There’s nothing more despicable than a rapist in a position of power. In this week’s episode of Law and Order: SVU, “Beautiful Frame,” one such man managed to wedge himself into the DA’s office in neighboring Suffolk county and proceeded to nearly get away with murder by framing one of his rape victims.
Since the original rape took place in Manhattan, SVU got involved on behalf of the victim after she was arrested for supposedly murdering her boyfriend. It quickly became clear to them and their DA that the girl was being framed by her rapist, a CI for the Suffolk DA. The cards were stacked against her in Suffolk, but the Manhattan DA was able to hold his own trial for the murder as…um…the gun was procured there? I don’t know; that part kind of lost me. I never knew that two separate DA’s offices could try two different people for one crime.
But, they did, and thanks to the fact that the Manhattan detectives are the only police force in New York that can find their asses in the dark, they were able to uncover the frame job, get the blackmailed witnesses to recant, and take down the bad guy.
I have to admit, this episode was a let down. We were promised a deep-seeded conspiracy, but all we got was one charismatic a-hole and a really blind DA (played by Jane Kaczmarek). I was expecting a much more intricate plot, especially since Kaczmarek is such a dynamic actress. I feel like she was really under-utilized here.
One of the things that has always annoyed me about SVU is that one week can be chock full of back story details about the detectives and the next week can be totally devoid of anything personal. This week was one of the off weeks. There was certainly no hints about the identity of Benson’s mystery Christmas date that caused so much speculation after last week’s belated episode. The general consensus seems to be that it’s not Stabler…but why would they go to such lengths to hide the guy’s face if it was just someone random or someone we’ve seen her with before?
Ah well. The world may never know. That how SVU rolls.
What did you think about the episode? Let me know below! And remember you can always follow me on Twitter @krieli1 so you never miss a review.
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