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Post by Trublu on Oct 7, 2009 20:38:40 GMT -5
WHEN A YOUNG WOMAN GOES MISSING, HER EX-CONVICT NEIGHBOR, CALLUM DONOVAN (GUEST STAR STEPHEN REA) BECOMES THE PRIMARY SUSPECT AND DETECTIVE ELLIOT STABLER (CHRIS MELONI) FINDS HIMSELF IN SOLITARY CONFINEMENT.
When Lily Milton (guest star Deborah Ann Woll) is reported missing, her boyfriend, Parker Hubbard (guest star Bobby Campo), points Detectives Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Elliot Stabler (Chris Meloni) in the direction of Callum Donovan (guest star Stephen Rea), Lily's downstairs neighbor and convicted bank robber who spent nineteen years in solitary confinement. During the investigation into Donovan’s alibi, Lily is found alive, adding a surprising twist to the case and exposing more of Donovan’s dark past. Also starring: Richard Belzer (Detective John Munch), Dann Florek (Captain Donald Cragen), Ice-T (Detective Odafin Tutuola), Tamara Tunie (Dr. Melinda Warner), and B.D. Wong (Dr. George Huang).
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Post by davidcampos on Oct 7, 2009 21:04:05 GMT -5
Ooh, I love Paxton. She's so fiesty and complicated!
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mad4svu
Detective Specialist
Posts: 272
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Post by mad4svu on Oct 7, 2009 21:34:42 GMT -5
Not so bad. I thought it was a good episode. Tense. I love seeing Elliot in casual clothes, I miss him wearing jeans. I felt sorry for Donovan, when the guilty verdict was read. Elliot in the solitary confinement was hot bare chest, legs, wearing those gray shorts ooo-la-la, all scruffy yummy. However the cockroach part...yuck. I hate cockroaches. I'm scared to death of them! If it had been ants then okay but cockroachs *shivers* Hmm if Elliot wanted torture, why not stay with Paxton at her place? Haha
There is one thing that did piss me off about the episode was that when Elliot was in the hospital there wasn't any word about Kathy, not even a "we've notified Kathy..." kinda thing. I knew she wasn't going to be in the episode at least but still, some acknowledgement would have been nice.
Olivia did mention about her working undercover at the prison, wishing that she did wind up in the hole (although I'm sure she wouldn't have wanted Lowell to escort her there!).
I think that's it for now. I'm sure more will come to mind eventually soon and will rewatch the episode again (as it's on my DVR) and I'll spot new things to deal with.
Next week's preview looks good. Looks like Olivia visits her mom's grave.
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Post by Trublu on Oct 8, 2009 11:23:15 GMT -5
Overall, I'm pretty happy with this new season. I'm hoping that they are going to continue to move away from the overly personal things that don't make sense to add to the plot, except for shock value's sake. Obviously, we still had a bit of that last night, with Elliot's "hot bod" on display for all to gawk at. But, I like the motivations that were presented: walk a mile in someone else's shoes sort of thing.
I do still have a major grip: Elliot gets thrown around a LOT, but he's able to get up and walk away like nothing happened. He gets thrown off a roof, is in a neck brace, and even Olivia comments on how he always seems to be trying to get killed on the job. Yet in the very next seen he's fine, walking around, and then just a little bit later he's doing push-ups and sit ups in his hole cell. I haven't been thrown off a roof lately, but something tells me I wouldn't be up for that sort of activity after I'd almost died... again.
Sonya Paxton... I just do not know what to do with her. One second she's annoying as all get out, and the next I'm feeling major sympathy for her, for a reason I cannot figure out. Perhaps it's for this underlying reason that she has such authority issues (I stand by my assertion that Jack McCoy did not send her in to do quite this), and hopefully those are going to air out soon. We get Alex back after next episode, so it may be that we're put on the hook until the end of the season. But, I think the writers are doing exactly what they did not do with Kim Greylek, and that is give us something to sympathize with. Kim was supposed to have her divorce, but we never got to that, hence the lack of sympathy.
