stunt_muppet

Since SVU and CI are almost entirely focused on the police work nowadays, I do love it when the original show spends an extended period of time in the courtroom. And, in this episode, we had an actual, legitimate, interesting dilemma for Connie, which while a little contrived in hindsight never felt overplayed while I was actually watching it.

But what satisfies me most is that, once she's appointed to defend a murder suspect, Connie promptly turns around and eviscerates Cutter's case. I don't know why I loved watching that so much, since I've no particular dislike for Cutter, but I got this huge grin every time she got another piece of evidence or witness thrown out. She does her job, does it well, and doesn't apologize.

Of course, inevitably the moment comes when she figures out that they guy she's defending is guilty, and guilty of more than he was accused of, but there's no angst when she does. She admits to Jack that she doesn't know what to do, but that admission never for a moment makes her seem incapable. And it was worth it for the scene where she 'persuades' her client to take a plea bargain, no matter how much he didn't want to go back to jail - all without stepping down from her position as his defender.

But really, I just loved watching Connie be utterly fierce in a way that I haven't seen as much of since last year's finale (when, you may remember, she stabbed a butcher's knife into a book repeatedly to impress upon a jury the heinousness of a defendant's crime). Not that she isn't always tough, but most of the time she has to counterbalance Mike when he's going for people's throats, so I just about giggled with delight when she got the chance to rip the prosecution to shreds.

And at the end? She went out to buy Bernard a beer, because she knows she'll have to work with him again. It reminded me in a sort of sideways way of Jack and Lennie back in the day, but it also makes me love Connie just a bit more, because there's more to her than either the razor-sharp lawyer or the Voice of Reason in the DA's office. She's so very strong, but she doesn't have to 'prove' that strength by being surly or cruel when she's not on the job. (Which is a personal preference of mine, really; after so many tough TV heroines who are sarcastic, mean, and disfunctional 24-7, it's nice to see someone who is confident enough her own strength to be...nice.)

And the scene where Jack stands up for her in front of everyone in the DA's office? I may have cheered a little. And if I were so inclined, I'd so be shipping them. Age difference and all. He clearly respects her, after all.