Law & Order SVU – Recap & Review – Merchandise

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Law & Order SVU
Merchandise

Original Air Date: Oct 6, 2010

Caitlin- Associate Staff Writer
caitlin@thetwocentscorp.com

This week focused on sex trafficking of minors and the treatment of the kids in the system. In other words, it’s one of those episodes that has multiple people doing things so horrible they still disturb even after 12 seasons of this show.

A girl runs blindly through a park, running into and things pushing people out of her way. They all seem to think she’s a troublemaker, but it’s clear she’s in a panic. She reaches the street, and then stumbles suddenly into it, where she is struck and killed by a taxi.

In the morgue, Olivia and Elliot are all set to clear it as an accident, but Melinda tells them the girl was beaten and starved and had been pregnant. Because her treatment would have eventually killed her, she rules the death a homicide. The detectives, understandably, don’t think this will hold up, but Cragen tells them to find her abusers anyway. They first talk to a couple- the wife of whom had me grinding my teeth- who owned a fruit stand Carly crashed into. They say she was working at a place called Missions Farms, whose hiring of troubled minors seems shady but legal. They direct Olivia and Elliot to Carly’s address, but a neighbor says her father, brother and sisters were evicted after their mother died of cancer.

When they find out the kids were taken from his custody, the detectives suspect the father. But he took his young daughters back and is in a homeless community with them. Olivia and Elliot tell him about Carly and take him to the precinct, where he admits having given up his kids to a stranger named Magda, who promised to care for them, when he couldn’t afford to himself anymore. After having contact with them taken from him, he eventually found out they were being abused. Elliot is unmoved and shows him pictures of Carly running and lying in the street. This comes off as unnecessarily cruel, but pays off when dad recognizes a boy running after Carly- her brother and his son, Micah.

Despite Elliot’s feelings, nobody is eager to separate the father from his other daughters again. Then there’s a new development when video shows Micah pushing Carly into the street traffic. Fin goes to find Micah and confronts a group of pimps, one of whom says he’ll have one of his girls deliver him. She does so in a scene that shows very young kids acting as prostitutes, but refuses any help herself. When Elliot and Olivia move towards him, Micah thrashes and yells. His shirt is pulled off, revealing gruesome welts on his back. He has to be sedated after trying to beat his head through the car window, still screaming about being punished.

After talking to a doctor about Micah’s extensive abuse, Olivia and Elliot try to talk to him themselves, but are stopped by his lawyer in the murder of his sister. Because Micah’s captors have other potential victims, they decide on a psych evaluation to avoid a murder conviction. Micah tells Dr. Huang about how he and other kids were held captive, fed garbage, and forced to work endlessly. The girls, including Carly, were sexually assaulted and became pregnant. She wanted to keep her baby, but it was taken from her. When she ran, Micah knew he and the others would be severely punished. He admits to killing her to protect them all, but breaks down when Huang points out she could have been going for help.

Huang wants to put Micah into witness protection, but Elliot turns to his own resources to keep him in Manhattan- making him and Olivia temporary Marshalls. Micah’s attorney shows him photos, from which he picks out the woman his father gave him and his siblings too. She has multiple aliases and has been helping take kids to owners, though she stopped when she heard some were poisoned. In exchange for immunity, she gives the names of the couple that hired her. This couple has been fleeing the police, and at their last stop left behind the bodies of their young workers, all poisoned to death.

The detectives arrive at the couple’s current farm just as they’re trying to escape. They’re caught and arrested, but when Olivia and Elliot find the kids, they’ve already been poisoned. Thankfully, emergency workers are able to give them drugs that save their lives. Micah will not be charged for killing Carly, but he does have to go into therapy. Elliot finally relents that he’s better off with his dad. His behavior rather annoyed me tonight, both in his treatment of the father and keeping Micah against Huang’s wishes, so I was glad to see him turn around (if grudgingly) in the end.

I liked this episode overall, though I don’t know that it will go down as one of the most memorable this season. I thought the actor playing Micah did very well with the role, especially when he realized he might have killed Carly when she was trying to save them. He was a victim of what was done to him, and it was reassuring to be left confident the people who did it would never see the light of day again. Things moved a bit quickly at points, but as with last week, they were nothing compared to the season premiere. Now I’m just looking forward to next week. It’s not often promos for this show actively try to make you laugh.