After a Muslim woman is assaulted inside of a synagogue, SVU searches for two suspects that were spotted fleeing the scene of the crime.After a Muslim woman is assaulted inside of a synagogue, SVU searches for two suspects that were spotted fleeing the scene of the crime.After a Muslim woman is assaulted inside of a synagogue, SVU searches for two suspects that were spotted fleeing the scene of the crime.
- Sergeant Odafin 'Fin' Tutuola
- (as Ice T)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThis is the 457th episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999), surpassing the total episode count of Law & Order (1990) which ran for 456 episodes from 1990 to 2010.
- GoofsOlivia Benson describes Meow Mix 2.0 as "Morgan's bar," when earlier in the episode it is revealed that the bar is owned by a woman named Tracy Larson.
- Quotes
Amanda Rollins: [about Nahla] So she's gay and an observant Muslim.
Olivia Benson: Why can't she be both?
Amanda Rollins: Fine. Just don't run for office and lie about who you are.
Dominick Carisi Jr.: Well, this is not just political. Growing up unconventional in a devout family, that's gonna be tough in any religion.
Odafin Tutuola: If we were in Iraq, they'd throw her off a roof.
"Assumptions" is not a particularly great episode. Sadly not a particularly good one either, which is being said with a lot of regret. Also not a particularly good at all penultimate episode of a rather patchy season. There are good things and there is one particularly good guest star performance (though the acting is not a problem here generally). But there are also a lot of things that are not good at all, too many for a potentially good episode to be in any way good. Which is saddening.
There are good things. It is a visually slick episode, typical for 'Special Victims Unit' (or at least up to this point) and the 'Law and Order' franchise, and one with the right amount of muted grit, the photography doesn't try to do anything too fancy or gimmicky while not being claustrophobic and keeping things simple. The music doesn't overbear with the theme tune still memorable.
The episode also has one great performance, the unsettling one of Titus Welliver and the character of Rob Miller is interesting and creepy. The acting overall is fine.
However, "Assumptions" is ruined by badly by heavy-handedness, especially the very one-sided political elements. The show indeed has tackled political and topical issues many times before and has done them very well more than once but has also too often made it too clear in an unsubtle way what side of the issue it's on).
Disadavantaged also by that the ripped from the headlines-like case is very muddled from trying to include too much, has too few surprises, is dully paced and is too sensationalist. That the victim is so unsympathetic, one of the season's most unsympathetic, doesn't help. Some of the writing is too overheated and awkward.
Lacklustre overall. 4/10.
- TheLittleSongbird
- Aug 20, 2023