You will understand the play on words more, after reading the complete post.
"Blackout," the last 'SVU' episode aired, was almost a standout job, thanks to the standout work of two guest stars--the always wonderful Callie Thorne, as DA Nikki Staines, and Titus Welliver as attorney Rob Miller.
The beginning was typical. A woman is raped at a prestigious party. But the party turns out to be one for cops, and the victim is District Attorney, and prosecutor, Nikki Staines, played by Thorne with a passion that was going for the Emmy gold. The viewer really felt her anger for what was done to her, and that it was most likely done by someone at the party, meaning a cop.
However, the minute Titus Welliver enters the story as Rob Miller, I knew he was the culprit. He just oozed corporate corruption out of every pore. Rob is one of those workers who knows where all the bodies are buried, knows everyone's secrets, so he holds things over everyone, resorting to even murder, if threatened far enough.
Thorne's and Welliver's acting stole the show. As good as Ice-T, Kelli Giddish, and Peter Scanavino are, and were, they paled in this episode beside these two top notch guest stars.
The episode's highlight--and, really the only reason to see the episode--was the climactic scene between Welliver, and Peter Gallagher, again on hand, to play Deputy Chief William Dobbs. I like Gallagher's way of playing this character, with just the right amount of ambivalence, so one is never sure whose side he is on, at any time.
The scene between he and Miller is staged at the Queens Museum, in the panoramic model of New York City, used so poetically in the film "Wonderstruck," while, here, coming off as sinister.
Dobbs, of course, is wearing the wire. Miller, who fears no one because of his power, admits to having sex with Staines, saying it was consensual, even if she was drunk. He also slips to wanting her cell phone, to gain access to her secrets. He alludes to the possibility of eliminating Staines by killing her, should the situation warrant it.
Just as Miller suspects Dobbs of wearing a wire, Olivia and Company barge in and arrest Miller. Reference to some memo regarding Olivia is mentioned as a threat by Miller, and Dobbs admits he kept one copy, which he gives to Olivia, and the episode ends with her reading it, while the viewer has no idea what it says!!!!!!!!!!!!! Will it ever be revealed???????
But before Miller is taken away, he delivers a beautifully written monologue that could be used by future acting students. It involves the difference between wolves and lambs, hence my play on words.
Miller explains how his father was a store keeper, of the old variety. And he was a lamb. Once a week, mobsters or whomever would come and clean him out. One visit, he could not cough up the money, and so the gangsters took his sister, whom, I guess, worked in the store, into the back, and presumably raped her. Understandably horrible. Miller resents his father for doing nothing about it, and I do too, except I understand, had he intervened, perhaps they all would have been killed.
What happened to his sister was horrible, and nothing more is mentioned of how she recovered, or whether or not she did. But after this story, he delivers a chilling line--
"That's when I decided to run with the wolves."
What a grade A bastard! Haul him off and let the inmates have a go at him!
But a great performance by Welliver.
As usual, in this scene, Olivia delivers the final line--"No one helps the wolf, when it is bleeding."
Could the writers please help this woman to keep her mouth shut???????????
So, check this one out for two top flight--so seldom seen these days--guest performances!!!!!!!!!!!
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