The first installment of the Neal Baer era is a doozy, pitting our intrepid SVUs against the defense-industrial complex. In a momentary distraction from family time, which became all too common during his time on the Unit, Elliot Stabler is pulled away from his family--in this case Maureen, a daughter who follows instructions POORLY--for a case in which he literally cannot help but become embroiled. Sure, jurisdiction and the vic's very speculative status as a special victim as it burned to a crisp are real-life hurdles that are completely ignored as Stabler and the Unit dig into the vic's eventually uncovered extremely terrible past.

Along the way, we find out that the US government paved the way for an especially odious pedo to victimize innocent youths without any roadblocks or pushback. We also get a Stabler traumatized for the first time and the introduction of one of the most beloved characters in the entire L&O universe. Fun is had amidst the tragic but fairly realistic world in which our victims live.

When we think about what SVU is "about," things like advocating for victims of sexual abuse or normalizing coming forward about abuse or copaganda generally come to mind. This episode, however, is about something entirely different. It postulates that the entire state of New Jersey is irredeemably corrupt and downright evil. From the seagulling scumbags of the cold open to the heights of political and judicial power, the Garden State would appear to have no good side. Did onerous bridge tolls, overpriced beach towns, and the inability to pump ones own gas so poison the Season 15 Writers Room as to turn them this decisively against Jersey?