In this week's episode Florida, the Munchie Boys are dragged into the Simon Marsden Saga, leaving them wishing they'd had been sent to Florida on a pointless side mission like Dean Porter was in this one. Alas, they're fully immersed in this Liv-servicing backstory, one which errs into some pretty painful narrative territory and squanders a golden opportunity to dive into what should be rich and interesting waters. There's a lot of next-level bad policework being done, and we're subjected to Olivia Benson channeling the worst impulses of Elliot Stabler, Amanda Rollins, and Nick Amaro in an episode in which nearly every action she takes is anathema to the character we’ve all known for 25 years.

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?