The dinosaur from “Toy Story” is a murderer, and so is his brother.
Law and Order: SVU “Alta Kockers”
Season 20, Episode 10
Airdate: 11/29/2018
BY: JACOB POLITTE
Staff Writer
This past week’s outing of SVU was one of the more solid entries of the long-running drama that has aired this season, but it was not free of faults.
Special guest stars (and industry veterans) Judd Hirsch and Wallace Shawn both brought a level of hilarity and emotion to the roles they played this week and were standouts of the episode. Shawn in particular left an impression on me, being the standout performer in “Alta Kockers.”
He and Hirsch portrayed a pair of elderly brothers, Ben and Joe, who are seemingly cut off from the rest of the world and bitter towards everyone and everything. It turns out that Ben is the writer of a powerful new novel, revealing details of a long-suppressed sexual assault; however, he writes under a pseudonym, “Bobbi O’Rourke.”
“Alta Kockers” was a tad bit controversial for some viewers. Most of the controversy stems from the episode’s opening scenes when Benson makes what can be considered an insensitive comment about a victim’s sexual identity. For a show having been on the air for such a long time, and for one so well versed in giving victims a voice, they should have known better than to script that line — especially for Benson.
To a lesser extent, there was also controversial language used by the characters Shawn and Hirsch portrayed, albeit in Yiddish. The words refer to a slang term about African Americans and homosexuals. While arguments can be made that those words were O.K. as the two brothers grew up, they are not O.K. now; they shouldn’t have been used in the context in which they were used.
I had two main issues with the episode related to the plot.
While I understand the victim at the beginning was a means for getting to the real perpetrators of the episode, I wasn’t a fan of how the case was basically a MacGuffin to get to the real story of the episode. They previously did something similar earlier in the season in the episode “Zero Tolerance;” I wasn’t a fan of it then either. While the aforementioned case in this episode had somewhat of a conclusion, it doesn’t excuse casting that victim aside.
The other issue I have with the episode is how SVU handled the case, specifically after the discovery of the mother’s mummified corpse in the basement freezer. While Ben and Joe obviously are old and have had a messed up life, it doesn’t excuse the murder of their mother. They must be held accountable for that. They never truly are as Joe takes the fall for his brother in the courtroom and immediately collapses. He dies at a hospital with his brother and Benson by his side and, as a result of his “confession,” all charges against Ben are dropped. Ben gets off scott-free, but loses his only remaining family in the process while Joe dies protecting his younger brother one last time.
I’ll give the show’s writers credit: the ending of the episode was emotionally affecting. Ben and Joe may have bickered non-stop, but they clearly loved and cared about each other. Once again, I have to give props to both Shawn and Hirsch for pulling off a great performance. I didn’t think the ending was realistic nor do I believe Ben wouldn’t have to answer for his crimes in the real world.
JACOB’S FINAL VERDICTS:
– I’d also write about Benson becoming far too emotionally involved with a case once again, but I’m a bit tired of repeating myself.
– Rollins spontaneously decides she wants to go back into the field, heading up to Rikers with Benson to talk to Ben and Joe. While the risk for injury was non-existent, Rollins should not have made that call. Desk duty is desk duty.
– Not a whole lot of ADA Stone this week, but after being all over the last episode, “Mea Culpa,” I think it’s O.K. Stone was absent for the majority of the hour. I still can’t get the details of his sex life out of my head.
– ADA Evan Braun’s attempted justification to the brother’s murder and mummification of their mother has to be one of the guttiest defenses I’ve ever heard. I don’t think she wanted to be put in a freezer when she died, man.
Law and Order: SVU returns with a new episode on January 10th.