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Post by Finaddict on Oct 8, 2009 17:20:35 GMT -5
Sonya Paxton... I just do not know what to do with her. One second she's annoying as all get out, and the next I'm feeling major sympathy for her, for a reason I cannot figure out. Perhaps it's for this underlying reason that she has such authority issues (I stand by my assertion that Jack McCoy did not send her in to do quite this), and hopefully those are going to air out soon. We get Alex back after next episode, so it may be that we're put on the hook until the end of the season. But, I think the writers are doing exactly what they did not do with Kim Greylek, and that is give us something to sympathize with. Kim was supposed to have her divorce, but we never got to that, hence the lack of sympathy. All in all it was good episode and I saw Munch and I loved Jessica Walter. Now in regards to Paxton. I see something there that I think will be revealed next week. This is a woman on edge. Close-ups last night revealed a lot of pain and near tears in her eyes. I hope it will be resolved next week in all fairness to the character.
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Post by Terry on Oct 8, 2009 17:57:43 GMT -5
I loved this episode. Though Elliot getting thrown of a rooftop might be a contributing factor to that. Seriously, though, I thought it was very good. I actually enjoyed watching almost every minute of it. The plot was good, and a very nice twist with Elliot having a past history with that Callum guy. Seeing how Elliot treated Sonya, whom by the way is still awesome, made me hate him even more. Her reaction practically burst with "we're giving her a minor reaction now so that we can explain her doing something completely out of character soon". And Elliot had that slap coming. I have to admit though, seeing Elliot showing signs of actual empathy and understanding for someone as Callum, and in the end forgiving him for what he did, was pretty interesting. And I know I might sound like a total jerk, but seeing Sonya completely wave him off when he came to her was even more interesting. And while that might have made people who disliked her already hate her even more, she was far from the only one who was happy when Callum was sent back to prison. Just a minor question though. I see most people hate Paxton, because she's somewhat "cold" and as Trublu says, hard to sympathize with. I don't really get that. I mean, there are probably an abundance of people like that within law enforcement and legal professions in real life. The unwillingness to have sympathy for convicted criminals who complain about harsh punishments is, in my eyes, simply something that lies in human nature. We draw a line between right and wrong, and though there will always be shades of gray, this line separates people just as much as actions. And Paxton is kinda like a soldier for the good side. She can't really please the bad guys when she is working for the people. And while that might impair her empathy for criminals who have suffered harsh times in prison, if she questions that, she should also doubt every action she makes at work. With her job being to enforce the law as it is written by people who are entrusted with that task by the people as a whole. Plain and simple, that's what she does in regard to the criminals we've seen her handle. When she let her compassion approve that Vance guy to have his cuffs removed, it came back to bite, leaving an innocent man (presumably?) dead. If she had rejected the request, people would probably scowl at her. So, I guess my point is, I don't think Paxton and her "coldness" is anything out of the ordinary. In my eyes, she's one of the few realistic characters on TV these days. And even if her personality was inhumane like nothing else, should we dislike her TV character because of that? Perhaps some of the entertainment in television shows lie in the fact that there are certain things that keep us engaged and a little provoked. I don't think it is necessary to have a spectrum of characters on SVU that goes from loved to loved even more. We need some diversity and spice, something to tick us off from time to time. That being said, a lot of us disagree on her, and it's great to see other opinions than mine on the board. There are a loooot of places on the web where people "discuss" an opinion that they all share, and anything other than that can't be enjoyed in a civil and friendly environment. I think we're good at that here.
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Post by benstabler on Oct 9, 2009 7:32:08 GMT -5
I am with ya 100% on walking the mile Tru. I thought it was a little odd for the show but agreed you can't TRULY understand until you do! And who knows if that would even happen in real life.
I am still mixed on Paxton, I just hate that EVERY ADA comes blowing in with attitudes and agenda! We will see what plays out as finaddict thinks. But we know we're left hanging alot with this show!
