‘Law & Order: SVU’ season 16, episode 13 review: A dentist and decay

In typical “Law & Order: SVU” fashion, Wednesday night’s new episode was almost nothing like it appeared to be at first. We knew that there was going to be some family drama, but of this variety? Let’s just say that we did not see this coming a million miles away.

What this story ended up being about was a powerful dentist, who basically had an entire family completely wrapped around the palm of his hand. He used their need for him financially to cover up some of his crimes, which included raping his very own niece while she was medicated. It was pretty disgusting stuff, and the fact that he thought he would get away with it was worse. Luckily, the SVU team went to the rescue with a plan to use the man’s own ego in some ways against him. He would not admit to doing anything unless he was in a situation where he felt like he had to.

This episode of “SVU,” while entirely standalone, was what we expect from the show in the February sweeps. The story was sensational, there were a variety of twists and turns, and it is no exaggeration to say that we did not think for much of the end of the episode that we were going to see this man put away.

This episode was a tricky one, but it was strong due to its complexity and the emotional investment. Do we wish some of the characters had more of their personal lives shown this week? Sure, but sometimes we’ll take more of a standalone case if we know that it is a particularly strong one. Grade: B+.

(Photo: NBC.)