Before Writing About Last Night's 'SVU,' Let Me Say Something About The Week Before!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                  "Revenge," aired October 11, should have pressed my buttons, but it did not quite make it.  Still, after seeing a clip, there are some things I must say.

                                     The clever thing was the plot hinged on an Incel ( a technical term I still don't get) update of Hitchcock's "Strangers On A Train," which is actually referenced at one point.  Three sick and lonely losers--and let me tell you, Central Casting must have had a field day recruiting the actors to play them, because big name 'Sponge Bob' star Ethan Slater, cutest of the three, as Riley Porter, Will Dagger as Chris Canasis, and Steven Maier, as Tony Kelly were just perfect.  Each not conventionally attractive, yet not ugly enough to stay in the corner.  Which made them disturbed; the right attitude and perseverance could have landed them someone.  My story proves that.

                                      So, these guys are losers, not because of what they are told, but because they allow themselves to believe it, even well into their Thirties, when they should have started believing themselves.

                                       And this comes out best in the climactic scene,  featuring Callie Thorne as Nikki Staines, and provides a showcase Steven Maier, as Tony Kelly, the smartest and most disturbed of the three.

                                        Tony is not conventionally handsome, but if he would redo his act, he could make it.  That's the sad part.   He can't.  He talks about the "winners of the genetic lottery," the pretty people out there, who seem to be having all the fun he wants to have.  Except that rape is not having fun.  I mean, I once felt that way about the so-called pretty people, too.  But then one learns to value oneself, and move on from there.  Tony never did.  And so he stalked and raped this girl named Carol Solomon, who, it turns out never dissed him the way he said.  Only Tony cannot see it.

                                        More is revealed about Tony earlier.  The squad learns from his mother, Melanie Pierce, played by Deidre Madigan, that Tony went to the prom with Carol--only she is not in the picture, just Tony is there, in a suit!   Huh?   His mother explains he is pursuing a doctorate in English Literature--poetry-- and when the hell is he going to get a real job?  Now, this touched a nerve, because I heard this from relations in my first years out of college. So I knew the real bitch of the piece, the one who should have been gone after, albeit not raped, was his mother!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Tony probably felt her brunt too, but was too repressed to deal with it, so took it out on her, by raping and harming others.  Even causing Carol's boyfriend's death!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                           Tony's monologue, where he says he is entitled to love, and hates being all alone, despite being arrested in a library where he is obviously working toward something he loves, should have gotten to me, but it didn't, because I was able to see the ilogic in Tony's speech that he couldn't.  I was like that, myself, once, though rape or harm never crossed my mind, but was able to get the help and self-awareness I needed.  Tony could not.  Hey, Tony, people less attractive than you find personal happiness!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                               The episode's title was "Revenge;" the tragedy was it was a revenge not necessary. And misdirected at the wrong person.   Norman Bates says, famously that "a boy's best friend, is his mother."

                                                 Not necessarily, dolls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Here is the scene I was talking about. Note Maier's performance, and pathos, but twisted sense of logic!!!!!!!!!!!