Law & Order: SVU season 19 episode 12 review: Rhea Seehorn shines in ‘Info Wars’
At the start of the episode we saw Cobb at Hudson University, otherwise known as the place where all terrible things happen on SVU. She led a controversial rally at the school, one that brought out radical protests from everywhere in the political spectrum. After the rally, though, she was raped and Olivia Benson and her team was tasked with figuring out what really happened.
It didn’t take all that long in order to figure out a possible suspect: A man named Justin, someone who was protesting at the rally and helping to create a situation. He was arrested at his place of work and that put
One of the problems with this case is that you have a rape victim here who holds a very clear grudge: She recognized Justin from the rally, and it was very well possible that she was trying to get him declared guilty just because of his political affiliation.
Where things got complicated was that when Martha saw a photo of Randy Platt, a supporter of hers who had attended several of her rallies. There was some evidence that he may have been guilty of something just because of his fascination with her, but a damning piece of evidence suggested otherwise: The sign that Justin was carrying was the same one that was found next to Cobb at the scene.
The trial
Going into it, Martha made it clear that she had no interest in working with the SVU or Barba in the way in which they wanted. She claimed that she was good and would do the trial her way. That meant spinning her own narrative, one that painted Justin as a rapist. He obviously had some personality traits that made him a textbook suspect, including anger and a significant vendetta against Cobb. Yet, she chose to leave out that she rejected a pass at Randy the night before the rally. All of a sudden, Randy had a serious motive to go after her.
Meanwhile, Martha finally came clean to Benson that despite her feelings that Justin was guilty, she didn’t actually remember who raped her. That posed another serious issue for Barba. It’s not often that we see a prosecutor decide to not move forward with an indictment but with her new story and the evidence against Randy in mind, he determined that there was no longer the evidence to move forward.
The aftermath of the case
It was difficult for Benson and Barba to fully come to terms with what happened. Olivia took it upon herself to apologize to her personally, but that wasn’t enough to stop Martha from doing what she wanted to next: Writing a new book blasting the entire criminal justice system. We’ve got a problem that this case is far from over.
CarterMatt Verdict
What made “Info Wars” such an effective episode of SVU is how it forced you to debate and discuss morality and justice. We didn’t like Martha as a character, but we weren’t meant to. Yet, she was still a victim of a terrible act and deserved the same justice as anyone else — even if she didn’t want to be honest about her story. This a great performance by Seehorn and a complex, interesting story told the way that SVU does it best.
What did you think about tonight’s SVU episode?
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(Photo: NBC.)