Law & Order: SVU season 22 episode 6: Can you stop a powerful judge?
In the criminal justice system, judges are meant to be a beacon of the truth. They hand down punishments and interpret the rule of law. But what happens when one goes rogue, and starts interpreting a case based on personal bias? This runaway-judge story could come front and center on Thursday’s “The Long Arm of the Witness.” If you haven’t watched the promo, you get a small sense of it as Benson and the rest of the team square off against a powerful judge, one who claims that the Me Too movement has “gone too far” and it’s clearly influencing his judgment. Olivia wants him to resign from the bench; he, meanwhile, has zero interest in such a thing. Here is how showrunner Warren Leight describes this episode to TV Insider:
The judge sees a fine young man, from a good home, about to have his bright future derailed by what he perceives to be a ‘MeToo gone too far’ incident.
So who is this judge to say that this is a “fine young man” at all? In the world of justice, it’s the role of a judge to be unbiased; yet, he is carrying these biases like a weight around his neck. They are biases against victims and for someone who he clearly thinks of as a “normal guy.” Is he projecting himself onto this young man, possibly because of so-called “incidents” in his own past? These are the thoughts you need to have entering an SVU episode.
Be prepared for the return of Wentworth Miller within this episode — Isaiah Holmes will have a role, but it’s certainly not what you would expect at first glance. All we ask is that it leaves the door open for more from him.
How do you think Benson will tackle this SVU case?
Be sure to let us know your predictions below! We’ll be back tomorrow, of course, with even more… (Photo: NBC.)
This article was written by Jessica Carter.