Let's Talk Television: the selfie heard round the world

The blush is still on the rose, but this week The Pitt established itself as maybe the best medical drama ever.

New This Week

• White Lotus (Max)

• FBI (Paramount+)

• FBI Most Wanted (Paramount+)

• 9-1-1 (Hulu)

• Doctor Odyssey (Hulu)

• Law & Order (Peacock)

• Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (Peacock)

• The Pitt (Max)

The Good

These are the episodes I recommend watching.

FBI: Most Wanted

This week Remy (Dylan McDermott) is back and Hana (Keisha-Castle Hughes) is off, and Scola (FBI’s John Boyd) joins Nina (Shantel VanSanten) for some more family drama.

The team catch the case of a serial killer, Mia (guest Mackenzie Lansing), a young woman who was groomed and raped as a teen. Her anger issues got her in trouble while working at a strip club and it landed her in an asylum where she she was put on antipsychotic medication. When released she went off the meds and started looking for random creepy men in bars, following them into secluded sidewalks, and stabbing them with the knitting needles of her great aunt who was in an abusive marriage and strangling them with the scarf her abuser gifted her. She also has a tattoo of four ‘B’s in different fonts as a shout out to South Korea’s 4B movement and the surge of attention it got in the US after the election of Donald Trump.

After killing four men and attempting to kill a fifth, Mia goes after the music teacher turned esteemed professor who raped her repeatedly when she was fifteen. She gets him to confess at knifepoint in front of his wife and baby, her great-aunt, and our FBI. Caught and with only prison in her future Mia has no reason not to kill him but Remy and Nina intervene to point out that the women watching are innocent and they promise he will go to prison. Mia asks her rapist to say the names of the other young women he attacked and he responds there are too many to remember, which horrifies everyone but especially his wife, who is also much younger than him. Mia gives up her weapon and Remy cuffs her while Nina cuffs the rapist and calls in sex crimes.

Meanwhile, Nina’s sister Tink (guest Hannah Adrian) asks for $36k to save her house because her deadbeat abusive husband wasn’t paying the mortgage. Tink tells Nina says she kicked her husband out but in fact, she took him back and he’s still living with her and their kids. Scola argues that the husband got treatment and deserves a second chance. Nina reluctantly agrees but says if he’s back, he can deal with their money issues but Scola admits he already wrote the check. Nina is very angry that he made a decision about her family without talking to her. Scola thinks she’s taking out her anger at Tink on him but Nina says she’s angry at both of them because they both lied to her. This is messy but Nina is correct.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

We catch up with Ellie, the influencer from the episode “Rorschach”, which had the misfortune of coming out on the week of the election, so I wrote about that instead. My four-month late take is ripped from these headlines and worth watching. The important thing to know for the new episode is that Ellie is in a coma and unresponsive except one time Olivia (Mariska Hargitay) visited her in the trauma unit, and Ellie squeezed her hand so Ellie’s mother refuses to take her off life support.

Now, we learn that Ellie is pregnant. Conception is unable to pinpoint due to her status, so it’s not clear if the father is Chris (guest Graham Patrick Martin), the abusive boyfriend in prison for attempted murder, or she was raped while in a coma. They go to court to get a DNA test, which proves Chris is not the father, but DNA testing hospital employees doesn’t get a match either. The chief of neurosurgery evades the test, which seems suspect, but no, he just thinks he’s above it (feels accurate). He admits to visiting Ellie more than other patients, but it’s because Benson got in his head: he went to double and triple check she was not capable of response before recommending she be taken off life support. I love this for Olivia, to see the impact she has even outside of her purview. Doc says Ellie was not responsive, but it made him think about higher things, and he points Benson toward her pastor. The pastor was caught on camera, shifty as soon as he hears Ellie’s name, super avoids giving a DNA sample, and flees the scene when SVU shows up to arrest him (in the middle of a sermon on the importance of forgiveness, which is both funny and great). He claims God called him to Ellie’s side and Ellie consented to the rape by squeezing his hand. Horrifying, I hope this comes back, too, ‘cause I wanna see Carisi (Peter Scanavino) take him down.

