Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 26 Episode 9 Review: First Light

It’s not new that Law & Order: Special Victims Unit takes a case off the headlines and turns it into a storyline. However, this time, it makes us wonder when it is too soon to do such a thing. 

Only a few minutes into Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 26 Episode 9, “First Light,” viewers can easily tell it is a copy of the Pelicot case, which many followed for months until its resolution only weeks ago. With the case being resolved not too long ago, it feels disrespectful to the survivor to have her story imitated for views.

Even though the storyline is handled with respect and the episode itself isn’t bad, there’s still a sense of failure to the survivor. For a show about empowering survivors, it dropped the ball not giving this survivor the time to process what happened to her before she became a plotline.

Off The News Cycle

Even though the “First Light” storyline is known to the viewers and very close to what happened to Gisèle Pelicot, the show puts its twists to make the plot work within the boundaries of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

Like in real life, the survivor gets the justice she deserves after her husband orchestrates her many sexual assaults. Amy Landecker does an amazing job portraying Katharine Vernon, giving voice to a survivor who deserves to be heard and believed.

In real life, the case will be remembered by everyone because of Pelicot’s desire to put the shame on the men who committed the crime rather than on the woman who was assaulted. During the episode, this idea is voiced by Katharine when she takes the stand.

Instead of talking about shame, she talks about degradation. By bringing the case to trial, she is making sure that the degradation falls on her husband for committing the crime and not on her for having been assaulted.

However, as respectfully as the show handles this storyline, there’s still moral ambiguity in bringing a story like this to life on TV. While it is understandable that a show like Law & Order: Special Victims Unit wants to bring awareness to all sorts of cases, this feels too soon.

Because we know what Pelicot went through and the news of her trial was everywhere for months, we feel as if dramatizing her life on an episode like this isn’t fair to her and her story. Even though the show doesn’t explicitly say it’s about her, it is hard to watch one without thinking of the other.

Hopefully, moving forward the show will wait at least a few months before taking real cases and fictionalizing them for the sake of a good episode.

Carisi’s PTSD

While it’s always nice to see Amanda Rollins back on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, it is clear that her character only appears on this episode for the sake of Carisi’s storyline. Everything her team helps SVU with could have been done by someone on TARU. Nevertheless, for those of us who still miss Rollins, it’s good to have her around.

The truth is that the episode does a good job of portraying the aftermath of Carisi being held captive, watching someone die, and witnessing someone being assaulted. He is clearly not okay, and the signs of PTSD are there. The flashbacks to what happened to him are only the surface of his problem.

What is worth criticizing about his storyline is Benson’s part in it. While we can completely understand her checking in on him and asking how he is doing, her final behavior toward him is completely unacceptable.

As someone who has struggled with PTSD for many seasons, Benson should be the last person to tell Carisi to “wake up.” Contrary to that, she should understand why it’s taking him so long to process what happened and deal with it.

For someone who pushes therapy on everyone she meets, this is the one situation in which Benson should have actually pushed for Carisi to go to therapy instead of returning to work.

In the end, viewers can see Carisi having dinner with his wife and kids and smiling. Does this mean he is okay?

Having a breakdown mid-trial and his boss telling him to step down are signs that he isn’t okay. A word from Benson and a dinner with his family aren’t the cure he needs. Hopefully, this will be explored further on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and not pushed under the rug like so many other storylines before.

Between Benson’s approach to Carisi’s PTSD and the very mediatic storyline, this episode is a roller coaster of emotions. As viewers, we don’t know if we should like it because the storyline is good and Carisi’s issues add to it or if we should be upset by the disrespect of a real victim and the push on Carisi to just be okay.

However, what must be highlighted is Curry’s work. She continues to prove to be the best addition to the show since Rollins’s departure. She knows how to work SVU, pairs up amazingly with Benson, and treats the case in the professional manner we expect them to be treated.

Hopefully, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 26 will dive deeper into this character.

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Law & Order: Special Victims Unit airs Thursdays at 9/8c on NBC.

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