Law & Order: SVU Season 21 Episode 14 Review: I Deserve Some Loving Too
Jack Ori
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Immigration injustice stories have become a hot topic on TV ever since the family separation policy was enacted in real life.
Law & Order: SVU Season 21 Episode 14 jumped on the bandwagon for the second time since 2017, this time dealing with an immigration official who was raping green card applicants
It was a tough case, but was it realistic?
Immigration officials do ask some of the types of questions that Rollins and Khaldun practiced, such as what side of the bed each one slept on.
While many TV shows turn this into couples having to prove they love one another (I'm looking at you, Days of Our Lives!), that's not quite the case.
As SVU suggested, government officials check whether the couple lives together, how long they've been together, and what type of future they're planning on building together.
I want to give you an easy out here. My client is a USCIS employee. It's his job to find green card scams. He found one.
Lawyer
O'Toole's defense that he was checking the authenticity of the relationship by seeing if the wives would be faithful to their husbands didn't hold water, since that wouldn't prove whether or not a couple was sincere about planning a future together.
Besides, even if he was just "playing a role," the power dynamics would have rendered that sort of test invalid. The wives would have felt forced whether he meant to rape them or not.
That said, the SVU team jumped the gun by arresting O'Toole before he did anything untoward.
That opened the door to the defense that it was just words, while there would be no doubt had he lay down with Rollins and tried to touch her or undress her.
The team wanted to make sure he didn't sexually assault her, but being overcautious didn't help anything.
Benson: We know that O'Toole talked to you three times outside of the office.
Lina: Three times. But what I did, I had to do.
In any case, though, SVU did a good job of showing the various situations in which immigrants might find themselves.
Most stories dealing with immigration focus only on people coming from South America, which is where the current controversy is taking place.
But immigration laws can and do affect many types of families. Including an Irish immigrant family who also happened to be gay was a nice touch, as was not making Lina's abusive husband the focus of the hour.
Each of the immigrants had their own stories and reasons for not coming forward, which was more realistic.
Detective: You tell stories, Eddie. Well, I'm here to tell you one, a sad story about a woman who loved a man so much she did a terrible thing to be with him.
Eddie: Does this story also have to do with Rory O'oole?
At first, I wasn't sure whether the relationship between Eddie and Rozemy was healthy, either. She seemed scared when he showed up.
But of course, that was because she was ashamed of what happened to her and not because of anything he was doing.
It was surprising that Eddie already knew what O'Toole had done. He and wife must have both kept this secret from each other for years before SVU got involved with their lives.
Detective: You tell stories, Eddie. Well, I'm here to tell you one, a sad story about a woman who loved a man so much she did a terrible thing to be with him.
Eddie: Does this story also have to do with Rory O'oole?
It was nice that at least one couple got a happy ending out of this. God knows what's going to happen for Lina now that she's pregnant and either her rapist or her abusive husband is the father.
But the best thing to come out of this story was Khaldun.
A half-Jewish, half-Muslim character is not something often seen on network TV, and I liked how he didn't discuss his ethnic background until it was necessary. Until then, he was just another detective working a case.
Benson: He deserves no less than 15 years.
Fin: Throw the book at him.
Carisi: I'm trying but I need something better to go on.
Plus, he made Rollins smile. Even though I've shipped Rollins/Carisi for quite a while, I could get behind this pairing too.
Unlike most romantic relationships on SVU, this one didn't seem forced. Khaldun and Rollins shared an easy, natural chemistry, and Rollins seemed genuinely interested in getting to know him after their case was finished.
Woman: A black man can't even go to work? He'll lose his job!
Fin: He is a groper! Imagine if it was your mother or your sister.
Even so, I wished that SVU had stuck with the original case a little more.
The undercover operation on the subway led to a fascinating story about protesters assuming that Dwayne was being targeted because he was black -- but he was guilty.
The operation led to a public relations headache that caused Garland to question the wisdom of the whole thing, and the protesters would surely have clashed with the women who accused Dwayne of groping them, too.
But as soon as the cops found out that Dwayne's boss was a sex offender, that aspect of the case completely disappeared.
It was never mentioned again and the rest of the hour focused completely on the new undercover operation.
And by the way, didn't O'Toole recognize the cops who arrested him? They questioned him after Dwayne was arrested, after all.
What'd you think, SVU Fanatics? Was the immigration rape storyline entertaining, or would you rather have seen more of the protesters and the original case?
And was I the only one who saw sparks fly between Rollins and Khaldun?
Hit SHOW COMMENTS and share your thoughts.
Want to see the episode again? Just watch Law & Order: SVU online right here on TV Fanatic.
Law & Order: SVU continues its historic 21st season on NBC on Thursdays at 10 PM EST/PST.
Jack Ori is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. His debut young adult novel, Reinventing Hannah, is available on Amazon. Follow him on X.
