Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 14 ‘The Grid Plan’ is an hour that feels much, much more like SVU than most, if not all, episodes so far in this 26th season. Better yet, it’s actually a good episode, despite the premise being one that could very, very easily have descended into dangerous, “LOL B—s be crazy” territory. And a lot of that is down to an excellent casting decision.
With a victim like Megan, who spends most of her time doing things that don’t totally make sense to our detectives, we need an actress capable of walking an extremely delicate line. She has to be just off enough to earn those puzzled glances from the squad, and believable as an otherwise-rational person acting out of character due to extreme circumstances, while not making a caricature of herself. The audience has to be able to agree with Megan, to put ourselves in her shoes and be like, “well, yeah. Obviously” when she’s just as confused by everyone’s reactions to her as they are by what she’s doing. Donna Lynne Champlin hits all of those notes and so much more.
She grabs us right from the start, as a tourist who’s living her best life on the surface — attending all those Broadway shows! The dream! — but…has something hanging over her. Champlin gives us that little bit of something as a thrilled Megan applauds from her seat in the theatre. So, later, when the very recent MS diagnosis comes up, it’s very much an “aha!” sort of moment. Like, oh ok. Her smile doesn’t quite reach her eyes, no matter how enthusiastic her applause is or how much we believe she loves being here, because she has things on her mind that even the best performance can’t totally shut off.
Then, as we continue on this character’s journey with her, as she tries to take matters into her own hands and solve her own case, Champlin just keeps delivering. The sense of dissociation in the back of the ambulance, the very business-like recounting of events at the hospital that then turns into overwhelming grief as she searches for (and can’t find) what she did wrong, the frantic way Megan hands out those flyers, her sense of righteous indignation when Silva arrests her, and the constantly-changing tone…it’s all top notch. And the way Champlin manages to maintain such a high level of emotion, such a complex mixture of the bizarre and the relatable, is something really special. Well done.
MORE: See what Donna Lynne Champlin had to say about the episode in our preview interview and post-mortem.
“I don’t want to be viewed as someone who is sick or weak or has to go home”
Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 14 uses the victim’s recent diagnosis in multiple ways. First, it’s a both a plot device to explain why she’s in New York by herself and, later, something for the defense to latch onto and twist. (Because, you know, the womenfolks can’t just…be independent. Great society!) Of course, it’s also used a setup for the displacement conversation — maybe theme’s a better word for it? — of the whole episode. While members of the NYPD constantly speaking in mental health jargon still kind of doesn’t feel quite right, the latter is at least a reasonable enough way to explain Megan’s behavior to viewers who might not quite get it.
Bonus: Olivia actually gets personal and proves she still has a backstory!
Snark aside, there’s actually something much, much more genuine about the way Liv does her thing here than we’ve seen lately. When she mentions her dad, it’s not like “insert Olivia Benson statement about rapist daddy, spit out word” so much as “oh, hey. She’s really speaking from experience here. Not just as someone who knows a thing or two about displacement but as someone who’s recognized that in herself and is trying to grow from/work through it.” Also, seeing Champlin and Mariska Hargitay project such complete opposite energies in the scene where Liv mentions the issue is wild in the best way.
But while Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 14 effectively delivers its message, something doesn’t necessarily fail here, yet also…doesn’t sit right. I’ve been on both sides of the whole “does the family deserve to know right away” versus “it’s my business” debate around medical…stuff, and both Megan’s desire to wait and the husband’s feeling of betrayal are valid. But Richard comes across a little bit too much like one of those controlling husband types who want to “protect” the women in their lives in an actually unhealthy sort of way.
The other thing here, and this falls at least slightly in the “here Olivia goes with her ‘sound inspirational’ prompts again” pattern, is the conversation about how Megan needs to maintain her fighting attitude for “whatever comes after.” If she’s intended to be speaking from a place of expertise, of knowing it’s still a long healing journey once the trial’s over, then, it makes sense. Captain Benson knows about the longterm “after” here, what with her 84 years of experience at SVU and endless well of personal trauma and all. But. There’s at least some implication that we’re getting into “rah, rah. Fight!!!” territory with the chronic illness here.
And um. No. Just…no. We have to stop with that kind of language and thinking. Because it implies there’s winners and losers here, that if someone has a particularly debilitating outcome they weren’t “strong” enough or didn’t “fight” hard enough. That’s just…it’s not how this works. Disability and death come for us all, regardless. Sure, there are things we can do — assuming we even have the resources — to delay the inevitable or minimize the discomfort as much as possible. But the sooner we change our language of “fighting” around these things, the better.
