Remember Me Recap: Law & Order: SVU

The two-hour Season 19 finale of Law & Order: SVU aired on 5/23/2018. “Remember Me” was just the first hour. “Remember Me Too” was the title of the second part. This was your typical “Olivia Benson Is Always Right” episode, complete with some “Olivia Unhinged” moments just to keep you on your toes.

The episode began at the Buckley household where their nanny of five years, Lourdes Vega, is going out to a club, and they are going someplace else so she can stay out as long as she wants. At the club, another nanny complains about her employer and compliments Lourdes on her good fortune with the nice Buckleys. Lourdes suddenly spots a guy named Miguel up on the second floor, stares and their eyes meet. She insists they know each other and he insists he has never seen her before. Lourdes is all over him, they go to his place and she pulls a gun on him. She ties him up to a chair. There is a camera in the apartment that is live streaming everything to Miguel’s phone. Someone finds the phone at the club and takes it to SVU.

Lourdes tells Miguel that she intends to torture him and then kill him because he raped her and killed her two friends. Miguel continues to insist that he has no idea what she is even talking about. He says he’s just a web designer. She scoffs, indicating the luxury apartment they are in but Miguel says it’s not his place and the owner is due back soon. Lourdes doesn’t believe him. The SVU detectives are trying hard to pinpoint the location.

Jorge Diaz, the apartment owner, does come back and Lourdes coldcocks him with her pistol then gets a heavy statue and brains him with it. Benson and Officer Montero, (played by Mariska Hargitay’s cousin, Eddie Hargitay), are on the way there. Lourdes gets the drop on Montero. She has a gun to his head and makes him call Benson in. Lourdes orders Benson to drop her gun and take out her cuffs. Lourdes cuffs Montero to a light fixture or something so he’s hanging off the ceiling and makes Benson shut the door on him and Jorge. Benson is handcuffed too and Lourdes wants her to witness Miguel’s confession to the crimes she has accused him of. Benson is either convinced of Miguel’s guilt somehow or doing a good impression of it to keep Lourdes from murdering him but they end up on the terrace with Miguel teetering on the ledge. Lourdes gives him the choice to jump or she’ll shoot him and then Benson, handcuffs and all, miraculously talks her out of killing Miguel.

In the second half, Jorge Diaz dies and Lourdes is charged with murder. Miguel was arrested too. Who knows for what, but they had to let him go. Benson is in overdrive trying to convince Stone that Miguel really is guilty even though she has no evidence of that. Diego Diaz, a member of a Mexican cartel and brother of the dead Jorge, shows up while Stone is having a drink at a bar. He makes a threat to harm Stone’s sister, Pamela, if Stone doesn’t drop the case against Lourdes. The cartel kidnaps Pamela despite security precautions after the threat.

So there was A LOT of drama and eventually it turned out that Olivia Benson was right– Miguel was the brutal rapist Lourdes described and Benson got Stone to finally believe her over a little detail where Miguel admitted to Lourdes that he burned her with his cigar even though Lourdes had never mentioned cigars, and that was one of the reasons that the whole thing came across as fake. If that was what tipped the scales for Benson, why didn’t she say so right away instead of acting like she knew Miguel was guilty on a gut feeling when she really had no reason to have that gut feeling. Miguel’s innocent act was a lot more convincing than his eventual “true confession.”

Pamela Stone was murdered by Diego Diaz and he was bumped off right after that. Before she died, she finally recognized her brother and called him by his name. Lourdes was put in witness protection and we already forgot what happened to Miguel.

SVU has been renewed for another season when, hopefully, the writers will come up with a story where Olivia Benson messes up bad enough to make her realize that she needs a check-up from the neck up. Maybe they will have some good guest stars next season, too.

Selected Cast of “Remember Me/Remember Me Too”
Mariska Hargitay – Olivia Benson
Ice-T – Detective Odafin “Fin” Tutuola
Kelli Giddish – Amanda Rollins
Peter Scanavino – Dominick “Sonny” Carisi Jr.
Philip Winchester – Peter Stone
Carolyn McCormick – Dr. Elizabeth Olivet
Ryan Buggle – Noah
Amy Korb – Pamela Stone
Benito Martinez – Santino Rojas
Genesis Rodriguez – Lourdes Vega
Carlos Miranda – Miguel Lopez
Chris Beetem – Alan Buckley
Gary Perez – Jorge Diaz
Roberto Sanchez – Diego Diaz
Juliana Davies – Emma Buckley
John Mahanna – Harrison Buckley