Law and Order: SVU - PTSD (Episode 1009)

Are my issues showing?Remember last season, when Olivia was sexually assaulted while working undercover in a prison?  Even a seasoned detective who’s memorized the Encyclopedia of The Right Thing to Say to Rape Victims would be left with a few dangling issues after that, right?  Fortunately, Liv seems to be dealing with said issues by attending a victim support group.  But because she’s Olivia, she also just can’t seem to turn off her inner cop.  As the session ends, she confronts a fellow victim who’s carrying an illegally concealed weapon for protection.  Liv makes her fork it over, and the rape counselor is less than pleased that she can’t put her job aside for a few minutes in this “safe place.”  Then the counselor rather ironically turns right around and asks for Liv’s to investigate the disappearance of a patient.  Snerk!  She’s one of those people who hates the fuzz… until she needs help, that is.  Seems like there’s a lot of that going around on this show.

Jessica Cruz is a US Marine who was raped and impregnated by a fellow soldier.  She went AWOL to come to NYC for therapy, and was last seen three days ago.  Olivia heads to Jessica’s apartment, and finds out from the landlord that she had a Springer-style yellfest with some dude outside the building a few days back.  Next, the PD find Jessica’s car, impounded from Battery Park.  Olivia grabs a slimJim and pops that car open with such smooth, badass efficiency that I may or may not have just drooled on myself a little.  “What’s that smell?” asks the clueless lot attendant.  Honey, you need to watch more TV.  The entire viewing audience immediately knows what that smell is, and we can’t even smell it.  Yep, it’s Jessica Cruz, dead in the trunk of her car under a bloody sheet.  And her baby’s missing – it’s been cut out of her.  Oh yes.  SVU did just go there.   Jessica died twelve hours ago, choked and stabbed in the back.  She was only seven month’s pregnant, but the baby could have survived if knife didn’t turn it into sushi.  Liv finds pieces of placenta and umbilical cord, so yeah.  Not so hopeful.  And to make matters worse, here comes Grant Marcus, an invstigator from JAG.  Thus begins the episode’s requisite argument over whose jurisdiction the case falls under.  Hee!  I always think it’s so funny to watch cops arguing heatedly over who gets to chase the bad guys and process the stinky body.  Hell, if it were me, I’d be like, “It’s your case.  I’m gonna go catch some lunch, yo.”  But that’s probably why Olivia’s the cop, not me.  She insists that the case falls under city rule and demands Jessica’s military file.  And she also gets in a little dig about how much the military sucks at investigating rapes.  Grant Marcus, whom, BTW, is kind of a weaselly type, refuses to turn over the file.  Turns out Jessica was raped in Iraq - the crime scene and most of the potential witnesses are still in combat. 

I’m starting to get downright cranky over this season’s lack of Olivia and Elliot interaction.  This time the PTB don’t even bother to make an excuse about where Elliot is.  Hopefully he’s off signing divorce papers.  Liv is working with Fin, which I’m cool with, too.  Better than Lake, right?  They find a puddle of blood approximately the size of an in-ground swimming pool in Battery Park, likely where Jessica died.  She wouldn’t ID her rapist to military investigators, but since she was in Iraq, it had to be someone she worked with.  Liv’s therapist won’t can’t tell them anything either, stating primly that “Death doesn’t nullify confidentiality.” Liv’s all, “whatev, beeyotch,” and decides to go an alternate route; talking to other women from the group.  “Let’s get a list,” says Fin.  But Liv doesn’t need no steenkin’ list.  “Anyone else know you’re in therapy?” Fin asks wisely.  Olivia shakes her head, suddenly looking hella vulnerable.  “They won’t hear it from me,” Fin gruffs.  Interesting.  If you’ll recall, Fin’s the one who saved Olivia from that pervert at the prison.  I’ve always really liked their bond, so it feels okay that he knows she’s in therapy.  Although I really hope she’ll tell Elliot about the whole thing at some point.  Sigh.  Anyhoo, they go talk to Michelle, the chick Olivia took the gun from at the beginning.  She ain’t pleased to see Liv, but bonds with Fin over their mutual military background.  Michelle says that Jessica didn’t report her rape immediately because she’d been caught having consensual sex once before.   Jessica’s attacker was ranked above her, and she was afraid of retribution – hence her reason for not identifying him.   Jessica eventually went AWOL because the jerk was being sent back to the States, and she didn’t want to see him. 

