Law & Order: SVU season 19 episode 5 review: Did Sheila meet Noah?
Could this be a problem for Benson, given that she doesn’t really know this woman all that well just yet? You better believe it.
Now, let’s get to the bulk of the case at the heart of the hour: The police found a woman running from an apparent captor in the park and, after some searching, it seemed as though SVU had figured out who she really was — Emma, who disappeared when she was a child. Her parents were contacted, they all met up, and after some initial hesitation it appeared as though everyone would be a happy family.
Of course, this all happened before the 20-minute mark — did you really think that SVU was going to spend the next forty minutes sitting around twiddling their thumbs?
Yeah … so this didn’t go so well for Benson and company once more information was uncovered. First, they learned that video evidence contradicted some of “Emma’s” story. Then, they saw that she had a criminal history back in Florida. Basically, they realized that they had made a colossal screw-up and the story of the year was completely false. After the squad interviewed her they realized how exactly she faked her entire story in order to become a part of this family and to ensure that she had a family of her own.
So did they charge “Emma”? Not exactly, but there was a deal that had to be made in order for her to get off scot-free. They used her in order to get Emma’s brother to confess to killing her years ago — we have to admit that this was pretty easy to telegraph given that there was something off about this guy Glenn from the start. He claimed that Emma died as a result of an accident, and that was enough for SVU to be able to bring him in.
Not only was Glenn responsible for Emma’s death, but it also turned out that his father was involved helping to dispose of the body. To think, all of this stunt was a ruse for the sake of Karen, Emma’s mother who still thought that she was out there after all these years. Consider this one of the sadder stories of the season.
Sheila’s return
At the end of the episode Benson tried to come to an agreement with her so that they could resolve matters outside of a courtroom. That’s when we learned more about the story of Sheila and her daughter, and why she really doesn’t want to lose her grandchild.
In the end, Benson decided to let Sheila into their home, and while there she had a chance to read to her. With this, we really hope that Sheila has the best of intentions — we’re just not sure that she does just yet.
CarterMatt Verdict
This was an emotional episode, but we do have one bee in our bonnet — where was the Carisi story hyped up in the official description? As a Carisi savant we want as much of him as possible! Either NBC hyped up the wrong episode or the story, for whatever reason, was left on the cutting-room floor.
(Photo: NBC.)