Where on earth were Munch and Fin? At one point when Morales was protesting the use of the DNA dragnet all I could think was my God they've given him Munch's lines. And the mother kills baby and hides it has been done to death so we all knew that wasn't it didn't we? Also saw the shirtless scene coming for a mile. I hate to be manipulated and even more I don't like it when I tune in to watch law & Order Special Victims Unit and I get the Stabler show or the Benson show. How about some ensemble work. ANd how about we go back to what the show is suppose to be about, this season has been about everything but Special Victims.

Yet another stellar installment in this season's revamped law & Order C,I as the new show runner focuses more on character development. Rita Moreno turned in a performance as Bobby Goren's mom that is likely once again to have her in contention as an Emmy nominee. Her paranoid, demanding Frances Goren was an incredible foil for D'onofrio's overstressed dutiful and loving son.

The case that brings Goren, Eames and Ross away from their Holiday plans is somwhat minimize in favor of showing the stress Goren is under and even still there are other fine performances in the storyline.

And while not wanting to give the whole story away the ending left me staring at the screen wondering what happens next

Week after week, Law & Order SVU tackles the tough cases - rape, incest, pedophilia, elder abuse, and all along the way they manage to inform and entertain. The foundation of any Law & Order show is always a thought-provoking plot, coupled with a few, nowadays expected, twists and turns.

Just as a good actor can't do much with a bad script, a great script can be ruined by an inadequate cast, but as always with a Dick Wolf production you get a cast that can pull you in and make you believe that Olivia Benson, Elliot Stabler, John Munch, Fin Tutuola, Captain Cragen, Dr Huang, Casey Novak and ME Warner are all real people. Professionals doing difficult jobs and sometimes exposing to us their all too human frailities.

I can always count on Law & Order to bring the most unexpected actors and actresses on to guest star, John Ritter (Jack Tripper) as a man who attacks his wife, ripping the unborn child out of her that he believes belongs to another man; Henry Winkler (the Fonz) a con man who planned to murder his wife, Dean Cain (Superman) as a rapist.

Each week I know when I tune in to law & Order SVU that I will be entertained and I may learn something. After some episodes I'm left in tears or outraged, and rarely ever indifferent.

Throughout this episode we see the constant contrast of the acceptance of an older cop culture that Lennie and Flynn belong to, and the newer breed of cop represented by Curtis and Flynn's partner. Curtis would give no extra consideration to a cop but Lennie will, up to a point and then he too is ready to turn his old friend in for his collaoration with the enemy.

In the episode we learn more about Lennie's past with the department, he worked 3 years in Queens in the 116 before coming to the 27. We hear more about his drinking days and get a picture of a Lennie Briscoe who is a bit more human and less admirable than any other we've seen before, a man who drinks too much, takes advantage of his co-workers charity to cover for his drinking, and has an affair with a married woman who also happens to work with him. Yet we also see him trying his best to protect his ex-lover. As always Lennie Briscoe comes off as a knight in rusty, dented armour.

There are several scenes in this episode that I love; Lennie's threat to kick McCoy's ass from here to Hoboken, his verbal attack on Judge Hellman and something that Jerry Orbach was the king of, making a small gesture that speaks volumes. When Lennie's ex-lover wants to talk to him and suggests walking across the street, as he turns to go with her, he smoothes his hair. It's a tiny gesture, but exactly the kind of thing a guy might do when an ex comes to call, regardless of the reason.

The actor playing Flynn was exceptionally convincing as the cynical good cop gone bad, at times I hated the character and at other times I pitied the character.

There were a few things that bugged me in the episode. I couldn't imagine two guys in business suits buying a large quantity of drugs from a guy who looked like a street kid. And then there was the ending, Lennie turns down Rey's dinner invitation because he has to see a friend who is having family problems. Now Lennie did come right out and say he was seeing Betty Abrams, but ....

I can imagine that Betty's testimony might not have gone over too well with her husband, after all she did admit, on TV apparently, that she'd had three affairs. So I've always wondered if her testimony was causing problems in her marriage, why on earth would she want to see her ex-lover? Wouldn't seeing him make things worse?

Oh well, as far as I was concerned, a great episode and I didn't mind that it strayed from the strict Law & Order procedural format, change is good, once in a while.

The actual case was at the time a rather unique one. A teacher is wounded in a shooting outside a high school. Eventually Lennie & Rey figure out that a mentally retard girl was sexually assaulted at a school by several boys and the girl's younger sister shot at the boys in retaliation. Although the boys are apprehended, a conviction proves difficult to come by, until they can prove that the boys knew the girl was mentally retarded and therefore unable to give consent. Although eventually the boys are found guilty the judge sets them free because he believes the jury convicted based more on emotion than on law. McCoy has to give up on the case because the young mentally retarded woman would rahter not be viewed as "the retard who got raped" but rather as a young woman who chose to participate in the sexual encounter.

In the mean time, Kathy Briscoe, who had on a previous episode been arrested for involvement in drug theft from the hospital she worked at, testified at the trial for her exboyfriend/drug dealer. A skilled defense attorney used the way the sting was handled and things from Lennie''s background (like his being brought before the Hellman commission on charges of drug theft from an evidence locker- something he was innocent of) to muddy the waters. The jury deadlocked and so the drug dealer was set free, shortly after that kathy is found dead in a vacant lot, a single gunshot to the head. LEnnie and Rey arrive at the scene and Lennie is of course devasted.

I thought the acting in this episode was incredible. Jennifer Bill the actress who played Kathy Briscoe was brillant and Jerry Orbach finally got a chance to show his range.