Olivia looks like her brain just packed its bags and took a vacation.  Far, far away.  Warner tells her about the vic’s body, but the words are sort of echoing around Liv’s head, and she has to shake herself to get back in the game.  She looks… shellshocked.  I guess that would make sense, given the episode’s title of “PTSD.”  Eh?  Jessica’s baby was taken post mortem, and a test on the cord blood concludes that the father was Caucasian. The stab wound wasn’t just any random cut, though.  Try a “silent kill” combat maneuver, used to collapse the victim’s lungs so they can’t scream.  Lovely.  And the knife?  A military issue monstrosity that’s practically a frakkin’ scimitar.  Our heroes take their findings to a judge, to try and get hold of the Iraq duty roster.  Instead of handing it over, weaselly JAG Marcus cockblocks them with the claim that since both the vic and killer were military, it should fall under his jurisdiction.  Liv promptly goes off, steam practically coming out of her ears as she says the military helps rapists avoid prison – all the better reason for the NYPD to continue their investigation.  When this technique isn’t particularly effective, it’s time to call in the big guns.  And by that, I unfortunately mean Kim Greyleck.  She does serve a purpose, though, snagging back the investigation on the grounds that neither party was on active duty, and Jessica was killed on New York soil.  She demands the duty roster and the current whereabouts of every Marine in the group before clomping off on her 78-inch heels. 

Wouldn’t you know it; Jessica’s mother walks into the precinct just in time to catch sight of a photo of her dead daughter, blown up to approximately movie-screen size.  The poor woman nearly blows an aneurism.  Olivia apologizes v.v. profusely, and interviews Mrs. Cruz.  It seems that a Sergeant was demoted for hanging around Jessica.  Said Sergeant’s name is Dominic Pruitt… and whaddaya know?  He just happens to be back in the US.  Point of fact, he’s in New York, staying at a hotel.  Of course, Liv and Fin book it over there.  Olivia is pretty gung ho to collar the guy - so much so that she’s acting kinda weird and reckless.  Not at all like herself.  Fin thinks she needs to simma down , and she apologizes, but practically runs him over to get into the hotel. 

In the hallway, they hear thumping coming from Pruitt’s room.  Not like that, ya pervs!  Like, punching.  Liv and Fin bust in the door, coming face to face with Sgt. Pruitt, who’s grappling with another man… and a bigass knife.  In the course of trying to break up the brouhaha, Liv gets knocked into the wall.  Her head breaks the glass in a picture, and suddenly she’s breathing hard, sweat pouring down her face.  She blinks and swallows and it’s like she doesn’t know where she is, and isn’t aware of her own actions. Fin’s yelling at Pruitt to stop punching the other man, but the fists are still flying, and suddenly Olivia’s gun is pressed up hard against the back of Pruitt’s head, and her finger’s on that trigger.  Holy shit.  She is not screwing around – she’s seriously about to blow this guy’s brain into next week.  Wisely, Pruitt stops punching.  The entire scene comes to a screeching halt as everyone involved makes their movements slow and controlled.  “Liv, can you hear me?” asks Fin.  “Put it down!”  It takes a loooong moment… but then Olivia blinks and comes to her senses.  It’s almost like she’s emerging from a trance, and she doesn’t know where she is.  “I’m sorry,” she whispers to Fin.  He talks to her gently, tells her to breathe.  Meanwhile, Pruitt gets his ass arrested and taken away.  Dude.  That shit was intense.

Back at the precinct, Fin’s pretty sure Liv’s not quite done dealing with her issues.  Gee, ya think?  Either she lets him sit in on the interrogation of Pruitt, or he’s going to tattle to Cragen.  Now Fin, don’t go bothering Cragen – he’s got enough troubles as it is.  The wife of Gary Rosten, the man whom Pruitt beat down in the hotel room, is bitching him out, and her voice sounds like a bagful of wet cats.  I can’t believe she’s allowed to do this, but Olivia goes in to interview Pruitt.  He claims not to have seen Jessica since Iraq, but admits he called her.  “She needed my help,” says Pruitt, who seems to have nerves of steel.  Olivia has a theory – Pruitt tracked Jessica like prey.  He raped her, and he killed her.  As Olivia stares him down, her hands are shaking against the table.  Pruitt notices her adrenalin-fueled reaction, but his response isn’t creepy-rapist.  Pruitt tells Liv that women in the military have to prove themselves to men.  It’s not fair, but it’s true.  He insists he didn’t rape Jessica, or have sex with her at all for that matter – he just hung out with her as a friend, and watched her back.  Y’know, personally, I don’t think Pruitt is their guy.  Liv, however, is dead-set on taking him down.  

