WHEN A DEAD WOMAN IS FOUND STUFFED INSIDE A SUITCASE, DETECTIVES ELLIOT STABLER (CHRIS MELONI) AND OLIVIA BENSON (MARISKA HARGITAY) BELIEVE SHE WAS MURDERED BY HER SUGAR DADDY

"LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT"
"SUGAR"


09/30/2009 (09:00PM - 10:00PM)

http://nbcumv.com/entertainment/release_de...timeschedu.html


A young woman's body is found stuffed inside a suitcase, and police believe that Mindy Keefe, the victim, was a train passenger on her way to Tampa when she was murdered. Detectives Elliot Stabler (Chris Meloni) and Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) turn to Keefe's financier boyfriend, Owen Cassidy's (Guest Star Matt C. Burns) yacht to investigate. However, Cassidy claims he was on his boat during the time of the murder. After further searching, the detectives discover Keefe belonged to an online dating website. But when the CEO of the dating website, Vance Shepard (Guest Star Eric McCormack), refuses to comment on the case, the detectives turn to ADA Sonya Paxton (Christine Lahti) for help. Also starring: Richard Belzer (Detective John Much), Dann Florek (Captain Donald Cragen), Ice-T (Detective Odafin Tutuola), Tamara Tunie (Dr. Melinda Warner), and B.D. Wong (Dr. George Huang).

Haha I still can’t get over the “All night long” comment made by (undercover) Elliot’s younger date.

"I'd rather be called your sugar baby", she says, lol. (Correct me if I heard it wrong)


Thanks, Trixie!

Btw, Trixie.

Could you post here what exactly Elliot and the girl were talking about (from Neal's bubble tweet)? One of our members don’t have speakers, or out of order.

Thanks!

Here is the dialogue.

"Oh my god. Is this your first date? This is so awesome. My last daddy was a virgin to."~ Blond
"Daddy?"~Elliot
"Sugar daddy. I'm going to be your sugar baby. Don't worry daddy. You spoil me and I'll spoil you...all night long."~Blond

From the new TV guide article about SVU's return, there's talk about the Paxton-detectives war (especially between her and Elliot)...I'm curious how Elliot would be desperate enough to turn to her for help. Should be interesting!

Thanks Ram

By the way, Mary, in your siggy banner, Mariska is wearing an awfully big rock on her finger there! Geez it practically blinded me lol

LOL! I think it's just for the photo session. It looks fake to me but it is a big piece of bling!

It looks like a huge marble...lol...If it is a real diamond, I don't think I could feel safe wearing something that large and worth so much....JMHO

I agree. I also don't think a jeweler would give permission for a ring that size to be worn for a photo shoot.

Well you never know, I mean jewelers do lend out expensive jewelry to borrow for the red carpet for many stars so I wouldn't see anything too different about wearing it for a photo shoot or even for the show itself in general to use for rent.

Preview of SUGAR from NBC.

http://www.nbc.com/Law_and_Order_Special_V...-sugar/1160149/

I still can't stand that ADA...is Alex coming back or are we stuck with this witch all season...Not a bad episode otherwise...

I know the ADA isn't the greatest, but I love to hate her if that makes sense. She just makes it so funny with a lot of tension which makes good tv lol. I like the episode and I really am looking forward to next week!

I am actually enjoying this ADA Sonya Paxton! Well I hate her character, or shall I say I love to hate her character? I'm loving the performance. I guess svuswimmer and I are on the same boat LOL

All I can say for the ending is daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn....I thought she was going to slap him not...damn...

Next week's looks good although I'm worried. My poor baby always gets hurt

oh i know right! doesnt he get pushed off like a building or a taller part of a building onto a lower part! that's gotta hurt!

1.) I hate this new ADA.

2.) Irish -yes Alex will be back in Episode 5 and then will be on for a 10 run arc so far, might be more, byt 10 episodes to say the least.

3.) This episode SUCKED! It is getting too predictable! I knew that guy didnt do it, and knew it had to be the wife or the daughter. SVU is not that original anymore, I can't stand it!

4.) Is the new thing for this season going to be the endings with all these surprises?? The first episode was that guy getting pushed out the window in the end of the episode. Now it's the girl stabbing her father to death right at the end??? Enough with the hanging endings already, they are tres old!!!! I really don't want the tag line for SVU this season to be hanging endings....two episodes into this season and I am already gagging at so many things....the over the top ADA, Benson and Stabler being totally out of character, even Cragen is. No Munch yet and limited Fin. It has been all Liv, Elliot, perps and this stupid ADA. And the worst so far....the endings...and the predictabilities of each episode. Come on....the daughter? Sooooooooo obvious and sooooooooooo 1st season. We are season 11 people.....juice it up!

