Interesting saga about a young woman who, like Olivia, was born of violence -- and the repercussions now as SVU hunts for the rapist, Cold Case-style.
Also had a nice B-story finally getting back to Rollins and Carisi.
We may never know if Olivia ever showed at Stabler's OC Christmas party, but at least there's some continuity now on the Rollisi front.
Writing was generally OK, and Hargitay did her usual solid job caring for everyone.
But with the exception of Ari'el Stachel returning as Khaldoun and Betty Buckley appearing again as Lorraine Maxwell, the rest of the guest players in this ep vibed like super low cost hires.
Compounding the problem is that several of these actors were given a lot to do in the episode -- which seems like a particular waste when you've got Tony Winners Stachel and Buckley on hand. Ffs, give them the heavy lifting. This isn't rocket science.
Also noteworthy is that lead cast-members Ice-T and Octavio Pisano did not appear in this episode -- rotated out almost certainly for budgetary reasons as SVU now seems to be doing this regularly.
With the cost to make network dramas continuing to rise, (while the payoff declines), it's clear the budget hammer has really fallen. That doesn't mean these shows still can't be great - just allocate resources more wisely.