A young woman is found wandering alone in Central Park resulting in the reopening of a 10 year old case, while Olivia Benson and Sheila Porter go to family court regarding Noah.A young woman is found wandering alone in Central Park resulting in the reopening of a 10 year old case, while Olivia Benson and Sheila Porter go to family court regarding Noah.A young woman is found wandering alone in Central Park resulting in the reopening of a 10 year old case, while Olivia Benson and Sheila Porter go to family court regarding Noah.
- Detective Odafin 'Fin' Tutuola
- (as Ice T)
- Britney Taylor
- (as Ili Ray)
- Dr. Leon Bailey
- (as Lawrence W. Ballard)
- Michael Kim
- (as Kabe Park)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaBrooke Shields plays Noah's natural grandmother. Mariska Hargitay, who plays his adoptive mother, is 16 months older than Shields.
- Goofs14:30 The video camera playback shows the victim was seen entering the subway at 149 Street-Grand Concourse station entrance with a grassy median on the adjoining roadway. Neither 149th Street, nor Grand Concourse (the two intersecting streets at this subway entrance) has grass on their roadway medians.
- Quotes
Trevor Langan: Noah's all right?
Olivia Benson: Yeah, he just has a cold. But today, of all days.
Trevor Langan: I know that this is stressful, but you have got nothing to worry about.
Olivia Benson: Then why are we here?
Trevor Langan: My best guess? Judge Linden agreed to a courtesy hearing to cover her bases. She's the one who suggested you take Noah, and the circumstances were a little bit unorthodox.
Olivia Benson: Just promise me I'm not going to lose my son.
- ConnectionsReferences Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Stranger (2009)
"Complicated" could and should have been a lot better than it turned out. Of a very mixed to unimpressive season, to me this is one of the weaker episodes. It did have good things, but also has all of the flaws present in a vast majority of the season and one of the worst cases of this while also having a major plot point executed in a way that brings the episode down a lot. Very few of Season 19's episodes are bad and it takes a lot for me to call any episode of 'Special Victims Unit' bad, but "Complicated" to me very nearly was that.
Does it have good things? Yes it does, have said more than once about no 'Special Victims Unit' episode being irredeemable and "Complicated" is no exception. The production values are slick and have a subtle grit, with an intimacy to the photography without being too claustrophobic. The music isn't used too much and doesn't get too melodramatic. Some of the direction is suitably accomodating.
Really liked the teaming of Carisi and Rollins, a teaming that has proven to work very well in the past and the episode proves it even more. It was great to see Barba so supportive and while the acting is all fine only Raul Esparza stands out particularly well. He was always one of the main reasons as to why the show was still stuck with when it declined and he has still lost none of his spark.
However, "Complicated" could have been so much better. The case is predictable, over stretched and lacks suspense and have already really tired of how sanctimonious and stubborn Olivia has become since she was promoted, compared to how she was in the earlier seasons it is like seeing a different Olivia and a far less appealing one. Did appreciate that the Olivia personal life subplot was advanced but it added very little to the overall story. The biggest reason as to why the story is as predictable as it is is that it is derivative of Season 10's "Strangers". Which is a much better episode despite not being perfect itself, which robbed it of any kind of suspense.
Furthermore, there is a lot of truly sloppy teamwork, especially regarding the forensics and the "reunion". Isiah Thomas' cameo was beyond awkward and had no reason to be there, like it was lifted from somewhere else entirely. Everything regarding the manslaughter charge was unrealistic, considering how long the victim had been missing there wouldn't realistically be a case because the the statue of limitations cut off point for manslaughter doesn't allow that. The dialogue is on the most part rather trite and needed to be much tighter.
Overall, underwhelming. 4/10.
- TheLittleSongbird
- Dec 14, 2022