Law and Order: SVU “Spiraling Down” Review

I have to admit, Law and Order: SVU got to me this week. “Spiraling Down” caught me up and held me, fascinated and even a bit tearful…until the very last second. Then, like a fumbled play, they dropped me.

We started off with a teenage prostitute, who I thought would be the source of the term “spiraling down,” considering that before the opening credits even rolled she went from innocent school girl to girlfriend to hooker. New York, New York…it’s a heck of a town.

The girl, as it turned out, was the daughter of a soldier who had been serving with Amaro’s wife overseas. This not only led the detectives to the case, but made us (and Amaro) wonder…how close did the two of them get on the front lines? I hope that story isn’t just dropped; Danny Pino deserves some real drama into which he can sink his teeth.

Benson pushed for a sting operation, to take down all the johns who payed to have sex with the underage girl. It worked so well that they managed to nab Jake Stanton (in an Emmy nom-inducing guest role), a famous former football player. At first, it seemed like the story was shaping up to be a good guys versus a rich, entitled jock, but it quickly descended into something much harder to prosecute.

After taking many, many hits to the head, Jake’s career had left him with dementia, unable to make good judgements or even remember his actions. Even Olivia, usually the hardest one on child rapists, could see that he needed help, not jail. She gave Jake’s wife the number of Bayard Ellis, the defense attorney from a few episodes back who wrongfully beat a rape indictment for his client.

Now on the side of good, he tried to keep Jake out of jail, not an easy thing when your client is unpredictable. In a heart-wrenching trial scene, Ellis had to badger his client into showing his confusion and mental incapacity. This left him devastated, but got him a not guilty verdict.

I wanted it to end right there. Jake was still confused, still suffering, but maybe he would have been ready to accept some much-needed money from the football league for his long-term injury. But no. In an attempt to be as shocking as possible, on the court room steps, the sight of so many SVU surprises that I actually start mentally preparing myself whenever there’s a scene that takes place on them, Jake grabbed an officer’s gun and held it to his head. All the pleas in the world didn’t help and he wound up committing suicide in front of his wife.

I just don’t think it was necessary. It would have been more interesting and realistic to see him simply led off to live the rest of his life with this crippling disease. At least he wound up shooting himself in the heart, not the head, so his brain could be studied and could possibly help in the search for a cure to his condition.

You know, I would have even been happy with a follow-up scene that said an autopsy proved he did (or did not) have the condition. I just didn’t like the shock-value ending. It felt cheap. And the episode was better than that.

What did you think? Let me know below!