Law & Order: SVU season 19 episode 2 review: A story of trust

If there is one thing that always remains a terrifying thought, it is a woman who is the victim of a rape but no one believes her. This is something that we saw on Law & Order: SVU tonight in the case of Savannah Ross. She is a woman who said that she was raped, but the more the story went along the more problematic some of her claims became. She didn’t report the crime until two weeks after it happened, and there were some significant holes in her story — she had reported the crime once before and also declined to say that she went partying with her friends the night after the incident.

The more that this case progressed, the more that this became about whether or not Savannah could be trusted. Rollins and Carisi found it hard to believe certain parts of her story at first, and over time eventually started to get Benson over to her side. It wasn’t until the discovery of another victim with a similar story that the SVU team started to realize that Savannah deserved to be heard. At that point, they had to figure out how to make things right with her. That meant finding the accused rapist, a man with an affinity for opera and wearing a Prince Charming mask.

Eventually the team did come across a name here in Tom Williams who matched the profile of their rapist, and when they found his home there was certainly a creepy Bates Motel season 3 sort of situation going on there. They found him, and eventually this led to a confrontation between Tom and Rollins on a rooftop. She had to talk him down and tried to do some of what she does so well (appeal to his profile), but when that didn’t work we had a full-on police chase. Carisi eventually tried to save his life, but Tom’s attempt to escape eventually led to his own death.

The case was closed, but in a gruesome manner that meant it was not even going to get to Barba in the end.

The presence of Cassidy

What’s going on with him? When he first turned up on the show last week, it looked like he was doing Olivia almost a favor by telling her what was going on at home. However, Rollins came to her tonight and said that were it not for Cassidy the investigation would’ve been dead already. That is suspicious, to say the least. Also, certainly troubling.

When she confronted him about it the story was a little more complicated. He tried to actually help her, but did so in a way that hurt her. Why is that? Two words: William Lewis. What happened there caused even more problems than you would’ve ever expected.

CarterMatt Verdict

Law & Order: SVU season 19 episode 2 was genuinely terrifying in spots because of the rapist and the way in which he committed his terrible acts. Beyond that, we’re glad that the show is continuing on with a serialized component in Benson’s case.

In the end, we do like how the story ended in a powerful full-circle way. Rollins was at one point one of Savannah’s biggest doubters, but at the end of the episode she took her out to lunch to say thanks.

What did you think about Law & Order: SVU episode 2?

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(Photo: NBC.)