Law and Order: Special Victims Unit: "Combat Fatigue" (Dick Wolf Entertainment, Universal Television, NBC-TV, aired April 18, 2024)

by Mark Gabrish Conlan • Copyright © 2024 by Mark Gabrish Conlan • All rights reserved

The Law and Order: Special Victims Unit episode was a good deal better and finally wrapped up (we hope!) the story arc of Maddie Flynn (Allison Elaine), her parents Peter (Zack Robidas) and Eileen (Leslie Fray), and George Brouchard (Patrick Carroll), the man who abducted her and ultimately sold her to another pedophile, a Fate Worse Than Death from which she was saved only by the timely intervention of the Special Victims Unit. Captain Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) felt personally responsible for Maddie’s fate because she spotted both Maddie and Brouchard in an energy-drink van Brouchard had stolen, but instead of stopping them she let them go on their way. The episode opens with Brouchard’s trial, in which the jury deadlocks 11 to 1 for conviction because one of the jurors literally has a crush on Brouchard and thinks they’re going to get together as soon as he’s acquitted and set free. The judge declares a mistrial, which means Maddie and her parents have to go through the whole ordeal over again. At one point Brouchard claims that Elaine is in love with him; she isn’t, but she’s been texting him because she wants to get him alone, confront him and, if necessary, shoot him herself to make sure he doesn’t do this to anyone else. Brouchard ratchets up his psychological pressure on the Flynns by firing his attorney in mid-trial and demanding to represent himself – and he does a surprisingly good job.

An FBI profiler on loan to the SVU testifies that Brouchard is “a narcissistic sociopath” (gee, with credentials like that he could run for President if he weren’t ineligible because he was Canadian-born) who gets off on psychologically manipulating people. When Brouchard is tried again he’s facing additional charges of sexual abuse because Maddie has come clean about what he did to her sexually while he held her captive – he didn’t actually do the dirty deed but he gave her a bath, including washing her private parts, and looked like he was having a good time. At one point Elaine actually lures Brouchard to a confrontation in the motel room where he’s living and holds a gun on him, and it takes all of Benson’s considerable communications skills to talk Elaine out of shooting Brouchard and eliminating him and his threat once and for all. Eventually the jury in the case finds Brouchard guilty (which makes us heave the proverbial sigh of relief) and Benson takes Maddie to her own psychiatrist even though Maddie pleads that she’s already been in therapy and it hasn’t helped. “Not this kind of therapy,” Benson insists, making me wonder just how Benson’s therapist is different from all others, especially in ways supposed to help her suffer and get over the multiple traumas of being yanked from her home, psychologically dominated not only by Bouchard but his vexing organization of routinieres and leeches he had around him. This was a better-than-average SVU, and Patrick Carroll’s performance as the villain is really remarkable – he plays it like he’s auditioning for The Donald Trump Story – but, like Benson, I’m getting pretty damned tired of having this guy around!