‘Law & Order: Special Victims Unit’ Recap – ‘Marauder’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

AW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT -- "Marauder" Episode 25012 -- Pictured: (l-r) Mariska Hargitay as Captain Olivia Benson, Ice T as Sgt. Odafin "Fin" Tutuola, Gabe Fazio as Cal Markham -- (Photo by: Virginia Sherwood/NBC)

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode 25012 of ‘Law & Order: Special Victims Unit’. To revisit the precious episode, click here.
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It is definitely safe to say that genuinely good people, will do anything within their power to make the world a better place. Because they genuinely believe that acts of kindness and acts of service can heal and can do wonders, and that is why they will indeed step in when someone stumbles and go above and beyond to do the right thing, and they inspire us to be better and oddly leave us wondering… why such kindness doesn’t spread and why it hasn’t made the world a better place, and the answer to that is simple. In that, there was mention they will do what is within their power to heal the planet, and sadly… they only have so much power and finite resources.

But it does leave one to wonder, what would happen if the good people of the world had those resources and could in fact, use them to make the world a better place and well, it just so happens that the next episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit took the time to explore what that might look like. A feat that ‘Marauder’ accomplished by having Captain Benson spend a little time with Special Agent Sykes, who was down in the dumps and missing at work. Mainly because, a dark anniversary date was upon her. One that involved the disappearance of her sister, a case that was never solved and she was so hurt and so broken by the fact that justice had not been served, that Benson felt it best to look into the case herself and what she uncovered was stunning.

Because there were more cases akin to Skyes’, the kind that were all over the tri-state area, and that likely meant one man, known as a Marauder, a criminal that takes dark actions within a certain radius of their home base, committed these crimes and that gave Benson quite the idea. Wherein she could use a crime that matched the profile, in her jurisdiction, to pool resources and garner the help of other agencies to try and find this monster, and she was so excited about this plan that she pushed the team hard to find this guy, only to quickly be stonewalled when the time came to gather real evidence. For one of the families involved in this crime, didn’t want to open old wounds or in this case, exhume the dead. But seeing the passion put forth by Benson and her willingness to spend whatever dollars necessary to catch this guy, brought about inspiration.

For Cal, a cousin of the deceased teenage girl that Olivia wanted to exhume, opted to give a false confession regarding her murder. So that DNA evidence had to be taken from him and the dead, to bring about a conviction and that… gave Olivia the lead she needed. Because a viable DNA sample from the deceased matched a genealogy database and that brought Olivia face to face with a 72-year-old former insurance claims adjuster. Who did indeed travel about the tri-state area and a little further and while out and about… he killed those girls and when faced with the death penalty, took quite the deal to bring justice forth and bring closure to broken families. All because Captain Benson is the best of us, and she has those resources at her fingertips and if more good people had what she has and had that freedom… the world would indeed be a better place.

But alas, there will be some out there who will disagree with that assessment and be concerned more about how Benson bent the law hard here to get the case taken care of. But this is nothing more than escapist television, a chance to find catharsis and a chance to see what good could be done if someone in Olivia’s position could in let loose in the right ways, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Especially right now in these trying times where the world frustrates us to no end and where it seems that bad people are getting away with anything and everything. So, kudos to this series for offering catharsis through a powerhouse and emotional case. One that deeply invested us and ended in a flawless manner. With good defeating a genuine evil. Until next time.

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