Fin heads over to interview Gary Rosten, who thinks Liv has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder – he’d know the glassy eyes anywhere.  Fin wants to know why he was getting the beatdown in that hotel room.  It turns out that Gary served in Iraq, too – and he was the one who narked on Pruitt for hanging around Jessica.  “She had a reputation,” Gary says.  Liv and Fin powwow.  Every Marine gets a knife like the one that killed Jessica, so they need to match her blood to Pruitt’s.  Either that, or just get the landlord to ID him as the man who was arguing with Jessica… uhduh.  Liv ties up that loose end, and then goes smirking in to get a DNA sample from Pruitt.  As they spar verbally, I still sorta like him… and if I didn’t know better, I’d almost say he’s flirting with her, in a straightlaced, soldieresque way.  Liv, of course, ain’t havin’ it.  Meanwhile, Greyleck calls in JAG – they have to be notified once a Marine is officially arrested.   Marcus, still resembling a weasel or some equally creepy small rodent, escorts Pruitt out.  Even as he’s being taken away, Pruitt’s looking back over his shoulder at Olivia, like he wants her to come to her senses and reconsider this whole thing.  Lots of legal mumbo jumbo ensues, as Greyleck and Marcus squabble over how to try Pruitt.  Eventually military sovereignty wins out; Pruitt will be tried in a Marine court.   And Olivia will have to testify.  “She’ll be surrounded by uniforms,” smarms Marcus.  “Tell her to take a pill.”  Eff you, you little creep.  That was just uncalled for.  Next thing you know, Liv’s on the stand.  She makes no secret of her disdain for the military’s processes for handling rape cases.  After testifying, Liv gets back to the precinct, all tired and cranky.  Fin tells her he understands her desire to keep her therapy a secret.  He’s sure the flashbacks will go away if she works at it. 

The DNA test is back… and Olivia’s shocked (but I am not) to hear that the baby’s blood doesn’t match Pruitt’s.  He’s not the rapist. Time to reexamine the suspect list!  Very quickly, Gary Rosten’s name comes up.  Olivia has a new theory: Rosten raped and killed Jessica… and his wife helped.  She corners Wifey in an interrogation room, and after much visceral description of DNA matches and chopped-up umbilical cords (squick!) she admits that her husband slept with Jessica.  He told her that in Iraq, Jessica was the camp slut, and he made a mistake.  Wifey wanted to confront Jessica for being a homewrecker, and got her cell phone number from a friend in Personnel.  Wifey knew Jessica had cried rape, so how did she get Jessica to agree to meet?  By claiming she needed to protect her children if their father was a rapist.  Wow… that’s seriously low.  Wifey bursts into tears, insisting that she didn’t know Gary was going to murder Jessica.  And get this… he chopped his own unborn son out of Jessica’s womb and tossed him into the Hudson river.  Wow.  And she wants to stay married to this douchebag?  Awesome. 

The case is officially cracked, and they’ve dragged the river and found the baby’s body.  He was probably dead before hitting the water – small favors, right?  Liv looks like she’s going to toss her cookies, and Cragen pretty much orders her to take some personal time.  Apparently too tired to fight it, all she can do is nod.  But before heading for home, Olivia goes to see Pruitt, to apologize for going apeshit on him before.  Pruitt’s surprisingly chill, saying, “You did your job and got justice for Jessica.”  And then… hee!  Olivia admits right to Pruitt’s face that she just doesn’t get him.  Not even one tiny bit.  Pruitt shrugs and says he let himself be arrested because he knew it would all work out – that his DNA wouldn’t match.  He never had sex with Jessica.  “You just looked out for her,” Olivia says incredulously.  For his part, Pruitt wonders if Olivia was really going to shoot him.  “I can’t answer that,” she replies.  “But you deserve to know why it happened.”  And with that, she simply opens up to this man and tells him she was sexually assaulted.  Whoa.  I’m willing to bet dollars to donuts that Elliot, Olivia’s own partner, does not know this.  And she just confessed her deepest darkest secret to a nearly perfect stranger.  Pruitt, however, takes it in stride and tells her she can’t blame herself.  “That’s easy to say and hard to do,” admits Olivia.  “You’ll get there,” he replies.  By the end of the encounter, these two are on a first-name basis… and Olivia can’t take her eyes off of Dominic Pruitt as he gets on the elevator.  The sudden, unexpected, yet obvious attraction between these two smacks me upside the head like a ton of bricks as Olivia quietly tells him to be careful in Iraq.  “I’m a Marine,” replies Pruitt.  “That’s what we do.” They gaze at each other until the elevator doors close.  Holy sexual tension, Batman!

Well, there ya have it, y’all.  SVU’s answer to how Olivia deals with becoming a victim herself.  My verdict?  It could have been better.  I liked the parallels between the military case and Olivia’s, but there was too much going on – the parts about Olivia’s issues felt hasty and tacked on.  Also, I’m not sure why they’re just bringing this up now… it seems a bit overdue, considering the fact that Liv’s been in plenty of dangerous situations between her assault and this episode.  Also, I missed Elliot.  And I don’t like Olivia flirting with other boys.  Although I have to say that if Elliot’s going to be off with his annoying yet persistent wife, Olivia deserves to have a man in her life.  And it could make for an interesting triangle if Pruitt ever comes back into the picture.  Am I right?