Law & Order: SVU Season 24 Episode 4 Review: The Steps We Cannot Take

SVU detectives experience the most horrific side of human nature.

Law & Order: SVU Season 24 Episode 4 demonstrated this through a bizarre case involving a series of kidnappings that left several young women traumatized.

In the end, the survivors were free to try to put the pieces of their lives back together, but is there any way of getting past what happened to them?

The girls were tortured in ways that left deep psychological scars.

They quickly learned that speaking up meant severe punishment and were left frightened of talking and doors closing. Even worse, Bella was born into this toxic environment and has never known anything other than having to be quiet to avoid punishment.

The most disturbing thing about all of this is there didn’t seem to be any reason for it. Soren was a pedophile who kidnapped the girls and used them sexually, but there was more to it than that.

He forced them to be a bizarre type of “family” that was completely under his control, and he regularly looked for new girls to add to the mix.

I almost wish he had lived so that he could explain himself. What delusions fueled his decision to do this to these girls?

We’ll never know, and maybe that was the point. Some people do horrible things for no discernable reason, and these young women were unlucky enough to cross paths with one of them.

The girls not only were traumatized but absorbed the ‘culture’ of Soren’s home. They all knew his slogan about good girls and bad girls and were hesitant to speak to the cops.

In some ways, they were similar to ex-cult members. It’s going to take a lot of therapy to unlearn the lessons their captor taught them about how to stay safe.

Gillian: How am I supposed to walk out that door knowing what’s out there?
Benson: Gillian, you know, there’s also so much good out there. Your freedom. your family.

It’s shocking that Gillian remembered her parents well enough to go home to them, considering how long she’d been held captive and how much trauma she’d endured. She and her daughter have a long road ahead of them now.

Hopefully, the question of who killed Soren won’t come back to bite any of them. Bella was a child who had seen horrific abuse and doesn’t deserve to be punished for killing the man who hurt all the women she loves.

Maxwell’s warning worries me, though. It could have been a throwaway line, but these ominous messages are rarely meaningless. Will this case arise again, causing trouble both for SVU and a little girl trying to stop a monster from killing her friend’s baby?

Justice can be blind, but she’s not entirely heartless. And you’ll see how heartless I can be if this conversation comes back to haunt me.

Maxwel

Rollins seemed to be far more stable than she has been since the shooting. I don’t know how that happened, but it was a relief!

The perp shot two people, and there was no shortage of women needing protection. Both of those things could have triggered Rollins and made it impossible for her to work this case properly.

Thankfully, she could keep it together this time and do some solid police work, but will she fall apart again now that it’s over?

With only four more episodes left before her swan song, I’m concerned. Is Rollins moving toward a happy ending or a nervous breakdown?

Meanwhile, Muncy made progress toward fitting in with the squad.

I’ve found this whole storyline about her inability to be professional confusing. Benson hired her because she could connect with special victims; the person Benson met didn’t seem to have anything to do with the one on-screen the last several weeks.

It makes sense that SVU is very different from working in the gang unit, but it’s not like Muncy is entirely new to police work. And until now, her empathy didn’t come out; she was strictly unprofessional and annoying.

Fortunately, she finally got her chance to shine. She did a great job of questioning Elias and talking to Pria.

Benson was right that Muncy could have ruined the case by beating up Elias. I’d have liked a deeper reason for that than Muncy being used to working in the gang unit.

That would have been more compelling if she was overzealous because of what Elias had allegedly done to the girls instead of because she doesn’t know how to restrain a suspect without losing it.

I also wasn’t sure what was wrong with her wardrobe this time. She wasn’t showing cleavage or otherwise dressed inappropriately. Now that she’s dragged Valesco on a shopping trip let’s hope we never have to hear about that again.

Fin and Muncy shared a semi-sweet moment toward the end of the hour. I liked the way Fin pointed out that beating someone with a radio was a bad idea since she may need that radio!

Critics of the police might not like that this conversation appears to condone police violence. But while cops shouldn’t use unnecessary force, this conversation felt realistic.

The way to address police brutality isn’t to demand that TV shows pretend it doesn’t exist; this conversation was the kind of thing that allows viewers to make up their minds about how they feel.

Your turn, SVU fanatics. Hit that big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know your thoughts. Watch Law & Order: SVU online if you need a refresher first.

Law & Order: SVU airs on NBC on Thursdays at 9 PM EST / PST. The next new episode will air on October 27, 2022.

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Jack Ori is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. His debut young adult novel, Reinventing Hannah, is available on Amazon. Follow him on Twitter.

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