All in all decent epi in my opinion
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Post by JrBenson on Oct 9, 2009 12:10:59 GMT -5
He had more then that coming but I'll take whatever I can get.
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Post by Trublu on Oct 10, 2009 21:28:39 GMT -5
Just a minor question though. I see most people hate Paxton, because she's somewhat "cold" and as Trublu says, hard to sympathize with. I don't really get that. I mean, there are probably an abundance of people like that within law enforcement and legal professions in real life. The unwillingness to have sympathy for convicted criminals who complain about harsh punishments is, in my eyes, simply something that lies in human nature. We draw a line between right and wrong, and though there will always be shades of gray, this line separates people just as much as actions. And Paxton is kinda like a soldier for the good side. She can't really please the bad guys when she is working for the people. And while that might impair her empathy for criminals who have suffered harsh times in prison, if she questions that, she should also doubt every action she makes at work. With her job being to enforce the law as it is written by people who are entrusted with that task by the people as a whole. Plain and simple, that's what she does in regard to the criminals we've seen her handle. When she let her compassion approve that Vance guy to have his cuffs removed, it came back to bite, leaving an innocent man (presumably?) dead. If she had rejected the request, people would probably scowl at her. So, I guess my point is, I don't think Paxton and her "coldness" is anything out of the ordinary. In my eyes, she's one of the few realistic characters on TV these days. And even if her personality was inhumane like nothing else, should we dislike her TV character because of that? Perhaps some of the entertainment in television shows lie in the fact that there are certain things that keep us engaged and a little provoked. I don't think it is necessary to have a spectrum of characters on SVU that goes from loved to loved even more. We need some diversity and spice, something to tick us off from time to time. That being said, a lot of us disagree on her, and it's great to see other opinions than mine on the board. There are a loooot of places on the web where people "discuss" an opinion that they all share, and anything other than that can't be enjoyed in a civil and friendly environment. I think we're good at that here. Just to clear up, I wasn't saying that Paxton should be having sympathy for the victims, only that we should be able to sympathize with her a bit, find something in common with ourselves. If everyone is totally out of touch with the character on every level, then there is something not right with the character; if there's no piece of humanity that we can take, look at Paxton and say, "okay, I get that," then the character doesn't work. I think we might be on the way to that thing next week, but thus far I don't think we as an audience have been given many moments to sympathize with. All of the previous ADAs were hardasses, I don't think anyone would disagree with that, nor have it any other way. But with Alex, we had an overriding sense of "do well for the victim", with her appeal to her uncle in the very first episode to get the job done. With Casey, it was her overwhelming need to fit in with the squad, to become involved in order to fill Alex's large shoes. With Kim, we didn't really get that moment, which is why so many people hated her character. I'm just hoping we'll get Sonya's moment soon so that all the other over-the-top-ness makes sense and is something we can relate to.
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Post by queenie13 on Oct 11, 2009 19:18:07 GMT -5
New to the forum. Long time lurker but decide to finally register.
Good episode overall. I liked the whole idea of Stabler putting himself in the defendant's shoes and gaining not only some insight but empathy too.
As for Paxton, I, like most it seems, don't like her. I don't have a problem with a strong woman character coming aboard, but I think they've gone overboard with her. To have her come in from the begining with an attitude that has continued to get more negative was a big turn off. I work with female prosecutors and now first hand was assertive women they can be. But in all my years in this field watching both male and female prosecutors interact with officers on cases I can tell you that none of them would behave in this manner case after case. They would already have been talked to by their boss who would have gotten a visit from the police commander and chances were with that attitude he/she would not be trying cases with those same detectives.
I hate that Paxton is allowed to throw her so called weight around the police station. It doesn't happen in the real world and while I know this is TV - they should at least try and keep things more realistic. Stabler was right - she is not his boss nor should she be able to dictate how they handle an investigation. You want to piss off your cop - trying telling him/her how to do their job. Just like a cop trying to tell a DA how to try the case? Not happening.
I'm glad that she's gone next week - I for one don't think I could take her for an entire season.
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