Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 17 Was So Busy Giving Carisi Closure It Completely Undermined Its Mission To Support Survivors

Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 17 gave Carisi closure, but in a way that sacrificed its pro-survivor mission. Our review!

The post Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 17 Was So Busy Giving Carisi Closure It Completely Undermined Its Mission To Support Survivors appeared first on TV Fanatic.

I have several bones to pick with Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 17.

“Accomplice Liability” revolved around giving Carisi closure. Great.

But isn’t this show supposed to be about supporting survivors? I’m sorry, but this one was too focused on Carisi’s pain, at the expense of its central message about empowerment.

The Tess Subplot Continued A Recent Disturbing Trend

When Tess was raped during the hostage situation on Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 8, I felt like that was tacked on to the episode in order to justify spending an entire hour on Carisi being held hostage by robbers.

The Tess subplot on Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 17 did nothing to change my mind about that — if anything, it proved my point.

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This is not the first time in recent memory that Law & Order: SVU has taken the position that testifying against a rapist is always the right choice.

That’s an untrue, harmful message, and SVU knows better. Benson used to tell people that it was a personal choice and that testifying wasn’t always the path toward healing.

But on “Accomplice Liability,” Tess’ health and well-being seemed to be secondary concerns.

Tess was such a mess after her rape that she was hanging out with a drug dealer and begging to go back to get more drugs after she nearly died of an overdose.

Benson and Rollins’ insistence that Tess would feel better if she testified was gross.

As Benson knows and has told other survivors, sometimes a person feels more empowered by deciding not to deal with the legal system—and that’s an equally valid choice.

There wasn’t any compelling reason for Tess to testify. ADA Rourke said the rape case was weak and that she didn’t even want to bring charges for it.

Carisi decided that he needed to get justice for Tess because he felt bad about not being able to stop the rape when they were held hostage together.

That was not his place. He was not trying this case, for one thing — ADA Rourke was.

Tess didn’t owe Carisi the closure he wanted to feel at the end of the trial. She didn’t owe anyone a damn thing — if she felt testifying would be too hard, she had every right to say no without being harassed to death.

Was anyone surprised that she went to get high minutes before she was supposed to take the stand? I wasn’t.

Drug addiction is a mental health issue that often involves a strong desire to escape painful feelings. The cops twisting her arm to testify in a case that the ADA doesn’t even want to move forward with would likely trigger her desire to use.

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If this story had been about Tess’ dilemma, it might have been compelling. But that’s the thing. Tess was a rape survivor, but this story wasn’t about her at all.

It was about Carisi’s pain and difficulty dealing with the trauma he suffered. It’s been like that more or less all season, and I’m sick of it. I don’t think that Carisi’s existence or the fact that he has a storyline diminishes anyone else’s importance.

However, his comfort shouldn’t take precedence over a survivor’s right to decide how to tell her story and who she’s willing to share it with.

Carisi Should Not Have Been Allowed To Call The Shots on Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 17

At first, I chalked Carisi’s insistence on telling ADA Rourke how to present the case to him knowing too much about how the law works.

It’s like when a doctor becomes a patient — having the knowledge to assess how someone else with the same job is helping you can be dangerous.

But it was more than that. Carisi kept acting like he was the ADA on the case.

Carisi: What do we do now?

Rourke: You keep saying ‘we’ as if we are partners. We’re not. There is no we. There is only me, and this is my case.

Even after Rourke admonished him, he still acted like he was trying the case rather than merely being a witness in it.

It was incredibly disrespectful for him to take over like that.

It was NOT his case. His job was to testify — that’s it.

He kept acting like Rourke was incompetent, and that was unacceptable.

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I know Carisi’s been through a lot, but here’s the thing: trauma can explain seemingly bizarre behavior, but it doesn’t excuse it, and lately SVU has been making too many excuses for Carisi.

I’m sure the intention was to tell a moving story about how trauma affects a male survivor by using a beloved character like Carisi.

But it isn’t coming off like that. Benson initially encouraged Carisi to get help, but dropped it after her pep talk got him to pull himself together for his next case.

Ever since, Carisi has been unlikable. He’s judgmental, he’s unempathetic, he’s overly aggressive.. and yes, these are trauma responses, but again, that doesn’t make any of this okay.

Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 15’s Unrealistic Ending Didn’t Help Anything

It made sense that Deonte wasn’t found guilty of rape.

Obviously, he knew what Boyd was doing and did nothing to stop it, and morally, that’s gross.

But legally, he wasn’t the guy who raped her, and the jury wasn’t going to convict Boyd by proxy by convicting his friend of that.

However, Tess’ reaction to that news didn’t work for me.

This was a woman who had been struggling with mental health issues and drug addiction throughout the hour, and she was completely fine after the verdict came down.

She didn’t care. She gave Carisi a hug.

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And Benson said that Tess had “decided to move on,” as if recovery from trauma is just a matter of choosing to walk away.

That’s incredibly disappointing, considering how instrumental Law & Order: SVU has been in helping survivors find their voice and reclaim their power.

The bottom line was that while this episode was entertaining, its messaging sucked, and when your brand is supporting survivors, you need to be careful not to do things that undermine the cause.

How Did You Feel About Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 17?

Whether you agree with me or think I’m off-base about the messaging problem in this episode, I want to hear your thoughts.

Vote in our poll to rank the episode, then hit the comments.

Law & Order: SVU airs on NBC on Thursdays at 9/8c and streams on Peacock on Fridays.

Watch Law & Order: SVU Online

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The post Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 17 Was So Busy Giving Carisi Closure It Completely Undermined Its Mission To Support Survivors appeared first on TV Fanatic.