Eternal Relief from Pain

'Law and Order: Special Victims Unit' "Eternal Relief from Pain" (2020)

Opening thoughts: Of all the Season 21 episodes, "Eternal Relief from Pain" was the one watched with the lowest expectations on first watch. Not because of the case, which did sound interesting, but the return of Rollins' truly annoying sister Kim filled me with dread. None of the Rollins family drama storylines have worked at all for me, and reading the synopsis that indicated such heavy emphasis on it part of me was convinced that the episode was going to be a major failure.

To my surprise, on first watch "Eternal Relief from Pain" was nowhere near as bad as expected. It was a heavily flawed episode and the execution of the family drama was pretty much what was expected, but the case was so strong this time that it was enough to make the episode above average. On recent rewatch, "Eternal Relief from Pain" still is the very uneven and flawed episode it was on first watch, but like first watch what could and should have been a total disaster didn't turn out to be too bad. And it is certainly miles better than the pretty bad previous episode "Swimming with the Sharks".

Good things: Am going to start with the good. Visually the episode is solid and it is neither static or gimmicky in the way it's filmed. The music doesn't jar and is suitably melancholic, didn't find it too much either. The acting is mostly very good, particularly from Kelli Giddish. The dialogue in the case story is tight, thoughtful and isn't mundane or preachy.

"Eternal Relief from Pain" is compensated massively by the case. If the case hadn't have been as good as it turned out, this episode would have been a dud. It deals with a very tough subject and handles it uncompromisingly and also insightfully and movingly, it also isn't thin or over stuffed and neither is it too easy to figure out or confusing.

Bad things: Unfortunately, the Rollins family drama subplot brings the episode down massively. There is far too much emphasis on it and it suffers from the usual problems whenever Rollins' family life rears its ugly head. It is far too melodramatic, is dully paced, doesn't have much going on in it and what there is has no surprises and lacks tension.

Kim as ever is terribly annoying and overacted and have always disliked how naive and easily manipulated Rollins comes over as in these storylines. That she is that much so and has anything to do with Kim has always been a major credibility stretch. The dialogue is over heated in this subplot too.

Closing thoughts: Very uneven episode, with one great story and one rather bad story but it could have been so much worse.

6/10.

Wow the writers nailed this episode. Excellent tension and suspense with a plot twist you wont see coming, and something relevant to current social issues. Excellent procedural and family dynamics. Certainly out-of-the-box writing makes this one of my favorite episodes. The writers will have their work cut out for them to top this episode. Perfect 10/10 from me.

I thought Svu was a series that evaluates the consequences of applying the laws. After the 20th season, another situation was added to this. Svu has also been a series about women in business life, mothers in business life, families in business life.

I want to make a svu assessment myself:

Until season 12, excellent, heroic single cop or dual cop, like "Lethal Weapon", is told.

After Season 12, he tries to explain that this is a team work. There is no single hero, it is the team work that makes your hero a hero.

There are people of all colors and personalities in the team. This is what makes them strong and champion. Like a champion soccer team.

In addition to this, the theme of being a woman in business life and being a woman manager is discussed.

The supportive, emotional and realistic results brought about by female domination are explained.

These are their stories.

This episode belongs to Kelli Giddish who has a reunion of sorts with her estranged sister Lindsay Pulsipher. She's back to her usual tricks of addictive behavior. But when she OD's in a fast food place she offers up her doctor who got her hooked again.

Mark-Linn Baker looks almost like a mad scientist as Pulsipher's physician who trades sex for drugs. But the whole thing looks like a promising field of investigation for SVU. And Giddish gets a reunion with even more family members.

Looks like this could spawn more episodes.