'Law & Order: SVU' Reviews - Episodes 13.03-13.05

        I'm sure all of you faithful readers have been asking yourself a question: Where have I been for almost all of October?
        In that time frame I have missed recapping three episodes of Law & Order: SVU. These episodes had parts that I thoroughly enjoyed and parts that I absolutely hated. Below are my thoughts as well as my grades on these three episodes.

        Episode 13.03 "Blood Brothers" - When a pregnant thirteen year old girl refuses to identify her baby's father, Benson and the SVU squad work to determine if she was raped. Their investigation leads to several men in her life including Tripp Raines, the teenage son of high-profile political couple Andrew and Kathleen Raines, and Arturo Rivera, the son of the Raines' housekeeper. The detectives uncover much more than they bargained for when a Raines family secret is revealed and a family member goes missing.

        In my head, the previous episodes that Kyle MacLachlan and Paige Turco starred in were both amazing and very memorable. Because of that, I was disappointed that the two of them didn't have more of a presence in this episode. It was a great story (and I love the kid who played Arturo) but I'm a little tried of the ripped-from-the-headlines stories at the moment.

        Episode 13.04 "Double Strands" - A dancer is followed home and raped by a man with a distinctive tattoo and the details of the attack remind Rollins of a serial rapist she was tracking back home in Atlanta. The detectives arrest Gabriel Thomas, a family man who maintains his innocence, but his description and DNA match this assault and the string of rapes across multiple states that Rollins had been investigating. Although the evidence supports the arrest, the more Detectives Benson and Amaro dig into Thomas' past, the more they begin to believe his story.
        I loved this episode because they finally gave that little extra something I was asking for from the Rollins character. The ending interrogation scene was amazing. Sure the plot of the episode was very predictable but I enjoyed TR Knight's return to television. As the first episode to have both of the new detectives front and center, they both did a phenomenal job.

        Episode 13.05 "Missing Pieces" - A young woman visiting from Buffalo claims that her car was stolen outside a Manhattan convenience store with her baby still buckled in the backseat. Benson and Amaro get as much information as they can from the anxious mother and her boyfriend at the police station, while Fin and Rollins track their path from Buffalo for clues. When the parents' stories don't add up, the detectives must uncover what really happened to the missing baby, and the truth surprises everyone.
        This episode was all over the place. The main story of the baby-stealing was so jumbled that it was just plain confusing and boring. I liked how they started the episode with Amaro with his daughter and Benson with Calvin which in turn made the case hard on them because it was so personal. I just wish that there had been more of an explanation as to Calvin's sudden reappearance as a bigger part of the episode. I appreciated that the audience could tell that the parents were lying but those interrogation scenes of trying to get information just lasted way too long.