MORE: Read our Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 2 review to see why it was another standout for us this season.
More on Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 14
- Check out Captain Benson doing NYPD Captain things!
- I’d like to hear from people who didn’t have any background before watching: With the “unpredictability” comments in Benson’s speech at the beginning, did we still need her to spell the displacement concept out for the audience through her conversation with Megan? I’m kinda 50/50. Same goes for…I mean, couldn’t the rape itself be enough of a thing Megan couldn’t control so she’d still need to be hyper-controlling about the investigation? Was the MS part even necessary, other than to add more to pile on this poor woman? Honestly wondering what folks think.
- “…what was safe yesterday does not feel safe today.” Reality the past almost five weeks.
- “I’m a middle-aged woman from the Midwest, so…”
- The case itself is kinda nuts? But like. Guy is butthurt over not being able to sell some expensive wine, rapes a random tourist, leaves, comes back for the bottle…and the bottle gets tossed on top of a roof, where Silva finds it the second she climbs the slime green ladder? Ok then. Sure.
- To be clear, I’d rather have a case that makes no sense and characters worth rooting for than the “case and characters both mess” and “good case, bad characters” options.
- And also: Why are men???
- The crying and hyperventilating and and and…nailed it.
- “You guys are detectives. Figure it out.” Literally every EO shipper for decades. Y’all are (were) detectives. Detect your feelings! And it applies to every other cop drama detective who can’t see what’s right in front of their face, relationship-wise, either.
- OMG? Captain Benson delegating?? Before she goes to do Captain things????Literally all anyone wanted was stuff like this that made sense.
- Is Detective Bruno just here to be weird to Silva or.
- The scene where Megan’s handing out the flyers might honestly be my favorite. There’s a helplessness — and probably a lot of strangers thinking she’s lost it — there because this poor woman is desperate for a win.
- Also. The “WTF are you asking me that for” tone when Megan answers Silva’s “what are you doing” question by stating the obvious. Also also (and seriously a fave) the “help me” just as we’re about to fade to commercial…whew.
- “…and unfortunately, most of them are white men in their 30s.” Having so-called leaders who are mostly unqualified whites dudes is, in fact, unfortunate. Oh. Wait. This line was about something else? Oops!
- “Fine. I won’t go to the bar!! ….sorry.” So good.
- Narrator: She will, in fact, go to the bar.
- The shot of Silva, Fin, and Velasco watching Megan with Gerard was kinda cool, too.
- IDGAF. If punching your rapist is wrong, I don’t want to be right.
- “You arrested…the victim?”
- “That was the best part.”
- You know Liv’s inner voice was like “do it again,” too. Need we walk down memory lane with the artist formerly known as Detective Benson and her partner Elliot (un)Stabler?
- “I mean, look at me and look at her.” I hate this man. I mean, I already did. But…I HATE-hate this man.
- Another thing that really works well here: Even with Megan behaving the way she does, there’s never a sense of “Liv is omniscient. Must investigate case while everyone else doubts her” that we’ve had far too often. It’s clear from the start, long before we see that flashback to the assault in the courtroom, that this actually happened and everyone’s working in good faith to get justice.
- They found that other girl from Gerard’s past and had her relive that for…nothing????
- “You just need to be strong for Megan because she’s — she’s the real victim here.” My initial reaction was “who said otherwise. WTF autoresponder.” But looking back, with the way Richard was acting? Liv said what she said.
- “I didn’t want you to come to New York by yourself, and this is why.” Because it’s so unsafe? Or because women are so delicate and need manly-man chaperones, or…? TBH, punch him, too.
- Oh, hey! ADA Carisi doing his literal job and still getting plenty of time with the Captain Benson.
- That ice cold horror when she realizes what the defense is bringing up. So well done.
- “I didn’t want you to see me that way.” “What way?” “As some kind of scared invalid.” Relatable.
- Not sure about the walk and talk at the end. Is that last line too “BensonBot” or kinda sweet? Maybe both? Eh.
- The camera really loves Mariska Hargitay, huh. Not mad about it.
- Is Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 14 perfect? No. But even the directing and editing had to be done with care to highlight Champlin’s work while avoiding a negative framing. And it did. Thankfully, it did. Episodes like this one are exactly why we get so frustrated with *gestures in the general direction of the review archives*. We know what this series has been and can be. Just saying!
What did you think of Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 14 “The Grid Plan”? Leave us a comment!
New episodes of Law & Order: SVU air Thursdays at 9/8c on NBC. The series will return on March 13.
