photo: nbc
Street Revenge
Original Air Date: Apr 25, 2012
Caitlin – Staff Writer
caitlin@thetwocentscorp.com
As someone clueless about pop culture, I hate to use the phrase “unless you’ve been living under a rock”, but that’s about the only reason I can come up with why you wouldn’t know about the film The Avengers.
Why do I mention this? Because this week’s episode is as close as SVU gets to a tie-in. By that, I mean a group of self-proclaimed vigilante heroes does more harm than good. Because what else would you expect?
We begin with a rape victim, which happens less and less often in recent seasons. She was attacked by someone who might well be a serial rapist, and the public is angry about the lack of success in the attempt to catch the guy. When another girl is jumped, she is saved by a mysterious guy in a comic book hero outfit. The detectives track down a suspect named Andy who fits the previous rapes, but he’s just a copycat and the department continues being antagonized by a local news reporter.
Andy is set free on bail and Nick is nowhere to be found because he’s too busy following his wife, who is meeting with a random man. But then Andy turns up, hanging from a tree. How he’s not dead is beyond me. The group that attacked him- again, dressed in flashy costumes- just left him beaten to a pulp, encouraged by a surrounding crowd. With pressure increasing, a bunch of women go undercover as potential victims and Amanda finds two of the vigilantes- in the middle of an assault on “Fanastica”
Fantastica is actually Leslie, and her partner in stopping crime, Stuart, says he pulled the guy raping her away and got stabbed for his troubles. He denies being part of the group that attacked Andy. Nick tries going out to dinner with his wife, but she lies about where she’s been. Apparently, he does know the man after all, and punches him later. A pair of poultry shears matching Stuart’s wound turns up at the restaurant of Henry, who promoted the vigilante movement. That night, Henry is attacked by his car.
Stuart is questioned again and eventually he pegs Henry as the rapist. It seems the most likely explanation, as Henry’s DNA was found in Leslie’s rape kit and there were trophies from the other victims in his car. But Leslie admits the two of them were having an affair. They fought over her going out on the streets and he’s been sleeping with a multitude of women who aren’t his wife. Still, all these women stick up for his alibis. He was intentionally framed.
Nick’s issues come to full boil when his wife confronts him angrily at the station. Turns out she was meeting with her psychiatrist and he’s left (rightfully) feeling like a jerk for accusing her. Afterwards, we turn our suspicions to Stuart, who was on the roof alone with Leslie and who could feasibly have stabbed himself as a cover. Sure enough, he admits to the assault. Apparently he just wanted to impress her. I’d recheck that flirting handbook, dude.
Now, here’s the thing. After watching the last scene a few times, I still couldn’t tell for sure whether Stuart had committed the other rapes, or if it was Henry, or if we still don’t know who to suspect. Considering the first part of the episode focused on outcry in the public and media, and the fact that this was the motivation for the vigilantes in the first place, I wish they’d wrapped things up a little more clearly. Though, if I’m just missing something, please let me know! In the meantime, I’m going to grab tickets for The Avengers and hope the heroes there do things a little more efficiently.
Next Week: Father Dearest
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