When asked to get the DNA test, Ellie’s mother, Laura (guest Jama Williamson), says her family is already pressuring her to end the pregnancy because Chris is responsible for the coma, what will they say if the baby is the product of rape, which implies she and her family think that would be worse. This brings us to the point and what makes this episode so good, and it’s the opposite of what I’ve been whining about lately: character consistency. The continuity of Ellie’s story leads us to the continuity of Olivia’s story.

The audience knows from episode one that Olivia was a baby born from a rape. It’s her clunky pilot introduction, the distillation of her essence, the reason she does what she does and is who she is. It comes up now and again through the many years, but it is always under the surface. Here, it’s textual twice and referenced throughout. Fin (Ice-T) tries to get her to talk but accepts that she doesn’t want to. He tells the squad to give her space and keep their questions to themselves. And when Curry (Aimé Donna Kelly) says she knows—because she was IAB and investigated her, not because Liv told her, which is gross but real—Fin provides the thesis.

“Benson’s still working through some things like the rest of us, but those things are what make her built for this job.”

The episode is bookended by two scenes at Serena Benson’s grave, which again calls back all the way to season and episode one. Olivia tells Ellie (still in a coma) that she knows from personal experience that it will be hard for her baby to know their father was a rapist. But she also knows that Ellie’s mother loves her unconditionally. Serena was an abusive alcoholic whose love was never unconditional because her daughter represented the violence that altered the course of her life. Olivia tells her mother, “I just want you to know that I’ve been working really hard on forgiveness.” A+ writers for many reasons.

While Noah doesn’t appear in the episode, it also parallels his story. Olivia attends a family court session for Baby Doe, the child of Ellie, who was raped, all of which is a reference to Noah. And in contrast to her mother, Olivia absolutely loves her son unconditionally and did from the moment she met him, or really from years earlier.

Finally, we also get a shout-out to the trial for the deli incident when Carisi was held hostage, and we can certainly expect to see that trial, which I look forward to. That episode was great and did right by Carisi and the Carisi and Benson relationship, unlike the rest of the season.

The Pitt

This episode is incredible. If you watch no other episodes of The Pitt (which doesn’t make sense with the conceit of the series, but you do you), watch this episode. The best, most amazing part, and what differentiates it finally from ER, is that it sets the drama in the hospital doing their job efficiently based on a clear and understood protocol that they prepared, tested, learned, and now enact as a team. Robby (Noah Wyle) is in charge, but leadership is delegated, and they’re given bright orange vests to make it obvious to everyone. The hospital admin, who’s been fighting with Robby all day, jumps in to give him everything he needs. Staff off shift show up and get to work. All the newbies who started today and don’t know the protocol pick it up with ease because they are surrounded by people who do. Contrast all that with every time Carter (it was always Carter, also played by Noah Wyle, which makes this all the more brilliant) took control at County General without any training or authority because no one knew what they were doing, and no one else stood up to try.

I’m not gonna say much because I really want everyone to watch it, but here are things to know going into next week. Langdon (Patrick Ball) shows up, which makes Robby furious, and Santos (Isa Briones), Garcia (Alexandra Metz), and Dana (Katherine LaNasa) wary, but Mel (Taylor Dearden) is delighted to see him. Collins (Tracey Ifeachor) doesn’t show up because she turned off her phone per Robby’s instructions. Cassie (Fiona Dourif) sends her ex to the staff lounge to wait with their son because no one can get through the chaos to pick him up, and the ex’s surgery was postponed because it’s not critical. Robby’s stepson and his girlfriend, who were at the event the shooter targeted, are MIA. The shooter remains unknown, but evidence suggests it could be the kid from the first episode. And SWAT arrives on the scene because the shooter is now potentially en route to the hospital.

The Bad

Bad equates to “I don’t have much to say about this.

