This is a very minimalistic episode. 80% of it takes place in the SVU squad, and most of ''that'' time is focused on a single interrogation room. The story of this episode could have been told in five minutes. What that does is give way for an amazing back-and-forth between Detective Stabler and a suspect who knows just how to push every one of his buttons.
As the episode begins, Stabler has some 21 hours to get a confession from Gordon Rickett (Matthew Modine) for the rape and murder of a young girl. The cops have no hard evidence tying Rickett to the crime, but Stabler is certain of his guilt. He collared Rickett 14 years earlier for a similar crime, but the jury acquitted him, and Stabler's never forgotten. He tries numerous classic tricks to rattle Rickett - he shortens the leg on one of his chairs, turns the heat up in the interrogation room, switches out a fluorescent light bulb with one that buzzes and blinks, orders smelly food from a deli to try to get Rickett to need to ask to use the bathroom, yells at him and even spits on him at one point, messes with his sleep, and more. But Rickett refuses to be rattled, and the 24 hours since his arrest pass without a statement - the cops have to let him go. Just before Rickett is released, a visibly defeated Stabler bares it all when talking to Rickett about the titular subject - rage. He admits that without the controls of his family and his job, he'd be Rickett, a murderer.
The next morning, Stabler culls from the night he spent with Rickett some information that leads him and Benson to Rickett's girlfriend and, eventually, the house where he murdered the girl 14 years before and the one he was arrested for at the beginning of the episode. They arrive just in time to save another girl from being killed. There is a tense moment as they draw down on Rickett. Benson shoots him first to keep Stabler from killing him, and after he falls, Stabler stands over him with his gun hand shaking wildly as Benson talks him down from letting his rage make him do the unthinkable. Stabler cuffs and mirandizes Rickett, and we all exhale.
The episode ends with Stabler releasing his rage in the locker room, screaming and pounding his fists bloody on the steel doors.
The interplay between Modine and Meloni is just incredible. I'm not nearly doing it justice with this meager review. This is an episode that draws you in and keeps you coming back. As I mentioned at the top, the episode is very minimalistic. Chief example of this is the story - it's very straightforward, with no twists at all. The production, though, is also pretty minimalistic. From memory, only six scenes take place outside of the SVU squad, and there are really only two or three guest roles outside of Modine. Even the music is simplistic; I can only remember one music cue in the episode, and it was a misdirect (Rickett appeared to break down and be on the verge of confessing, but he was really just messing with Stabler). The chilling ending is mute of any sound but Stabler's cries and the sound of his fists against metal.
This is one of my absolute favorite episodes of this show. The first time I watched it, I kind of wanted it to end in the interrogation room, but now I think it's just about perfect the way it is.
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