Law & Order: SVU“Trade”
Original Air Date: May 6, 2008
Kara – TwoCents Reviewer
Firefighters find twenty-five year old Jenna Ludlow dead in her burning apartment and she also appears to have been raped. The detectives look to her fiancé, PJ and his father Pierson as suspects. Both are big in the coffee business and both were being blackmailed by Jenna. When PJ finds out Pierson is the father of Jenna’s baby, they punch each other, with Pierson smashing PJ’s head against the door with Special Victims Unit written on it, shattering the glass. Did Pierson kill Jenna? Did PJ? Just what makes their coffee so good?
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Law & Order: SVU
ReplyDelete“Trade”
Original Air Date: May 6, 2008
Kara – TwoCents Reviewer
Firefighters find twenty-five year old Jenna Ludlow dead in her burning apartment and she also appears to have been raped. The detectives look to her fiancé, PJ and his father Pierson as suspects. Both are big in the coffee business and both were being blackmailed by Jenna. When PJ finds out Pierson is the father of Jenna’s baby, they punch each other, with Pierson smashing PJ’s head against the door with Special Victims Unit written on it, shattering the glass. Did Pierson kill Jenna? Did PJ? Just what makes their coffee so good?
Five Notable Things That Make This Both a Good and Not-So-Good Episode.
1. Guest stars. This will always make the list, either in the “hey, good episode” category or the “what were you thinking with this one?” hall of fame. To me, there were two notable ones this week. The jury’s still out in my mind about whether or not Stephen Collins was a good guest star. Sure, he played snooty, elitist coffee magnate Pierson really well and was believable but at the end of the day, aren’t we all going to sit back and hopelessly hum the 7th Heaven theme song to ourselves? Trust me, that’s the last theme you want to get stuck in your head and it’s a shame he’s so typecast but he is. I always get twitchy when I see him appearing on TV shows because I know he’s going to try to be some nasty, totally un-Camdeny character and that’s fine, it really is since I’m not a 7th Heaven fan. I’m also just not awesome enough to look past the whole 7th Heaven thing. That being said, he came closer than he ever has to making me forget about that pesky wholesome father typecasting problem.
And then there was Clea Lewis, who you hopefully remember as Audrey from Ellen. Love her or hate her, she was perfectly cast this week as Heaven, Jenna’s guardian angel whisperer. She consulted with the angels, she pinpointed who Jenna’s love interest was and if they had given her another minute, I bet she could have told Stabler where he left his retainer in middle school.
2. Puns and bad writing. Oh, there were puns a plenty in this episode. The entire apartment is doused by fire hoses, destroying most of the physical evidence. Upon hearing this, Stabler announces that they’re “hosed.” The investigation leads the detectives to track down Heaven, but only after a question about the case is answered: “Heaven only knows.” It was a pun city fire sale this week. All puns must go. And I must say, I never thought I’d hear Casey say two lines like: “I’m sorry, PJ. You’ve got funky sperm.”
3. Speaking of Casey, she sure is in the episode this week but she’s coming in at level 11. From the second she walks into the precinct, demanding all sorts of things from the detectives, including having them wake up Munch and drag him down there, she’s coming on awful strong. It surprised me a bit but in a good way. There’s never any Casey and then there Casey is, full force, basically telling everyone to help her or get the hell out of her way. She was completely at Queen Bitch status in court, snapping at both Pierson and PJ and basically seeming like she had no time for all this madness. Maybe uppity white collar lawyer Avery wound her up. Casey certainly seemed like she was five seconds away from telling Avery to meet her outside so she could show her who’s boss.
4. Clichés. Why don’t defendants ever stay quiet at their own court cases? The judge tells them to be quiet, tells their defense attorneys to make them be quiet and they damn well know they should be quiet, but still, week after week, law show after law show, someone’s got to stand up and make a totally unnecessary outburst. Note to all: that doesn’t help your case and it just seems tacky. And of course, if there’s a son and a father and they’re rich and powerful, well, bet your bottom dollar that they’re both sleeping with the same dead girl. One last thing. For the last time, Benson and Stabler, would you maybe keep an eye on your suspects instead of letting them tie their shoes or walk right out of the precinct? I don’t care if the entire building’s surrounded with hundreds of armed officers. If there’s a door that leads elsewhere, your suspect is going to exit that way. You think you look all smooth, all “Oh, foolish girl. The building’s surrounded, you just don’t know that yet.” But silly detectives, front doors are for innocent people.
5. Twists. I’ll tell you right now I knew Pierson was sleeping with Jenna. I’ll also tell you I had a feeling Avery killed Jenna since she was so clearly in love with PJ. I’ll even say I saw her standing on the rooftop coming from a mile away. What I didn’t see coming was her pulling PJ off of the roof with her. Avery whipped that crazy card out right at the end, didn’t she? She loves PJ, got that, has for some time, got that too, doesn’t want Jenna to ruin his life, check but now she’s going to kill him so his father can’t hurt him anymore? Well, okay. If you say so. It was shocking and surprising but a bit unbelievable. You’ve got to break out the crazy card a bit earlier for that to be plausible. But good going, SVU. You surprised me.
And, if you’re keeping score at home, the answers to the three questions before the jump are no, no and lots of drama, with a side of crazy.
So, what did you think about the episode? Do you still have the 7th Heaven theme stuck in your head? Did you spot Mariska Hargitay’s husband, Peter Hermann, in the episode? I always miss him! You can leave your TwoCents in the comments and don’t forget to tune in next week for the season finale. It looks like Detective Lake is in a lot of trouble, which is a shame since I feel like I barely know him. Hopefully, it’ll still be a strong season finale. See you next week!