White Lotus

Things start to escalate! The Women Who W(h)ine get drunk and dance. Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger), Lochlan (Sam Nivola), Chloe (Charlotte Le Bon), and Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) get drunk, high, and dance. Rick (Walton Goggins) goes to Bangkok and meets with a friend (guest Sam Rockwell) who has a monologue about wanting to get railed like the hot Asian girl he really is, and neither Rick nor I know how to react. Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook) tells her parents she is not writing a thesis; she just wanted to go to the monastery, and it’s as awesome as she expected, so now she’s planning to stay for at least a year, and her mom loses it. Tim (Jason Isaac) spirals for unrelated reasons and tries to try to shoot himself with the gun he stole last week. Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong) knows Tim has his gun but can’t figure out how to get it back. Belinda (Natasha Rothwell) learns Gary/Greg (Jon Gries) is asking questions about her, and now that she knows he’s a murderer, she tries to get the police, but Fabian (Christian Friedel) says nah so she asks Pornchai (Dom Hetrakul) to stay with her (get it, Belinda).

FBI

This week’s case is a copycat of Ray Distefano (guest Matthew Rauch), whom Maggie (Missy Peregrym) caught twice, but he’s escalated from assault to murder. Maggie visits with Ray to get info on how to catch the killer, and they determine where he’s finding his victims. Unfortunately, he escapes with another girl, so Maggie heads back to Ray and trades him furlough to see his dying dad for intel. Ray agrees, not knowing his dad is already dead. They save the girl and shoot the killer. When Maggie tells Ray his furlough is canceled because his father is dead, and admits she knew that all along, Ray freaks out and threatens her. So we can look forward to Maggie being kidnapped and tortured while feeling bad about herself for lying to a criminal who cuts up women for fun (I do not look forward to it).

9-1-1

Bobby (Peter Krause) and the 118 are called to help with a mass seizure event that turns out to be carbon monoxide poisoning. But more importantly, it’s a faith-healing event run by Bobby’s mom (guest Lesley Ann Warren) and brother (guest Sean O’Bryan). They are estranged because he thinks she’s a fraud. An attempt at reconciliation falters, but when Bobby learns that she’s dying, they make up.

Buck (Oliver Stark) struggles to move into the place he’s subletting from Eddie (Ryan Guzan, though he doesn’t appear) and hooks up with his ex, Tommy (Lou Ferrigno Jr.), but the breakup is still on because Tommy calls out Buck’s crush on Eddie and Buck takes it badly. And in a way that is very scoldy to the Buddie fandom, of which I’m not, but I still felt scolded so really to the whole audience. Buck decides to work on being okay with being alone, and hopefully, that means he’ll stop trying to make Ravi (Anirudh Pisharody) the new Eddie.

Doctor Odyssey

It’s Casino Week, and Athena (9-1-1’s Angela Bassett) gets stuck on board. The FBI called the LAPD to the cruise ship to take a suspected thief into custody, and she got trapped in a broom closet by the thief’s accomplice. Athena and Max (Joshua Jackson) work together to find the remaining thieves. It was a poor excuse for a mystery (I guessed the thief upon introduction) or a heist but still sort of fun I guess.

The other guest with a plot is a young woman, Daphne (guest Jade Pettyjohn), who is dying of heart disease and just wants one final adventure. She gets a call that a heart is available for transplant, but they only have four hours to get there. Luckily, she can get a ride on the federal helicopter sent to pick up the criminals.

Law & Order

It’s the Luigi Mangione episode we all saw coming. But they did it head-on rather than adding a classic Laws and Orders twist, and they don’t tell us the verdict, which may feel like a cop-out, but I think I respect it. It forces the audience to think about what they wanted it to be and why.

The shooter guns down the CEO of an evil health insurance corporation (which, for the record, is all health insurance corporations), and the city reacts by helping him escape detection. He’s caught trying to shoot a second CEO and pleas Not Guilty by reason of self-defense because said CEOs are actively menacing society at all times by putting profits over people.

