TVSquad

(S08E03) What a waste of a good villain. The crime in this episode was a rape, which led detectives to a serial rapist with what should have been an apalling past. But, since the focus of this episode was really on Detective Beck (Connie Nielsen), the crime fell by the wayside.

Don't get me wrong- Det. Beck is an interesting character. She's definitely a fish out of water in the Special Victims Unit with her intense approach to investigations. She's used to chasing down bad guys who have warrants out for their arrests, not taking time to talk to a victim of a sex crime. She's rude to most of the victims but, predictably, learns a little bit about investigations when she interviews a beautiful, elderly French woman, played by Leslie Caron, at the end. (I think Caron's agonizing performance was most memorable) We also learn that Beck is from Denmark, which explains the real-life accent, and that her husband was a NYPD cop who was murdered.

I was surprised by Stabler's reaction to her. He's always pretty hard on Olivia but he didn't seem to come down on Det. Beck as much as I would've expected. He's been known to completely shut Olivia out of investigations if he doesn't like what she's doing, but he seemed to let Det. Beck's incompetency bounce right off of him. Granted, he gave her a few lectures about the need to actually have evidence before arresting a perp and about how to treat a victim, but he still was on her team. I also found his attitude about Olivia to be interesting. Does he miss her? We know he was getting very attached to her at the end of last season... she was all he had since his marriage dissolved. He didn't reveal anything about how he felt about Olivia's absence when Det. Beck questioned him about his old partner. Hmmmm.

Anyway, I thought this was a waste of a good villain. Charles Shaunessy played Martin Trenway, a man who has been raping women since he was 15 years old (starting with his mother's best friend). Det. Beck, after screwing up the investigation more than once, stayed up all night and discovered a lot of rapes in the same towns where Trenway went to college and law school. This should have been shocking, but we never really get to confront Trenway with the evidence. The man is obviously a monster. What has motivated decades of rape? We never know because the story turns toward Det. Beck and her background.

I guess I was a little let down by this episode because I was much more interested in the case than the detective. I would have like to have seen a less interesting case used to showcase the new detective's character/background.