Law & Order: SVU season 20 episode 3 review: The border crisis
Everyone in society has strong opinions about these kids. There is the issue of legality, and then there is the issue of humanity. For Benson and the rest of the SVU team, they got involved in this case after uncovering a sex-trafficking ring involving young girls. One of them just so happened to be a girl who was separated from her mother at the border. She ran away from her foster parents and eventually found herself in a terrible position.
Eventually, this girl in Gabriela found herself under the care of the Special Victims Unit, at least until a federal agent ended up arrested her. Olivia, in turn, ended up arresting the agent for kidnapping. The arrest did not stick, but the point here was still very much made. This was a booking that Benson wanted to do for the sake of ensuring that there was something resembling justice for this little girl and that the same man who took her from her mother would not be able to do it again.
Unfortunately, Olivia ended up losing this case, and that means that Gabriela was taken away once again. Olivia still decided to do right by her in just about every single way that she could, and Stone took matters into his own hands. He recruited the help of his old friend Mark Jefferies in order to find the child’s mother; soon after that, they visited the camp where Gabriela was staying at and reunited her and her mother. This was a powerful moment to close out the episode — maybe it’s about just one person. Maybe it is about more than that. Either way, this was an episode that was about the SVU doing what they could to help a parent and a child who desperately needed it.
CarterMatt Verdict
Tonight’s episode was no doubt emotional and politically-charged. While it’s clear that very few get an ending quite like Gabriela and her mother, we give the writers credit for taking this material on nonetheless.
Beyond that, kudos to the writers for making a big decision tonight when it comes to Rollins and her baby: She’s keeping it. Also, kudos for getting some great Fin one-liners. Ice-T typically gets to test the NBC censors in a way few other characters do.
What did you think regarding SVU season 20 episode 3 overall? Sound off now in the attached comments below. (Photo: NBC.)