What a messy case!
It wasn’t clear who was more wrong in Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 15, but we did our best to resolve the issue.
Our TV Fanatic writers Laura Nowak, Jasmine Blu, and Jack Ori debate whether Stacey’s defense was reasonable, whether Carisi had a point about the double standard, and what justice looks like.
Stacey’s defense was that she thought Ryan was an adult because he was drinking at the bar and looked like an older person. Was that reasonable, or should she have done more to confirm his age?
Laura: How many people ask someone’s age when hooking up in the real world? I get it’s the law, but if he was in the bar drinking, I understand why she thought he was legal.
Jasmine: I’m always torn with these specific scenarios. But I also know I’m sensitive to older women engaging in questionable relationships with younger men.
Ryan didn’t look much older than 18 or so, and knowing that kids use fake IDs and it was a hotel bar rather than a specific club made me warier of the situation and wish that there had been some double-checking.
Still, it was reasonable for Stacey to assume that because he was drinking alcohol served to him at an establishment that he was legal.
Situations like this involve many factors, which is what made the entire case so muddled in the first place.
Jack: I think the fact that Ryan was sitting at the bar with a drink in his hand made Stacey’s assumption reasonable. Presumably, his ID had already been checked before he got the drink.
Did you do the thought experiment Carisi suggested in his closing? Would you feel differently about this case if Ryan had been an older man and Stacey had been a 16-year-old girl?
Laura: That was the only thing I agreed with that he did on Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 15.
Society might have been more upset if the roles had been reversed. Is it fair? No, but this case was messy.
Jasmine: Because I’ve witnessed the gender role reversal secondhand as it happened to a loved one, and I know how poorly situations involving male victims of statutory rape are treated, I didn’t need to really envision it or switch the roles to understand or feel strongly.
Sadly, there really is a double standard and some people can’t grasp it until they consider that.
As long as masculinity is tied to “conquering” women or even being desired by them (although this is also pervasive in queer dynamics as well), it’ll continuously be a complex issue that society can’t fully wrap its head around, including male victims who aren’t giving the space to really process that they’re victims.
I feel like I’m going on a tangent now, so I’ll wrap that up.
Jack: I agree with you wholeheartedly, Jasmine.
At the same time, though, I’m not sure it would have made a difference to me in this specific case because of the other issues in the case.
All the moving parts that made this messy would still be the same if Ryan were the older party in the case.
Were you surprised that the jury was deadlocked at the end of Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 15? Why or why not?
Laura: Absolutely not! This was one of the messiest cases in SVU’s history.
I would have been surprised if there had been a conviction.
Jasmine: Not at all! There were so many moving pieces to it.
This case was anything but straightforward, so it would’ve been a shock if it hadn’t been deadlocked.
Jack: Agreed. As I said in my Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 15 review, there was no other way this case could have ended, given all the confusion about who did what.
The story on Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 15 had a lot of moving parts. Ryan’s stepmother was the one who filed the complaint, not him. Stacey thought Ryan was over 18, and Ryan let her drink drug-laced vodka. What would justice look like in this case?
Laura: As mentioned, this was one of the greyest, messiest cases.
I think Ryan knew what he was doing and was just as guilty, yet because he was the minor, Stacey was prosecuted.
I think a mistrial was the best verdict. I’m hoping Carisi planned that. I remember Barba using that trick before, too.
Jasmine: You know, I still don’t have a definitive answer for that. I imagine that’s part of why the case was so fascinating.
I do think of everything that came about, Ryan allowing her to drink something drug-laced without warning her about it was the most overt and clear-cut issue out of everything. That was something that required some punishment because of how dangerous that is if he continues with those types of actions in the future.
I didn’t find those actions ambiguous.
Jack: It really is hard to figure out what a just outcome is here. I think the mistrial was the closest we were going to get to justice on Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 15.
Both people were wrong, and it was hard to tease out what was malicious and what was a serious mistake.
Should Benson have mentioned her history of sleeping with a 21-year-old when she was 16 at any point during this case?
Laura: I honestly forgot about that.
Jasmine: If the context was right, she could have. But it wasn’t something at the forefront of my mind.
Jack: I thought of it during the scene when Benson was talking with Bruno. I was debating whether it would have been helpful for her to relate to his experience by sharing her own.
Anything not discussed above.
Laura: I generally like Carisi, but he really got to me. I’m hoping he finally listened to Liv and planned that mistrial.
Jasmine: Ugh, Bruno. I wanted to reach through the screen and hug him when that case clearly conjured up a past trauma that he’s buried.
I appreciated him sharing it and that little moment on Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 15 because it shows just how men process sexual trauma differently.
I would wonder if that’s something he wrestles with moving forward, but SVU isn’t the greatest with continuity.
Jack: I really appreciated that this episode was so case-focused. As much as I love Benson, too many episodes lately have been about Superhero Benson supporting the survivor of the week and nothing else, so this one was a refreshing change.
What was your favorite scene, story, or quote from Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 15?
Laura: I appreciated that Stacey’s husband stood by her no matter what.
Jasmine: I did enjoy how complex this case was and that it didn’t feel too preachy or exploitative.
Jack: I also loved how complex this case was. Also, as we discussed above, the Bruno scene was excellent.
Over to you, Law & Order: SVU fanatics.
Hit the comments to share your answers to these Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 15 questions.
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