Finally, 'SVU' May Be On To Something Right!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                           I have not written about 'SVU' this season, because, now that is has become "The Olivia Benson Show," who the hell cares???????????  Over the years,  there have been characters I always wished they would bring back , but never did.  But now, with "Post Graduate Psychopath," and the return of  Ethan Cutkosky as Henry Mesner, I am hoping the writers may be on to something, which they may continue.  That is, if La Hargitay allows it.

                                              Ethan played Henry back in the 2013 episode, "Born Psychopath."  Hope Davis and Alex Manette  played his parents, Viola and Tom Mesner,  while Brooke and Kiley Liddell  played Ruby Mesner,  Henry's five-year-old sister.  

                                                 I was never crazy about this episode, which relied too much on generic tropes,  going back to the days of "The Bad Seed."  Ethan,  at thirteen, was playing a ten-year-old, and while he was convincing, the script let him down.  The most memorable scene was the "knife scene," between Henry and Viola, where he retieves a knife from under his mattress,  where it had been concealed, and, asked to turn it over to his mother, hands it in such a way it cuts her palm.  I can still see the look of horror on Hope Davis' face,  as she fully realizes,  just as Nancy Kelly in  "The Bad Seed," what  kind of child she is dealing with.  Tom  Mesner is hopelessly clueless.

                                                   Alas, the only member of the Mesner family to return was Ethan  Cutkosky, as Henry.  In the intervening years,  Viola died in car crash--so there goes Hope Davis;  too bad--but Tom Mesner is now played by Jason Cottle.  (Sister Ruby,  now thirteen,  is played by Maxine Wanderer.)  He has re-married a woman named Holly, and has a five-year-old son.  It is not clear whether the chiild is Holly's or theirs; if the latter,  I have to, like Mrs. Van Hopper in "Rebecca," give credit to Tom,  for being a fast worker.  But how disloyal to Viola.

                                                      Now, Henry has been locked away for eight years.  Now eighteen, he is seen as ft for release,  but who is anyone kidding????????????   A born psychopath never dies; just goes on to create chaos, and, with Viola dead,  which Henry had nothing to do with, but nevertheless says she deserved, Henry is out to avenge, however irrationally, everyone he thinks has wronged  him, which includes his  family, and the SVU squad.

                                                        There was a rumor going  about that Amanda Rollins  was going to be killed off in this episode, and, I am telling you, had that happened,  it would not only kill the show,  but be the morst unforgivable act since killing off  Sister  Peg!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I  still have not gotten over that!

                                                          Henry scores a big success, killing off his father (whose cluelessness I feel earns him what he deserved), wife Holly (always kill the stepmother) and the five-year-old son.  He accosts Amanda's daughter, Jesse,  as a threat,  which leads to scene in a fun house,  with skillful art direction not too often seen on this  show, and a finale between Amanda and Henry,  wherein she gets the final shot,  not Olivia,  and  Henry now has an adversary worthy of him.

                                                              Henry is off the predictable grid,  as Cutkosky's performance  was more  nuanced and  skilled.  He is genuinely creepy, and I think he might return.

                                                                 Here are some others I wish would return--

                                                                 1 Jenny Brandt, from 1999's "Killerz," played by a now grown Hallee Hirsh.

                                                                 2. Harper Anderson, from "Closure, Parts One and Two," aired in 1999, and 2,000 resptectively.  She is played by Tracy Pollan,  the actress  wife of Michael  J.  Fox.

                                                                  3.  The girls from 2004's "Mean," now grown women--Brittany O'Malley (Kelli Garner),  Andrea Kent (Arielle Kebel) and Paige Summerby (Kimberly McConnell) plus Lindsay Hollister as Agnes  Linsky.  

                                                                 Alas, these may never happen, and who knows, with Diva Olivia, if an 'SVU' episode will ever engage me enough to write about it again???????????????