In Loco Parentis on Law & Order: SVU

The March 7, 2018 episode of “Law & Order: SVU” (2-28-18) was about Det. Dominic Carisi and his niece. In Latin, the title means “in place of the parent” but, seriously, it made no sense whatsoever. Carisi actually advised his niece to cover up a crime that she committed. This and the totally contrived situation that occurred to turn that around makes one wonder what message they trying to send on “Law & Order: SVU.”

The episode opens up with a hearing before a Hudson County College tribunal in progress. Complainant, 18-year-old Mia Marino is about to testify against another student, Ethan Hartley. The scene switches to Det. Sonny Carisi having lunch with his sister, Teresa, when she blurts out that Mia was raped 3 months ago and they are holding the hearing now. Carisi’s mind is just blown that Teresa didn’t tell him when it happened. “I’m a cop, for God’s sake!”

Ethan is found “responsible” despite his protestations and is given a one-year suspension. He is really pissed, calls Mia the B word and says “this can’t be happening.” Mia arrives at the luncheonette and spills the results, adding that Ethan threatened her (which he didn’t). A year suspension ain’t gonna cut it in Carisi’s book. He wants to open up an investigation and get Ethan locked up. At SVU, he and Lt. Olivia Benson meet with ADA Peter Stone who agrees to review the tribunal records and if they get enough evidence, they will bring criminal charges. Benson tells Carisi that officially he is off the case, but “unofficially, don’t screw it up.” (Hmmm…similar to “The Undiscovered Country” where Barba could not be objective about his case.)

Their investigation gets nowhere, however, because Mia can’t tell a straight story. At one point, Carisi said they were going to get a restraining order against Ethan because of the alleged threat. Remember that. Mia finally breaks down and confesses to her Uncle Sonny that she consented to have sex with Ethan but lied to her friend, Renata, who was seeing Ethan first. Carisi is aghast. So what does he say?

“What are you saying? Are you are you telling me that you lied? To the school? To the police? Do you know how serious this is?”

And what does he do? Take her in to report that the boy was innocent? No! He tells her to make it right and apologize to Ethan.

Now here comes the totally contrived part: She invites Ethan to her dorm room to apologize to him and he shows up and rapes her in revenge for ruining his life. First of all, he’s not supposed to be allowed on campus anymore, right? Or have any contact with this “victim” even if they didn’t get that restraining order. All that should have been spelled out in his suspension.

Carisi shows up at Mia’s dorm room and advises her not to say anything about the original lie she told. Later, after Ethan is arraigned for rape, Carisi tells Mia he doesn’t want her to perjure herself but if no one brings up the first rape, neither should she.

Peter Stone is not too happy about shaky witness Mia, but Benson gives him the ol’ pep talk:

Welcome to sex crimes. Look, Stone, there are no perfect witnesses. They leave out part of the story. They can’t remember. They feel guilty, change their minds. They blame themselves. They think it’s their fault. But that’s why we’re here. To fight for them. And the less perfect they are, the harder we fight. Look, nobody asks a robbery or a homicide victim if she wanted it. Nobody says, “Hey, why was she walking down the dark alley?” Why was she wearing the dark skirt?” Nobody implies that the crime was somehow her fault.

“I’m just used to having more evidence before I go to trial,” says Stone. “You have the victim’s word,” Benson intones:

“We go to trial so the victim, the survivor, can look her rapist in the eye and tell the world her truth. We go to trial so she can be heard. The truth, that’s what heals. If you’re going to trial because you want to win You’re in the wrong place.”

And that is all baloney. It’s the job of trained counselors to help the victim heal whether their attacker is convicted or not. But on with the rest of this travesty of a story.

When Carisi testifies at the trial, he is the one who is asked about the first rape by defense attorney Arlene Heller. Carisi cannot bring himself to lie on the stand and admits that there was no first rape. Carisi is read out by Benson and forgiven by Stone. Whaaat??? Didn’t Stone suspend Brian Cassidy for messing up on the stand in the last episode? This is so much more than messing up on the stand. Carisi started a criminal investigation that he later found out was based on a lie and did nothing about it.

Nevermind! The trial continued and strangely, the defense let Ethan get on the stand, whereupon Stone pushed his buttons until he blurted out his guilt for the world to hear. Stone and Benson flirted with each other later, no penalties were handed out to Mia and everyone lived happily ever after except Ethan who was expected to get 7 years in prison.

We don’t know what other viewers got out of this episode, but they had a real chance of showing that there are consequences for false accusations here. Carisi had a responsibility to take his niece to the authorities immediately to clear Ethan’s name. Now, you can say, well he was a rapist anyway, wasn’t he? In this contrived ending, yes, but it was just so fake. If they absolutely had to make Ethan the bad guy, he could have gone to the dorm and beat the hell out of Mia before she could say she was going to make it right. That would have been more believable. To think she would invite him over, however, is just ridiculous!

Coming soon on SVU: Stephanie March, longtime ADA Alexandra Cabot on L&O: SVU back in the day, will be appearing in an April episode. She was a favorite character for sure.

Selected Cast of In Loco Parentis:
Mariska Hargitay – Olivia Benson
Kelli Giddish – Amanda Rollins
Ice-T – Odafin Tutuola
Peter Scanavino – Dominick “Sonny” Carisi Jr.
Philip Winchester – Peter Stone
Rachel Bay Jones – Teresa Carisi
Ryann Shane – Mia Marino
Sam Vartholomeos – Ethan Hartley
Tijuana Ricks – Dean Baldwin
John Rothman – Judge Edward Kofax
Susie Essman – Arlene Heller
Dominic Comperatore – Steven Hartley
Barbra Wengerd – Jane Hartley
Rachel Finninger – Renata Schaeffer