Has Velasco finally proven himself?
He originally came to SVU partially to spy on the unit for McGrath, leaving a bad taste in everyone’s mouth.
Even now, no one trusted him, but on Law & Order: SVU Season 23 Episode 17, he went all out to rescue some trafficked girls. Will that make a difference to the rest of the unit?
It’s too bad Rollins was still out of town. Yay for her off-screen date with Carisi in Orlando, but she distrusts Velasco the most.
Her reactions to everything from Velasco’s unsanctioned undercover stint to his insistence on bringing down a corrupt police captain would have added an extra dimension to this story.
That aside, this was a solid episode that felt fresh because of Velasco’s involvement, even though this was far from the first trafficking case SVU has tackled.
Woman: These cops with you, Rosanny?
Benson: I’m Captain Benson and this is Detective Velasco from SVU.
Woman: SVU. I wish you’d come up here before that girl was killed.
Velasco’s involvement in this case provided some much-needed diversity. While SVU has had detectives of color before, including Latino detectives, this episode focused more heavily on Velasco’s background as a Mexican immigrant.
His understanding of the language and culture and determination to get justice for three girls who disappeared from his hometown were assets to this case, for the most part.
He was able to connect with Lucia because of their shared background as Mexican immigrants from the same town and get the Senora, who formerly only trusted Roxanny, to trust him and his unit.
This gave SVU a slightly different feel and highlighted aspects of Mexican culture that aren’t often displayed on prime-time TV.
I was disappointed that Roxanny was killed, though.
I liked her and hoped that SVU would work with her again in the future. She had built connections with the Mexicans in the area she was investigating and could have been a useful ally on future cases.
At least no central character was killed — SVU is short-staffed enough as it is — but Roxanny’s death felt like such a waste too. Couldn’t they have settled for putting her in a coma so that she could come back later?
Woman: These cops with you, Rosanny?
Benson: I’m Captain Benson and this is Detective Velasco from SVU.
Woman: SVU. I wish you’d come up here before that girl was killed.
Senora’s reaction to the detectives coming into her bakery touched upon a serious issue: police only coming to an area where there are a lot of poor non-whites when a major crime occurs.
It wasn’t surprising that she didn’t trust the cops after Chavez’s death. Chavez lived in the neighborhood that she patrolled. She’d worked at the bakery when she was a teenager. She was a friend, not just a cop.
The rest of the cops were outsiders who only appeared to be in the neighborhood to catch a criminal. The Senora probably had reported her suspicions about trafficking and other crimes many times over the years and gotten no police response.
And to make matters worse, the SVU investigation led to Chavez being run over right in front of Senora’s eyes.
So, all things considered, it was a miracle she trusted Velasco enough to tell him about the underground clinic for undocumented folks. Speaking Spanish to her shouldn’t have been enough; she took a major leap of faith there.
By the way, what happened to the team’s determination to find the person who killed Chavez?
It wasn’t the corrupt captain who killed her; he took offense at the idea that his connection to the traffickers got his detective killed and blamed SVU.
So who was it? It felt like Rosanny’s death got lost in the shuffle as soon as the cops realized they would have to prosecute one of their own.
Surprisingly, there was no pushback from McGrath or any of the rest of the brass this time.
McGrath tends to be a protect-your-own type of cop who worries more about optics than anything else, so it was strange that he had nothing to say about this whole mess.
Since the Bureau Chief was stepping in to prosecute the case rather than Carisi doing it, McGrath’s hands were tied. But I expected him to at least bother Benson in person over this.
His absence from the canvas during a case that involved potentially exposing a dirty cop was all sorts of strange.
Also, if the captain of the 29 was involved with a trafficking operation, chances are that there were other dirty cops in his precinct who got in on the action with the trafficked girls.
There should be a major investigation to see who else needs to be purged from that precinct!
Instead, this corrupt precinct head was quickly caught, and two of the three girls were found alive and more or less unharmed.
That happy ending was so different from the horrific scenes at the beginning of the hour.
The woman made a point of talking about how talented the girl who ended up murdered was. Her death scene was horrific, and so was the scene where the cops looked at what was left of her. It set things up for an intense episode, but it felt as if the intensity fizzled soon afterward.
Was I the only one who thought so? Sound off in the comments below! If you need a refresher, watch Law & Order: SVU online.
Law & Order: SVU airs on NBC on Thursdays at 9 PM EST / PST.
Jack Ori is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. His debut young adult novel, Reinventing Hannah, is available on Amazon. Follow him on Twitter.
:quality(85):upscale()/2024/04/17/850/n/1922564/beb2b9e3662021fd3d3e45.26287469_.jpg)
