Law & Order: SVU season 20 episode 20 review: What happened to Mackenzie Tolliver?
For most of the early portion of this episode, it was suspected that Tolliver’s drama teacher Quentin Dreyfus was the person responsible for an assault and, in turn, the pregnancy. That is what Mackenzie told them in the end, and the character ended up being firmly in the crosshairs — that is until he was murdered by Mackenzie’s stepfather Garrett Howard. Garrett claimed that he did this out of an act of rage and that he didn’t mean to kill him.
Soon after this, though, it was clear that Quentin was gay and had never even been with a woman. Not too long after that, it was clear that the relationship between Mackenzie and her stepfather was complicated. Very complicated. All signs were pointing towards Garrett being the father of this baby, and that Mackenzie was doing everything that she could in order to protect him. Not only that, but Mackenzie and Garrett were married. They tied the knot in a ceremony in Missouri and because of that, there wasn’t much that Stone could do in order to force her to testify in his manslaughter case. Basically, there was spousal privilege at play.
Why did Stone want to force Mackenzie to testify? Well, a big part of it was about trying to frame the narrative in front of the jury. They would see Garrett as sympathetic, mostly because he was a stepfather wanting to get vengeance on a suspected rapist. However, they needed to see him for what he really was and they had to figure out a proper way in order to trap him. That’s when we saw a complicated series of theatrics play out, one that tested whether or not he truly loved Mackenzie. If he did, that was the proper way to ensure that they could slip him up and they could charge him and force him to spend many years behind bars.
For Stone and Benson, this was a mission accomplished.
CarterMatt Verdict
Are there any victors for a case like this? SVU tonight presented a tough, difficult case where a young girl was exploited by her stepfather and couldn’t quite see it. Maybe she won’t fully see it just yet, but through Benson’s actions and that conversation at the end of the episode, maybe she started to see the light a little bit. We think she got through to her, at least for a few seconds and that could turn into so much more later.
This is a story of justice, but one of the things that Olivia realizes at this point is that sometimes, there is no immediate reward for your actions. You just have to know in your heart that you are doing the right thing to make the city better.
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