Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (TV Series) Pathological (2018) User Reviews

Another "torn from the headlines" episode

[sycamoreavenue · 7/10 · 24 June 2018]

The storyline here is taken from the real life Gypsy Blanchard story, a young woman whose mother moved her from place to place and doctor to doctor to keep the story going that Gypsy was an unbelievably sick kid (she was actually much older than neighbors, friends, others thought because of the way her mother DeeDee kept her infantilized). Another reviewer complained that this episode didn't focus on just one issue (the issue of consensual sex between young people with disabilities), but that's only because Law & Order SVU kept pretty much to reality with only slight variations. Given that this is a take off on a real life story, the acting was pretty good: young Mariel starts out as someone with significant cognitive delays as well as health issues, and once "freed" from the Munchausen mother, her cognitive abilities evolve to more like her real age.

Munchausen's by Proxy is a very uncommon but serious mental disorder, and the ripples from it can be devastating to the child but also others around the child/family. Like SVU regularly does, this episode spotlighted an important issue that is little understood by the general public but one that we should be aware of.

Rafael Barba is great as always

[brueggemanntami · 8/10 · 16 May 2020]

I just have to say that Rafael Barba has become my favorite character on this show. He does whatever it takes to make sure that justice finds a way to the best of his abilities. I wasn't sure about him at first, but he really has shined this season. This character has grown and changed in so many ways since he was introduced. I would be proud and grateful to have him on my side.

Manipulation

[TheLittleSongbird · 7/10 · 24 December 2022]

The 'Law and Order' franchise did the "ripped from the headlines" kinds of stories a lot. To me, the original 'Law and Order' did these kinds of stories a lot better and more consistently than 'Special Victims Unit'. The best "ripped from the headlines" 'Law and Order' episodes are truly wonderful and avoid the traps that come from having stories based, whether to the letter or loosely, on real life cases. Whereas the latter seasons of 'Special Victims Unit' did a lot and the results wildly varied, with many average or less.

"Pathological" is an example of the "ripped from the headlines" kinds of cases from the latter seasons, and it is better than a lot of them. It didn't blow me away as an episode and the show did do this type of story better with even more tact in the earlier seasons, but it is certainly a lot less preachy, less sensationalist, less one sided and more uncompromising than most of those that were also from the latter seasons. Was not a big fan of Season 19, but it did have some good episodes and "Pathological" was one of them.

Good things are many. The production values as ever have slickness and grit, with an intimacy without being claustrophobic. The music has presence when it's used but does so without being intrusive, some of it is quite haunting too. The direction is also understated but the tension never slips, the second half being full of it. The script is taut and smart with very little sign of rambling or long winded-ness. Doesn't take itself too seriously while treating a difficult subject with respect.

Really liked the story on the whole, if more so the first than the second. Which was harrowing, moving and went at an energised clip. The ripped from the headlines aspect of the case is not heavy handed or exploited. The acting is very good to great from leads and supporting players.

By all means, "Pathological" isn't perfect with it being a case of the first half being better than the second. The truth about Mariel and the hold she was under with the medication and what she was being told was obvious and more should have been made of it.

It is not as good when the case, at an implausibly fast rate, goes to trial. The trial portion is flimsy in evidence and it is a case that could easily have been abandoned right away, if you take into account Mariel's state of mind. Absolutely love Barba but he uncharacteristically comes over as idiotic and stubborn here, especially the elevator scene and his ludicrous response to being asked too late by Olivia to drop the charges.

Overall, good episode if not amazing. 7/10.

Deedee and Gypsy Rose Blanchard

[PrincessMiahhh · 10/10 · 9 April 2019]

This episode seems to be a version of the infamous case of Deedee and Gypsy Rose Blanchard.

·Mother keeping her daughter in a wheel chair knowing that she can walk

·Speaking of all the illnesses her daughter has but they really don't exist

·Mother having Munchausen by Proxy

·Father being out of the picture because he couldn't "Handle her Illnesses"

·Everyone Loves her daughter

·Daughter has a boyfriend that is mentally unstable

It is almost a replica of the case. I highly suggest watching or hearing about the case of Deedee and Gypsy Rose Blanchard and then watching Law and Order: Special Victims Unit Season 19, Episode 10: Pathological.

Sympathetic Defendant: The Little Mermaid

[yazguloner · 10/10 · 10 March 2021]

We are watching a story about medical child abuse. It is a tragic drama.

This is a episode that justice only happens in movies/series.

Is this hope or despair?

I don't know

Guest actress sick daughter and mother performances are great.

Barba's charisma and his big heart fascinates in this story as well. His human step will show itself for the last time in the following episodes. I want to cry.

Another similarity

[PrincessMiahhh · 10/10 · 10 April 2019]

·Daughter also found a way to kill her mother as punishment

Erin Wilhelmi is genius

[phuketboy · 10/10 · 15 November 2018]

Writer & creator is genius.

this episode is amazing.

Pathological

[bobcobb301 · 7/10 · 17 January 2018]

After the last episode was great SVU gave us another good one here. Two enjoyable hours in a row hasn't happened in a long time with this show.

It was an interesting case here, although the show needs to stop introducing a premise and quickly go away from it. I would have rather seen the episode focus on whether the situation between the two students was rape or not, and not about a mother poisoning her daughter.

A pharmaceutical collage

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 11 January 2018]

This episode has SVU catch a case from a special needs school. Two of the kids there, Conor Tague and Erin Wilhelmi are caught having sex and the cries of rape go up. As neither of these kids quite understand about consent the case is plainly unprosecutable.

But a consult from Tamara Tunie from the ME's office yields the fact that after a seizure Wilhelmi's body is a pharmaceutical collage and that this is what is giving her all the ailments she has that put her in need of special ed in the first place.

Some nice performances from Tague and Wilhelmi as the kids and George Sheffey and Dendrie Taylor as Wilhelmi's parents are noted in this SVU story. Also Carolyn McCormick as Dr. Elizabeth Olivet returns after a long absence.

Some parents are in need of some truly special education.

Sensationalism

[lor_ · 3 July 2023]

SVU takes on a famous case of a mother who for many years made her daughter sick (with drugs) so she could take care of her and make her dependent. The story reeks of the sort of over-the-top material featured in many an exploitation movie made in the '60s, but here it's fodder for Dick Wolf's hugely successful series.

But the treatment is as gee whiz as a soft porn movie but minus the cheap thrills. I don't see how that can work, but script here tries by having the star of the show (Kelli Giddish) a female cop/single mother, identifying heavily with both the mom and kid -sort of how an audience might feel. But that gimmick was a contrivance -unconvincing.

So we're asked to wallow in sleaze that isn't sleazy because it's a squeaky clean network tv show. The SVU team couldn't solve this Catch-22, damned if you do and damned if you don't situation, but in the spirit of Wolf's gimmicky "torn from the headlines" overall concept it's full speed ahead for a crappy episode, replete with a convenient sugar-coated utterly phony sort of happy ending.

As the misfortunate kid, Erin Wilhelmi, looks like a teen version of the late Sondra Locke, but is hampered with this unplayable material.