Law & Order: SVU Season 27 Episode 7 Review: Ripped from Madoc’s Headlines

Law & Order: SVU Season 27 Episode 7 ‘False Idols’ is a difficult episode to discuss. On the surface, it’s a good enough hour — not the best, certainly not the worst. Guest stars Aria Taylor and Jemima Kirke deliver on some strong moments, and Sgt. Tutuola’s return to the squad (however brief) for the first time since Fin was attacked in the Season 27 premiere is a welcome one. But it’s the case, and the horrific real-life story it brings to mind, that gives us an overwhelming sense of BAD Omens. This isn’t the first time this series has borrowed inspiration from the headlines, and it certainly won’t be the last. But the way this particular bit of news intersects with fandom spaces makes it different, somehow.

Earlier this year, Vulture published a story about a beloved fantasy author with a cult following who, for many years, had a public-facing persona of being one of the good guys, of being someone who cared about the things fans cared about, who stood on the right side of many issues, who called himself a feminist. That author had a musician/writer with her own dedicated fanbase as a wife, and that wife also claimed to be a feminist. Based on the allegations — some of the most disturbing ones I’ve seen in a sea of awful stories like this one, maybe at least in part due to who they’re about and how thoroughly so many people were fooled — in that article, suffice it to say, these people were not feminists. Or anything else they claimed, for that matter.

If you strip the magical, life-saving stories that man created from him and give them to his wife, you’ll arrive at Claire and Stuart Morgan from Law & Order: SVU Season 27 Episode 7. Right down to self-serving apology (Morgan’s in the courtroom, that real-life guy’s in the court of public opinion via his blog). Exact details may be different — especially the “let’s throw in attempted murder at a bookstore so we have an excuse to bring the mothership’s Hugh Dancy and Tony Goldwyn on — but…there are enough similarities. So, it’s impossible to see this episode without thinking of that, without thinking of their victims. Without thinking about how many people who found comfort in the author’s words after their own abuse now can’t think about those stories without thinking about…that.

To be blunt, SVU should have stayed away from this story.

For the most part, I can’t fault the pacing, or the dialogue (eh, a little bit of it), or the perspective Law & Order: SVU Season 27 Episode 7 approaches the story from. But the content is a problem. In the first place…it’s just too soon. It will probably always be too soon for this one, for anyone who ever thought “this person gets it” only to read the truth in graphic detail. This happens far too often with the people whose work we love, to the point where it seems to be more of the norm than the exception. And yet, somehow, this particular powerful, successful person’s (couple’s) betrayal is, in fact, exceptional.

Put these warnings of “never meet your heroes” and “famous people who claim to care might just be crafting a false image for you to idolize” on SVU, specifically — after all the many betrayals by actors, and musicians, and writers, and politicians, and, and, and… — and it just feels like salt in a gaping, frequently reopened wound. There has been plenty of talk over the years about this show appealing to survivors who see in Olivia Benson the person they needed and didn’t have, who take some sort of comfort in seeing justice carried out. Some even worship at the feet of Olivia, series star Mariska Hargitay, and/or a ton of other actors and characters involved in the series.

And now, here’s a reminder that fictional characters can’t save us because they’re created by people who, more often than not, we should never trust. Not even, maybe especially not, if they say we can.

MORE: So far, the low point of Law & Order: SVU Season 27 is Episode 5.

