Uh oh. Benson’s as frustrated with McGrath as viewers are.

On Law & Order: SVU Season 23 Episode 18, she wanted to focus on catching a serial rapist who had gotten away with his crimes for far too long, but McGrath kept interrupting with nonsense about what the headlines looked like.

Benson didn’t get into this job for the politics. Will McGrath succeed in pushing her out?

At least this time, McGrath wasn’t acting out of ignorance or prejudice. He just wanted New York to look good before 1PP came down on him.

Still, though, the way he handled the situation was getting under Benson’s skin.

Benson: I’ve been up since 5 and this day feels like it’s never going to end. This job is already hard enough but the politics…
Fin: Let’s just get this guy.

For the first time, she complained that he was making a hard job even harder. Fin’s advice was right: they had to get the bad guy, and then McGrath would be happy.

Focusing on their job was a win-win, but that didn’t make the pressure coming from McGrath any easier to bear.

If only Dustin had been as guilty as it appeared, McGrath would have gotten the headlines he wanted about his cops quickly putting a rapist away.

But when Dustin was arrested ten minutes into the hour, it was too soon for that to be the whole story. I knew McGrath wasn’t going to get his headlines, at least not yet, and that they’d arrested the wrong man.

Demmy’s fear of her brother made it clear he was abusing her somehow, but I didn’t expect the story to circle around to him raping her!

I figured he was a controlling asshole who didn’t want her to be with anyone, but it didn’t occur to me that he was keeping her for himself. Yuck!

The Demmy subplot made this episode of SVU somewhat unusual. In the end, the cops caught two rapists — something which doesn’t often happen.

Sadly, if Dustin hadn’t beaten Demmy so severely that she needed to be hospitalized, she may never have told the cops the truth, and both men might have gotten off the hook, at least for the rape in New York.

I didn’t quite understand why Carisi didn’t think he could make his case without proof the wallet had been planted.

Wes confessed to dozens of crimes, and some were likely still within the statute of limitations. Voice recognition software could prove he was the person who called Benson and confessed to Kayla’s rape, too. And it wouldn’t have been a big stretch to argue that someone had planted that wallet in Dustin’s bedroom, even if they didn’t know who.

With all that evidence, was it as likely as Carisi thought that a jury would assume Wes was innocent because the wallet was in Dustin’s room?

This case was pretty straightforward.

The only twist was that Dustin had committed a different rape than he was originally arrested for. Otherwise, it was an hour of solid police work that led to a serial rapist.

While the case wasn’t that compelling, some of the side issues were more interesting.

The short scene between Raelynn and Benson was classic Olivia Benson.

She slipped in a PSA about how survivors of attempted rape are just as much in need of support as survivors of completed rape, reassured Raelynn that someone was taking her experience seriously, and promised to catch the man who had hurt her.

While Benson always fights for survivors’ rights, I haven’t heard her talk about people acting like attempted rape isn’t a crime. That was an interesting, fresh message that I’d love for SVU to explore further in a later episode.

Rollins returned to SVU more on edge than she was before her vacation. I wondered what was up with that.

She said she was tired because of the way the storm had caused chaos in her household, but it felt like there was something more to it.

Did this case remind her of something personal, or did her time away make her forget how dark her job gets sometimes?

This wasn’t explored further, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it popped up again in a later episode. SVU often lets character angst build up for several episodes before revealing what’s going on.

The tension between Benson and McGrath probably isn’t over either, especially since Law & Order: SVU Season 23 Episode 19 will involve Benson working with former Deputy Chief Garland on a cold case.

McGrath pushed Garland out over Garland’s willingness to speak up against racism in the police force, so he will likely be less than thrilled for Benson to work with him again.

And Benson, for her part, has made it clear that if McGrath wants to keep her, he needs to refrain from interfering in how she runs her department.

Benson might already be on his bad side after acknowledging her detectives during the press conference, and he’s on hers because of his focus on optics.

Could this be leading up to an explosive season finale?

Your turn, SVU fanatics. What did you think of the case? Did you expect Dustin to turn out to be a rapist too? And what trouble do you think is brewing as we head toward the season finale?

Hit the big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know your thoughts.

You can watch Law & Order: SVU online right here on TV Fanatic if you need a refresher.

Law & Order: SVU airs on NBC on Thursdays at 9 PM EST / PST. The next new episode will air on April 28, 2022.

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