I learned more about ADA Peter Stone in “Mea Culpa” than I ever really wanted to.
Law and Order: SVU “Mea Culpa”
Season 20, Episode 9
Airdate: 11/15/2018
BY: JACOB POLITTE
Staff Writer
*Note: There will be no case recap this week. Instead, details from the case are included throughout my review of the episode.
Assistant District Attorney (ADA) Peter Stone is not a bad character. He’s a poorly written one.
This episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, titled “Mea Culpa,” focuses heavily on the show’s featured ADA; the results of that focus are decidedly mixed.
I’ll start by talking about the positives. The cinematography on this show continues to be amazing for a show about to enter its third decade of production. I personally thought the police work on display was solid this week, unlike the past few weeks which have been rather uneven in that respect.
There are plenty of negatives about this episode, however. Stone continues to be written this season as a stupid person outside of the parameters of his job. When it comes to the law, he’s usually sharp, focused, and very self-aware about what he’s doing and who he’s doing it for; but even on the job, it feels as if he’s suffering. One of the great things about his joining the unit last season was how courageously he called out Benson on her faults unlike everyone else, and it seems like that Stone is all but gone now. He’s still a great lawyer, but he’s not the person he was when he came on the show which is a terrible shame. Also, I learned far too much about his sex life this week and I never want to hear anything about it ever again.
This story was a sloppy mess from start to finish. Although there is no longer a statute of limitations on rape in New York, if the victim, Sarah, did not want to pursue the case, then why did Stone push the matter any further? To clear his conscience? I guess that’s admirable, even if it’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. While he didn’t commit the crime, he did end up creating a giant, arguably unnecessary mess for himself to clean up. Sarah’s husband, Gary, gets involved and the case goes to trial; he later holds Stone hostage at a bar. For some reason, Benson and her team come in and then completely take over the crime scene, rescuing Stone. There’s no way that someone in Benson’s position would be able to do that in the real world; even if it was her case, she doesn’t have the jurisdiction to do so.
The SVU crew definitely should have recused themselves from this particular case. Their caution and confusion about how to pursue the matter is an actual plot point of the episode. While they did an alright job investigating the case by any means, they shouldn’t have been investigating the matter at all as they could be considered too close to Stone to view Sarah’s claims objectively. This should definitely be noted when Stone confides in Benson about Sarah’s claims, but then asks her to open an investigation. Guilty or not, that is a conflict of interest. There’s no way something like this could happen in real life.
JACOB’S FINAL VERDICTS:
– No appearance from Noah this week. That’s great.
– It’s been 19 years and, in this episode, we finally got an extended glimpse of Tutuola’s apartment. It’s neat.
– I might be totally wrong, or it could be the way that the scene was lit, but I think that Benson might have gotten her apartment slightly renovated.
– I completely forgot that Stone apparently once played for the Chicago Cubs as a pitcher. He must have not been that good since nobody talks ever talks about it.
– The actress who played Sarah in this episode, Alexandra Breckenridge, had an arc on The Walking Dead a few years ago. I liked her on that show, and I didn’t know she was appearing in this episode until I saw her on screen; when she did appear, I was pleasantly surprised.
– I love how it feels like everybody on this show has had a drinking problem at some point in their life. Stone clearly has one, Captain Don Cragen used to have one, and even Benson had an implied one a few seasons ago.
– This episode was directed by Mariska Hargitay herself, in her sixth outing behind the director’s chair.
– Reminder: there is no new episode of SVU until Nov. 29, so there will be no recap next week.
