Law & Order: SVU – Recap & Review – Personal Fouls

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Law & Order: SVU
Personal Fouls

Original Air Date: Sep 28, 2011

Caitlin – Associate Staff Writer
caitlin@thetwocentscorp.com

Just in case you were overwhelmed last week, SVU is going to put a bit more on your plate by bringing in another new character. At least we’ll be seeing a lot of this guy- he’s Olivia’s new partner and Elliot’s replacement.

His name is Nick Amaro, and as you can imagine, things don’t go completely smoothly at first. But there are bigger problems at hand, specifically a basketball coach accused of abusing some of his players.

Following SVU tradition, Ray is a celebrated figure in the area. At least until a young man breaks into a dinner in his honor, saying he should be in jail. In the squad room, Olivia is unhappy about having to train Nick and clean out Elliot’s desk. Fin takes her to see Stevie, who’s been taken in for his disorderly conduct at the dinner, and who has made allegations against the coach. But when they show up, he’s in the grasp of an overdose.

Stevie, once helped, breaks out of the hospital he was taken to and escapes to a basketball court. Fin and Nick get him to confess what happened. Nick is about as comfortable with the revelations as any new cop to the unit. When they confront Ray, he says Stevie fell apart because of drugs and is lying to cover his tracks. The statute of limitations on that case gets in their way, but another victim turns up in New Jersey. This one killed himself in reaction to what happened to him.

Olivia and Nick confront Ray with this information, but he blames the mother for her son’s suicide. He starts out acting smooth, but becomes threatening quickly, saying all his players will defend him. This seems to be true, even with the guys Ray is paying off. The detectives tell Stevie they need another victim young enough to press charges. The good news is that he knows someone. The bad news is that it’s Prince Miller, a huge basketball star.

When I say “huge”, I mean this guy has his own theme music and colors for his own products. It’s not surprising, then, that he’s not too willing to come forward. But at the station, Stevie arrives to say he’s been invited to a party at Prince’s place. He’s only too eager about wearing a wire to help, but winds up in a fight with his old friend when trying to tell Prince to take Ray on as well. A few hours later, after walking off angrily, Stevie turns up dead.

Stevie definitely died from an overdose, but the question is who put the drugs in his system. Prince comes into the station willingly to defend himself, bringing video proof that he was, um, occupied with two women when the overdose occurred. That’s more than we need to see, show. Later, it seems his manager, Supreme, actually committed the murder. In order to get Prince to talk, they take him to see a group of young kids playing basketball with Ray. It works, encouraging him to tell his story to the press and the world.

As a fan of Cold Case, seeing Danny Pino take up the spot Christopher Meloni left behind helped a bit in adjusting to this new feel of the show. He’s fitting in reasonably well, given the transition. So far, we know that he has a wife in Iraq and presumably a daughter, whose photo he replaced on his desk with one of him and some friends. The writers aren’t wasting any time in getting us to wonder about his backstory.

My favorite moments in the episode included Fin calling his son (remember him?) “the bravest man he knows” and the powerful last scene. I do wonder why they didn’t take Ray to court first, since Prince was supposedly still able to accuse him himself. On the other hand, we saw no Munch and little of fellow new detective Amanda Rollins. I hope we can find a nice balance of old and new characters quickly.

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