‘Law & Order: SVU’ season 18, episode 4 review: A battle to stop an Olympic tragedy
A couple of months removed from the Rio Olympics, “Law & Order: SVU” looked at one of the more-unheralded sports in the Games for a new episode; in doing so, they illuminated in part some of the financial hurdles that some of these people go through as they prepare over the course of four years.
The victim during this episode was Jenna, a star pole-vaulter who narrowly missed out on Rio due to a technicality. In her spare time, she earned extra money as a prostitute. When one man became too aggressive and raped her, she found herself at the center of a horrible situation. If she pushed forward with the case, she ran the risk of losing her endorsements and potentially even her position on the Olympic team moving forward. If she did not come forward, then there would be little chance that the man was brought to justice. She then in turn did lose endorsements, and matters became much worse for her when it was clear she was suffering from mental illness. She acted out in court, and this was the wake-up call to get her diagnosed.
Eventually, Jenna was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and after having a doctor testify, it was clear that she was going to be able to recover — even if it meant focusing on things other than sports. There was a form of justice, and that will suffice. Kudos to Amanda Rollins for being the one to piece together what was plaguing Jenna, even if Benson didn’t necessarily appreciate her taking the initiative without her prior consent — even if she appreciated the result.
Grade: B+. This was another strong outing for “SVU,” and the only downside to this story was that the subplot with Rollins and her sister should have been much more substantial. We understand that there was not a lot of time given everything else that happened in the episode. What we did see from here is that Amanda was incredibly suspicious of Kim, only to then learn that she also was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. This may have been a sign that Amanda was too close to her sister’s case, unlike with Jenna’s, that she just couldn’t see this. It exposed that some of Amanda’s flaws are that she doesn’t spend the time to get to see people close to her.
(Photo: NBC.)