Calvin Wrenched from Olivia’s Loving Arms

Law & Order SVU: “Rescue”

There was a crime in SVU’s latest offering “Rescue.” Indeed, there were a couple of them, but they didn’t seem that important since the drama really centered around Calvin, the child left in the custody of Det. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) by his junkie mommy, Vivian Arliss (Maria Bello), who was still wanted for questioning in the murder of Walter Burlock (R. Lee Ermey).

Also buttinsky Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) was giving off some bad vibes about Olivia wanting to keep Calvin, asking her how long she was going to ‘play’ mom in one part and sending Calvin’s DNA to be tested when he finds out that Olivia has been stalling and putting it off. Olivia played all that off, though we’d have been like “who the hell do you think you are, Elliot Stabler?” It’s not like he’s father of the year, you know, with his quasi-criminal kids that he always has to pull strings to get out of jams.

In a scene at Olivia’s house, Calvin shows her a picture he drew of her and says he even signed it. He signed it “Calvin Benson.”

Later some evidence is uncovered in another crime that proves Calvin’s mother, Vivian, is still in town. Captain Cragen (Dann Florek) goes into his bad parent routine, ordering Benson off the case because she has custody of the suspect’s son and he is backed up by ADA Hardwicke (Melissa Sagemiller). Even though buttinsky Stabler reminds them that Vivian voluntarily signed over Calvin to Benson, they don’t care because a lawyer will twist that into an addict being manipulated by a desperate detective who wants the kid. But, who cares, because when do Elliot and Olivia ever listen to Captain Cragen and if they won’t listen to him, why should they listen to Hardewick?

Fin (Ice-T) and Munch (Richard Belzer) begin to investigate the case, but Olivia has the jump on them and finds Vivian all strung out waiting for her friend and lover, Sarah. Why Vivian signed Calvin over to Olivia is a mystery anyway, because according to her, Olivia always ruins everything. If Olivia hadn’t shown up and revealed Burlock was her father, none of this would have happened and now Benson thinks they are alike because they’re both children of rape, but they’re not.

Olivia arrests her and takes her to the station where she clears up the mystery of why she left Calvin with Benson — so he could be happy — then she confesses to murdering Burlock. Cragen gets on their butts for disobeying a direct order as usual, and then Vivian’s gal pal, Sarah, pops in to say that she is really the one who killed Burlock.

Sarah gets arraigned and bailed out and she’s leaving with Vivian. But, while Sarah goes and gets in the car, Vivian decides she wants to see Calvin. While she attempts to enforce her shaky parental rights, there is gunfire outside and Sarah has been shot dead in the car. A distraught Vivian blames Olivia Benson. Surveillance tapes show Walter Burlock’s roommate, Jason Gambel (Joseph Sikora) fleeing the scene, so they pick him up and just like they were wrong about him murdering Burlock, they are wrong about him killing Sarah.

Jason says he saw the person who did it and he shot Sarah three times and then spit in her face. Medical Examiner, Melinda Warner (Tamara Tunie) moseys over to confirm that Jason is telling the truth. So who should the saliva sample match but Calvin’s father who is sitting at home with the murder weapon waiting for the cops to arrive and collar him. He didn’t get the memo that everything was Olivia’s fault and thought everything was Sarah’s fault.

Later, a child custody worker shows up with Vivian at Olivia’s apartment where Stabler is playing a game with Calvin. He informs Olivia that her guardianship has been terminated and Calvin has to go stay with grandparents in Vermont. Here you have Olivia acting surprised and unprofessionally, like she’s never seen a kid legally taken away before, and not only acting unprofessionally, but badly too. The kid, Charlie Tahan, was pretty good in his role as he struggled and cried while they dragged him out. He certainly has a bright future in acting though maybe not if he has to take parts with dumb scripts like this episode.

Oh yeah, the original crimes:

Who murdered Caitlin — a girl who everybody had it in for after she published a “lay list” of everyone she slept with and rated them according to not only their performance or lack thereof, but also the size of their manhood or lack thereof. After finding Caitlin passed out in a room, the party-goers write slut and other charming things all over her face until the host intervenes and makes them stop. Caitlin dies on route to the hospital and there is also evidence that she was raped. It turns out the host knew Caitlin was injured the whole time because she is the one who pushed her into the mirror that cut the back of her head.

Forensics reveals that some blue liquid that was found on Caitlin is defibulator gel so they suspect one of the paramedics of raping the unconscious or dead girl. It doesn’t really seem to matter to the paramedic in question. The detectives investigate and think the paramedics are lying but don’t yet know why O’Doole, the one who wasn’t really in the back with Caitlin would lie and say he was. It turns out he’s a thief and robs the houses of people on their route and Tinta, the rapist, helps him out with that; so he returns the favor. They lean on O’Doole as the weak link, and he gives up his partner rather than be charged as an accomplice in the rape.

They make O’Doole wear a wire and set his partner up to incriminate himself. When the detectives appear on the scene, Tinta takes off and locks himself in the ambulance where he injects himself with something and dies.

So, in conclusion, everybody who committed a crime got off by dying except the hostess. And have we seen the last of Calvin and Vivian? Probably not, and it surely can’t be the last time Stabler will stick his nose in Benson’s business too.