Law & Order: SVU – Recap & Review – Spiraling Down

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Law & Order: SVU
Spiraling Down

Original Air Date: Dec 7, 2011

Caitlin – Associate Staff Writer
caitlin@thetwocentscorp.com

On Wednesdays, in addition to the shows I review, I watch either Modern Family or Harry’s Law. Last week, the latter focused on the dangers of concussions in football. Tonight, SVU does as well.

Of course, this being SVU, there’s some sex and scandal thrown in. In this case, underage prostitutes and a very famous client. And it actually all ties together logically this time- at least as much as it ever does here.

A girl getting off a bus in New York meets a guy who seems nice. Soon enough, he’s treating her like a queen and buying her pretty things. All this ends the day he “gives” her to one of his friends to get her a new pair of shoes. When she gets upset, he starts to slap her around. Olivia and Nick are bonding when the girl’s father shows up saying he heard his daughter being threatened over the phone. Vickie is safe in her hotel but is convinced Trey loves her. The detectives are forced to arrest her.

Rather, they’re forced to pretend to arrest her to get her to talk to them. Amanda and Fin stay behind to arrest Trey while Vickie tells Olivia and Nick she loves the guy she calls her boyfriend. But she doesn’t know he has a kid. Alex doesn’t think they’ll be able to arrest either the pimp or the guys Vickie was manipulated into having sex with, but they decide to try and get Trey to give up his clients. One of those clients? A famous former quarterback.

How popular is this guy? He entertains all the cops in the station. The detectives are about as amused by this as I am, but he does get them to let him call his wife. His lawyer says he didn’t know the age of the undercover supposed prostitute he was going to sleep with. This isn’t the kind argument that holds water with this crowd, but then Jake’s wife shows up. She doesn’t try to argue against her husband’s guilt, but rather says he didn’t know what he did.

Jake apparently suffered concussions constantly on the field. Now, he’s making their case easy for him by exposing himself to another girl. Yet there seems to be something to the argument he’s losing himself. Every night, he’s unaware of what he’s doing. His wife can barely hold it together. Olivia intervenes and gets Andre Braugher- rather, Counselor Ellis- to represent him. His case his probably solid, which angers Alex a lot.

Jake’s not too eager to have Ellis’s free help, but he eventually relents. Nick talks to his own wife via Skype, but things don’t go too well for them. Ellis and Alex head into court together, with Ellis arguing an insanity defense. Unfortunately, Jake objects again, taking serious issue with how he’ll be seen. Later, Nick preps Vickie for her own trial, knowing how Ellis going to rip into her, even has he clearly sympathizes with Jake.

The trial continues, with Jake not grasping the full seriousness of his situation. Ellis eventually questions him relentlessly to get him to show his own weakened state of mind. They win the case, but Jake is considerably distressed and Alex is angry with Olivia. Everyone heads outside the courthouse, where we just know something bad is going to happen. Sure enough, confronted by reporters, Jake pulls a cop’s gun to his head and only lowers it a moment before shooting himself through the heart.

The one thing that surprised me most about this episode was how quickly it seemed to go by. And yet I was able to follow the plot better than many episodes that felt much longer as I was watching them. From this case, it’s clear they’re making Ellis into a more sympathetic character now and opening the door for him to return. All the same, I don’t know that he had to go after Vickie the way he did. Jake’s comprehension was on trial, not her consent.

This was another episode I thought was very well done. I felt for both Jake and Vickie, I liked the tension between Alex and the others, and we’re getting more hints at Nick’s back story. I’m still waiting for an episode where everyone we like actually lives to the end credits, but I’m not getting my hopes up too high in that department. I do hope we get more background for Amanda, and, as usual, that we’ll see Munch again someday. I can always dream, can’t I?

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