Having
rewatched the episode ”Manhattan Vigil” a second time, I found it both sad as
well annoying that there was so little time to get into a story – any story of
SVU – that it is cut down to 40-45 minutes. I am not going to do an overall
view of the episode, just giving my thoughts on it - just for informations, I had on the same day this episode aired in USA attended the gala opening of James Bond "Skyfall" in Copenhagen, Denmark at 10pm (around 5-6pmish Eastern Time) so I may have been clouded by this event as well staying up till 4am my time to read the twitter reactions on the episode...
I found the
start of the episode well-chosen both music wise and photo/frame wise, - which
ends in the same way – to me showing that not only are “Olivia Benson” and the
squad ‘on guard’ but so are those left behind wondering what happened with the
victims, which we see clearly portrayed by the mother of the old case as well
the eager ‘want to be respected’ cop. It was well chosen later to see Munch
looking back at the old case looking for clues to help on the future case –
well edited/cut getting that clip of interview with Jenna Wolfe and cop, on the television that was taped
in this year and not back then…- I have to admit I was also glad that there
wasn’t used too many flashback otherwise it would have to mean they would need
to find Hector alive and that showed part of the red line in the story for me.
I will get back to that later.
Meanwhile
in the ‘now’ as Amaro correctly tells Benson,
when she mentions the old case looking at the building and pointing it out to
Cragen, it was a race against the clock before another fire would end another
life. It was interesting though to see how it took a while before Cragen opened
up to look back on the old case and I’m sure there will be more of those “carefully”
looking back into old cases and it will give some tension with the squad, when
the captain is so weary of digging too deep into links in a case. I wonder if
that will be dealt with later on with Cragen’s reaction back to the first two
episodes on digging deeper into the past.
It was a
great move to bring in Tom Sizemore to play the delusional and “I want my
share” character coming way too late in the episode, he played it so well that
at first you feel like he is really the bad guy and then when the backside of
the story is told, makes you think ok what just happened here. Well played.
This episode
also gave an more and more a picture (for me anyways) on each members role of
the squad is, like Rollins is good at pulling out those files on the computer
that needs to be looked at, Amaro is showing more and more of the good contact
with the victims – perhaps influenced by Benson when paired up (loved it when
Cragen told them he didn’t care of their issues while he was away when he
paired them back together) – I’m sure that will come to use later on as well.
Finn is at times an underwritten character on SVU I think, I think there is so
much more to him than his smart cool comments towards his squad members (my
favorite is Benson just for info), I would like to see more of him (what
happened with the dress code??? ;-) ) And
see what lies beneath “Finn”, maybe together with Munch (how come he hasn’t
influenced Finn with the dress code when they are paired so much together??
Just makes me ponder…) showing what they are and mean for SVU. Then there is
Benson, who admitted to Harris in previous episodes, she wouldn’t want to
supervise a SVU/cop like herself, if she was to move ranks upwards - that would
sort of either push out Cragen or herself from the squad, maybe an idea for a
undercover story?? – as much I “love” the character Benson there is a need to
give room for the others of the squad to be on screen as well, otherwise it can
be too much in the end and backfire, meaning you can get tired of the character
which I really don’t want to see happen.
On that note I do agree, Benson needs either
some good times in her life outside SVU, if that will be dealt with later on like it was with Haden/Cassidy or
it needs to be closed like she accepts her path in life and on SVU. (Before
chopping my head off, remember I did mention Benson is my favorite character,
I’m just airing my opinion, and yes I am like other who wants to see SVU last
longer than a season a time…)
“Manhattan
Vigil” with the red line in the story of looking into the past of previous
cases in order to solve the here and now cases, the SVU squad are on guard for
the people they help out there as well for themselves in order to be able to
carry on their jobs, especially when the squad digs more into the old case
hoping they will find Hector, but knowing the chance is too slim giving the
years that has passed – like Amaro tells Benson: “This is the worst part of work”
more than anything shows their prize as “guards” on SVU or any police force, it
is also rewarding when they find the missing boy in the "present" alive.
Overall I
found the episode fitting for reaching 300 episode, a milestone indeed and one
can hope for another…. 300 episodes might be a bit too many to asks for now, I
still hope it will continue to tell the stories that more than now needs to be
told…
I needed to
see the episode an second time, since on the same day the episode aired 6 hours
before it aired in ET time (I live in Denmark), I had attended an gala opening
of the new James Bond movie “Skyfall”, I stayed up late night/morning to read
reactions on twitter when I got back from the cinema, I found myself mixing
these two into each other – never happened for me before – and surprisely found
similarities to Benson and James Bond (ok way far reached I know) but they are
both fighting for what they believe in and will go to great length to do so. So
if my thoughts here is a bit off that would be the reason…