More Law & Order: SVU Season 27 Episode 5 reactions

• “Yes, he’s so hot. But also, like, poison to her soul.” Some of the best fictional ships, some of the worst real-life experiences.
• One thing I will say Law & Order: SVU Season 27 Episode 7 actually does really well: The whole book signing, fandom atmosphere. I didn’t once get the impression anyone intended to mock the kind of folks who are willing to line up, maybe even dress up, to meet their favorite author. So, that was refreshing.
• “Ok, are you sure that you got it?” “1000%. Totally got it.” “Ok, because I’m walking away!” This was so funny? Like nothing special about it, just mundane coworker interaction. But the tone Mariska Hargitay uses there makes it something else. (Give that woman a comedy. WTAF is wrong with the universe?)
• The warm greetings for Bruno and Rollins, the…surprise and caution from Benson, and then, just deada** being like, “who are you?” Never change, Fin. Not ever.
• Also: still not sure who Griff’s supposed to be either, so double thanks to Fin for just flat out asking.
• See also: “Ok, cool. Get off my desk.” And Liv’s looking like a deer in headlights at him before he breaks and tells Griff he’s joking.
• No surprise here: An interrogation room, Olivia Benson, good TV. She is so careful and caring with Leah, and there is so, so, so, so, so much emotion coming from the victim/attempted murderer. But one of the highlights from Aria Taylor’s performance in this hour, as well as the hour as a whole, is how she plays Leah’s response to Captain Benson asking what kind of boss Claire was. All that emotion surrounding Leah’s feelings about attacking Stuart (and about what he did to her) are still there. But the feverish, religious devotion to Claire and pure bliss at even a mention of her are just scary good.
• “It’s like, maybe you should meet your heroes, actually.”
• “Her writing — it saved me.” We all have at least one of those, right?
• …right?
• “And it’s like, do you just deal with it because the rest of the time, you get to be around this amazing woman who changed your life?”
• “…latest bird with a broken wing.” Sure.
• “I’m just, you know, checking on you ’cause it’s my job. It’s not personal. I don’t even like you that much.” “Likewise.” And the way she grins when he throws it back at her like that??? I have missed this level of personal interaction for years! It’s so small but, like, just…what a way to make them human and remind us there’s this long, long history.
• …but also. Hargitay and Ice both play this with just of enough…caution, I’ll call it, that it’s obvious Liv and Fin are still working things out after he broke her trust earlier this season. (And she’s clearly checking because he’s her friend, and she’s insecure, and it’s her job.)
• “She sounds like a stalker.” “Well, she sounds like a Claire Morgan fan. They’re known to be pretty intense.”
• You know who else’s fans are known to be intense?
• “I’m not looking for desk duty today.” VERY LOUD AND POINTED. MESSAGE TAKEN, SIR.
• “I love people that don’t delete their texts.” He loves receipts.
• “…poor, frail Claire.”
• “I mean, if she’s guilty, screw her.” The correct and only take.
• “Two women — that’s refreshing.” Performative feminism at its finest.
• Jemima Kirke is excellent with Claire’s totally fake, unconvincing Support for Women™ and all her faux frailty and trauma throughout this episode, but she does a particularly strong job of it in the scene where Benson and Rollins go to interview her.
• Also: Those “WTF can you believe this b**ch” looks Hargitay and Giddish throw back and forth are golden.
• “Do you?”
• Like, if looks could kill, the way Liv narrows those eyes during this woman’s whole “primary responsibility is to other women” lie…
• “Oh, he broke my collarbone. I tried to fight back that time. I got hurt. He still raped me.” Gutting.
• “She showed no remorse for…attacking. Her rapist.”
• “So a cry for help.” “She acted like she didn’t hear it.” That whole story about the tank top and the bruises…what a delivery from Taylor.
• Not this woman doing the “poor me, I’m the real victim” tour here.
• “Wow. She is. Shameless.”
• Liv’s reaction to this recording: Same.
• Sassy Olivia Benson is always a treat, and she’s sassy AF when they finally go arrest this woman. “It’s ok. We don’t have any.” That grin and glance at Rollins when Claire’s going off about how they wouldn’t be there if they had anything. And the best part: “Hold on. You don’t like our story?! That is devastating.” Amazing.
• I appreciate that Fin’s being honest with Liv and admitting he needs more time, but this whole conversation seems out of place. For one thing, they’re in a courtroom. For this case, no less. Then, he’s bringing it back to the age/possible retirement issue, which is always going to be hard to listen to. But it’s also kind of weird to bring the age thing up in an episode where Fin didn’t really have to do anything that would’ve made those doubts impossible to ignore; to the contrary, he’s the one who found something they could use against Claire.
• “Take all the time you need. There’s always — always — going to be a place here for you.” My heart hurts.
• Malcolm Barrett playing the defense attorney is a good excuse to remind y’all that Timeless was a great show that was canceled too soon. Twice.
• “Claire wanted everyone to see her as this empathetic champion of women, but it’s just a story.”
• “I’m done with her.”

Agree? Disagree? What did you think of Law & Order: SVU Season 27 Episode 7 ‘False Idols’? Leave us a comment!

New episodes of Law & Order: SVU air Thursdays at 9/8c on NBC.