You Belong in a Body Bag, but I’m Gonna Put You in a Cage for Life Instead

This was written by Adam Schwitters at the original incarnation of Munch My Benson back when “Turmoil“ aired. It was originally published on November 12, 2009.

There is a reason we choose to watch Law & Order: SVU. Watching "Turmoil" from the current season, I am reminded exactly why that is. This episode is a non-stop roller coaster ride of rape, murder, the internet, deception, false accusations, and army recruitment that just simply could not fit in to any other program on television.

There are so many crimes in this episode that I will not presume to list them all here, but in short, the unit is in trial for a teenage rape case that just so happens to involve kids from Detective Stabler's son Dickie's school. In the course of the trial, ADA Alex Cabot is threatened with disbarment, photos of the victim appear on Girls Gone Wild, the charges are dropped, the victim attempts suicide with a bottle of oxycodone, a witness is found to have been bribed, the detectives request a new ADA, and finally the rapist is brought to justice. Whew!

Now, if that wasn't enough, there is a parallel story line involving Dickie Stabler and his drug addicted young friend, Shane. Shane and Dickie have a too close for comfort relationship. That has everyone (Stabler, Benson, me) feeling a little uncomfortable. Now Shane and Dickie disappear from school one day, and Stabler goes on the war path trying to find him. When they are found. Dickie is in tears and beating a hobo with a 2x4 because he can't come up with the cash to get Shane into the Army. I guess there won't be any asking or telling in this case. Shane is found naked, stabbed and beaten, killed by the clean-shaven hobo, played by Joshua Page, for enough cash to score another hit. Page turns in a bravura performance as a man riven by demonic addictions.

Let me remind you. All of this occured in one short episode. There is simply no other place on television, in film, or on the internet to find so much pain, filth and degradation in 42 short minutes as Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

SVU, we salute you!

I'll leave you with a quote from Cabot as she is informing the Jonas Brothers-esque rapist that he will not be offered a plea bargain: "It means you're going to prison, and you're going to find out exactly how Nikki felt when you raped her on the bathroom floor."