Vince (Reid Scott) is firmly on the side of law over people or profits, which makes sense for his character and for Laws and Orders. Nolan (Hugh Dancy) is, too, and he Nolans all over the place, but Sam (Odelya Halevi) argues for the people, and Baxter (Tony Goldwyn) is surprisingly sympathetic to the shooter over the money-grubbing CEOs who fund his campaign. Nuance!

The defense attorney is played by Laila Robbins in her third Law & Order appearance (as three different characters). But her first was as Diana Hawthorne, Jack McCoy’s ex-partner in both law and love who hid evidence to help his case, and I was distracted by it. But also so into it because I would love for Diana to get out of prison, get her law license back, and dedicate herself to defending people who are guilty but only in the eyes of the law. Jack would be so proud.

The Ugly

Don’t bother.

None, good job shows.

Also Watching

In addition to Top Chef, my son and I started watching Twin Peaks. He’s never seen it and I haven’t seen it since I watched live in 1990 when I was probably too young but also OBSESSED. I had the soundtrack on cassette!

Mental Illness Sidebar

FBI: Most Wanted made good use of therapy sessions to tell the story, which is not something I say too often about the Wolfverse. But the scenes with Mia’s court-appointed therapist, Dr. Kagan (guest Sebastian Arcelus), gave us her motivation in a more organic way than monologuing to Remy would and set up the climax well. We also got two scenes of the FBI asking for confidential information about a mental patient, and again, they handled it…well?? First, her therapist at the asylum refused to help them without going through the process (we’re maybe supposed to be annoyed with her, but she’s right!) Later, when they tell Kagan that Mia killed four people, he does share info. This highlights the difference between Mia being a possible suspect and Mia being an imminent danger to others. Also, Kagan knows Mia has a history of violence because he’s seeing her as part of the plea deal, and he’s not super surprised that she went on a killing spree, so he has clearer motivations than the earlier therapist (who I assume knew Mia’s history but had not seen her since she was discharged healthy).

I find the stuff with Tink and her husband interesting, too. I really really love the Wolfverse giving us people (here, Scola) saying that treatment is valid and atonement is possible. It’s not clear to me if we are to believe that Brett is working hard to do better, but if he is, he does deserve support. At the same time, Nina is right to be wary. The money stuff is also really interesting because paying off the debt takes the stress of money and losing the house off of Tink and Brett, which has to help his recovery. But again, Nina is right that Scola should have discussed it with her. There are no easy answers here.

Olivia says she’s been thinking about her mother a lot, “especially in therapy”. I approve of therapy being ongoing and important to Olivia given everything we know about her. And I approve of her mother’s life and death weighing on her 25 years later because grief doesn’t disappear with time and also I relate.

Ship of the Week

In Thailand, Lochlan is too into kissing his brother for the girls, but Saxon is turned on. In the middle of the ocean, Max tells Avery (Philippa Soo) that he is all in and basically proposes ‘happy ever after’ to her. Avery tells Max she’s going to have the baby and is holding off on the rest of her decisions. Tristan (Sean Teale) watches the exchange from afar, and as I said last week, he DESERVES BETTER.

In Los Angeles, they should focus on Athena and Bobby because calling out fans is a bad look. Even annoying fans, which Buddies are, but if you must say something, say something online, not on the show. In Pittsburgh, everyone was way too busy to flirt.

In NYC, Maggie woke up with her 9-1-1 operator, who I’d forgotten existed, but they’re cute, I guess. Nina and Scola are on the outs. There were no shippy on the slant moments between Nolan and Sam but I’m kind of shipping Jack and reformed Diana. Also, this happened—

Christopher Meloni and Mariska Hargitay pose for a selfie on the set of Law & Order: SVU. Posted to Instagram.

on the same week that Olivia says she’s working hard on forgiveness. So, they win, sorry not sorry.

Show of the Week

The Pitt by a large margin but SVU in my heart.

What are YOU watching?