TV
Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 10 Featured Benson At Her Best As She Fought For A Kid The System Forgot
Benson is at her best when she is the advocate we all wish real-life SVU cops could be.
On Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 10, she was determined to show a kid who the system had failed over and over that someone actually gave a damn.
Convincing the victim to talk to her was an uphill battle, which is something Benson isn’t used to, and it made for fantastic drama despite knowing that Benson would find a way to reach this kid like she always does.
Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 10 Exposed Serious Problems In The Foster Care & CPS Systems
I love it when SVU takes on broken systems. There are a lot of problems in the foster care system, and things like Anthony getting sexually abused over and over do happen.
It was especially galling when Michael Strickland’s boss at CPS said that kids sometimes fall through the cracks.
While that’s undoubtedly true, she was so detached, as if she just accepted that some kids didn’t get the help they needed and didn’t really care.
She also didn’t pick up on the obvious red flags in Michael’s relationship with the kids in his caseload.
One of the first things I learned in social work school was the importance of setting boundaries with clients. Part of our job sometimes includes taking clients to doctors’ appointments or other needed services in the community, and some social workers meet clients in the community for other reasons.
There can be legitimate reasons to do so, but it’s vital that social workers don’t cross ethical lines, and Michael did the opposite, constantly creating inappropriate relationships with his clients.
It’s against the social worker’s code of ethics for him to pay for young clients to go to the arcade or anywhere else, so it was disturbing that his supervisor didn’t suspect anything was wrong or ever confront him about it.
That said, it annoys me that social workers on Law & Order: SVU almost always cause problems because they don’t do basic things.
I’m sure there are some people who work for CPS and similar agencies who are so burned out they don’t care anymore, but I also believe that most of the problems come from people being overworked.
High caseloads and the need to meet stringent state or city guidelines often leave caseworkers overwhelmed and without the bandwidth to deal with things such as an employee not following protocols.
I’d have loved to have seen more of the group home manager and learned about how hard she worked for these kids and how she felt about the way the system keeps failing them, but that probably would have gone off on a tangent that didn’t have anything to do with the story.
Benson’s Usual Pep Talks Didn’t Work… Until They Did
I liked Anthony’s refusal to trust Benson. It made sense, considering the trauma he’d suffered.
Benson was well aware that the system had failed Anthony, but that didn’t mean he could read her mind and see her good intentions. For most of the hour, he saw her as yet another person who was going to talk a good talk and then do nothing for him.
Anthony: You know what’s a lie? That badge you’re wearing. CPS, foster care, this place… the real lie is that any of you care.
It didn’t help that every time he saw Benson, she had Carisi with her, and his style was to get in Anthony’s face and yell at him to stop lying.
That wasn’t going to work with someone who had mental health issues because of a lifetime of trauma. Each time Carisi did that, it made Anthony even more inclined to shut down.
I’d have liked for Benson to experience some more frustration, though. She was determined to help this kid, but it had to have gotten to her that he didn’t believe for a second that she gave a damn.
Sure, she’s been doing this for 30 years, so I wouldn’t expect her to be so wrapped up in annoyance that she can’t do her job. Still, it had to sting on some level.
Even if Benson is able to be detached enough not to let it get to her, I wish there’d been a sign that she was holding back emotions about it or a conversation with a team member outside of Anthony’s presence.
That would have added depth to her character and made her a little less of a savior and more an ordinary human being who cares deeply about the people she crosses paths with.
In Retrospect, It Was Obvious Michael Had Been Abusing Anthony
Michael came across as a concerned case manager when he first heard Anthony had disappeared, but in retrospect, his false concern was even more evidence that he had done something with Anthony he shouldn’t have.
He took too much of an interest in Anthony from the first time he appeared on Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 10, and he also was quick to claim he’d have to report it if he knew Anthony was hanging around an older guy.
This dialogue seemed reasonable at the time, yet it screams predator after realizing that he is one.
Grooming Anthony was the least of Michael’s crimes.
It was disturbing that he was trafficking the kids he was supposed to help, especially since his supervisor was turning a blind eye to what he was really doing with those boys.
I’m still not convinced that Colin was trying to help, either. It seems like a predator would tell a kid like Anthony that he could get him away from a trafficker and then take over abusing him.
That angle wasn’t really explored, though I wonder if the reason Anthony called Michael after escaping from him was that Colin was abusing him too and he thought the devil he was already familiar with was better than this new one.
He said he called Michael when he panicked, but didn’t give a cause for the panic, so it’s plausible that Colin was also abusing him.
It’s Hard To Believe That Anthony Learned To Trust So Quickly On Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 10
Benson made good on her promise to get Michael so that Anthony wouldn’t be abused anymore, but it’s hard to believe that he trusted her completely after that.
It would have been more realistic for Anthony to be open to trusting her but still be wary. That would have also made a stronger point about how deeply trauma had aff
ected him if he still couldn’t trust Benson even after she’d gone the extra mile for him.
Similarly, it seemed odd that he had gone back to the group home after telling Benson that he’d rather stay in juvie because he had nowhere to go if he got out.
Random Thoughts
- Silva finally had more than two lines! I liked her involvement in this investigation, especially her astute observation that the body was moved onto the bed after the murder.
- Where the heck was Fin? Even a throwaway line is better than no Ice-T!
- I hope no one was playing a drinking game with Benson saying the system was broken or she was going to save this kid from the system, because if they did they’d have been passed out by halfway through the episode.
Over to you, SVU fanatics. What did you think of Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 10?
Vote in our poll to rank the episode, then hit the comments with your thoughts.
Law & Order: SVU airs on NBC on Thursdays at 9/8c and on Peacock on Fridays.
Watch Laws & order: SVU Online
Article by:Source: Jack Ori