they air.
Jack Ori is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. His debut young adult novel, Reinventing Hannah, is available on Amazon. Follow him on X.