Cornered

I cried like a baby. The actor that plays Carisi is UNDERRATED! This man delivered a performance so moving it had me ugly crying in my living room on an otherwise peaceful Sunday morning. I am anxious to see where this character development takes him. Always love seeing Olivia Benson, but to have him take center stage and really nail it like this was truly amazing! The writers have out done themselves with this one. Whoever is on that team needs to stick around. I want to be this moved every episode. The actress who played Tess did an amazing job as well. Her acting in the ending moments had me holding myslef crying, knees to chest, rocking back and forth!!! My goodness. 10/10.

This SVU episode ranks in my mind as one of the best ever; certainly it's the best from the current season. It starts off quickly as Carisi interrupts a store robbery in progress and the remainder of the show is all about how he deals with the two robbers, the store owner and the two women trapped inside with him. Though he tries to keep his professional life hidden, little by little the thugs learn more about him until it's clear that he's affiliated with the police.

It seemed that at any moment something horrible could happen, and in the course of events, horrible things do happen. But because of the crooks' hair-trigger tempers, you never know when it's going to happen or to whom it is going to happen. The last scene with Tess is absolutely numbing in its realism.

This is the kind of show that leaves you limp. Indeed, after it was over I sat there for a few minutes trying to get over what I had just seen.

This episode reminded me of Season 17's "Townhouse Incident," where Benson find herself in a similar circumstance. In that show, too, I found myself having to remember to breathe.

I'm curious to see where things go from here for Carisi. He's a good man and I'm pulling for him.

The actress who plays Tess deserves an award for those screams when she was finally released! That scene really got to me and was such an amazing performance. It looked like the actors who play Benson, Rollins and Silva were responding to Tess in real time rather than it being rehearsed. Every time Amanda tried to get close to Tess to put a blanket around her or try to comfort her and Tess kept breaking down broke my heart a little more. Absolutely phenomenal performance!

I was worried that Carisi was going to be killed off as it did seem like that was the direction the episode was going in. I do hope that future episodes show him dealing (or not as the case will probably be) with what just happened and not have everything pushed to the side and not see his character for a while.

SVU runs on clichés, fighting the injustice of the day, and whatever little interaction may take place with the court. This episode showed a thing that saddeningly lacks from SVU: character development. Carisi is unarmed and softened by his time being at the DA's office and enjoying family life. He has to come to confront how he sees himself, his masculinity, and how his role relates to those around him. It is a powerful episode with a superb performance from an under-utilized actor. If you want to watch just one episode from this season, let it be this one. There was some exceptional television at play here.

This has to be one of the best episodes I've seen in a long time. Hostage episodes are such a hallmark of Law & Order, but this one truly shook me to my core. The emotional intensity was off the charts, and it really had me on the edge of my seat the whole time. I can't help but worry, though, that this might mark the beginning of the end for Carisi. I've just started to really warm up to him as an ADA-he's come a long way since his detective days-but we all know how the cast tends to rotate in and out. I really hope I'm wrong because losing him now would hit hard. I'm so excited to see the upcoming episodes now 😭