Oh one more thing to comment on about next week's episode...we know that's not elliot. Come on guys how long have we all been vets of this show? They didnt show the face of the person that gets thrown off the building....its not elliot. they want people to THINK its elliot so they will tune in and watch....they need a hook in order to rope people in so their ratings go up.

Although I agree with MunchHunch that the ending was a bit over the top (as it unfolded I thought to myself 'are we going to have a repeat of last week!'), but all in all I was really impressed with this episode. And it wasn't the storyline as much as I felt that the writing was soooo much better than we've seen in the last 2 years. In the early seasons we had a bit of comedic banter to lighten things up, and then seasons 6 and 7 became really dark, but very well handled. I feel like 9 and 10 were just brooding and stale. But this episode had some great quirky moments (Master Baiter) that really worked for me. I also loved the dynamic between El and Liv, it just worked w/o all the brooding akwardness-- don't get me wrong, I'm an E/O shipper, but I too have missed the old dynamic between the two. Also, I agree with most that the new ADA is a love to hate character. She brings something new to the table, and Lahti handles her like a pro. Can't wait for more of season 11!

I think they are going out of their way to write Paxton's character as 'unlikeable' for a reason...we just don't know what it is yet.

And as much as many may dislike her...you have to admit...she's 100% more watchable than Greyleck ever was!!

But I'm still eagerly awaiting Alex's comeback!

I thought the episode was pretty good, thanks to Eric McCormick. But yes..., the fact that he was covering for his daughter was rather predictable. Unfortunately, this is just going to be par for the course with a procedural in its 11th year (not to mention, it's mother show in it's 20th.) Somewhere, something is going to look familiar...from either show. "ER" went through this too, in S11-15. I'm not surprised.

I will say...I thought the ending was going to be the Father snapping the Daughter's neck...in a sick attempt to spare her from jail time...I was a little surprised at the appearance of the scissors!

I think the first two of S11 have been solid enough, typical L&O fare. Nothing to write pages and pages about...but from what I hear, there is great things in store down the line.

The episode was ok for me....I think the best thing abot it was Eric McCormicks performance, I thoght he did a really nice job.

Only episode 2 and already it looks like a rape but is not a rape...hell, didn't really even look like a rape. They should have had her just have sex with the father, at least it would give a hint why it was their case.

I think Paxton is a little off her nut, but whomever said she is 100% more watchable than Graylek said a mouth full.

I know the ending something along those lines was going to happen because they had that scene in the squad room and not in a cell or interview room and that was so obviously wrong.....I don't mind the stabbing her father but they should have thought it out and worked it better.

Funny sidenote, earlier in the day I had ribbon cutting ceremony for a new school opening and I had giant (25 inch) very sharp scissors and I kept thinking "I can truly kill someone with these" turns out, regular pair would have been just fine. I didn't kill anyone, btw.

Waiting for episode 6!

1.) I think they are making Lahti's character a love to hate character because she is only on for 4 episodes and there has to be some reason, since I do not think we see the return of Sonya Paxton this season at all once Cabot is back, she leaves. I know they said in epi 1 she is just "covering" for Cabot who is off in Albany, but where her character has been such a hardass and macho tough guy who has inevitably been broken at the end of both episodes thus far, there has to be a reason she leaves, so I think they rote her character in a way so that it will be all too clear when she leaves why she is actually leaving the unit.

2.) I thought the master baiter thing was hilarious and it was nice to see Elliot and Liv playing off of each other again. I have missed that truly.

3.) I knew when Vance asked to have his cuffs removed and it was only 5 minutes til the end of the show that something was going to happen. I thought he was going to take his daughter hostage or something in order to get them both to be able to leave the precinct. I knew something was going to happen, I just didnt expect it to be her stabbing him with scissors. But again totally over the top and I am sensing a pattern so far and really hope this type of thing does not happen at the end of EVERY episode this season.

i read somewhere that since Alex wont be in the season finale that after she leaves Sonya Paxton will come back and finish the season.

Great episode despite Munch not being there.


I'm loving Lahti's character.



The ending: I thought The girl was going to kill herself or the dad was going to kill her.

I thought it was a real stupid move on the detectives and Paxton's part to let Vance and Chantel do their little 'bonding' moment right there in the squad room. It would've been much better if it was in the jail area or even in the interrogation room! Maybe that scissors motive will inspire them to be smarter the next time?

Hisgirl what happened to your long posts of review? I may agree/disagree some comments but I've always enjoy reading them, especially with all the legal mistakes involved!

Though I love Eric McCormick, I do have to say that this was not his finest moment in TV history. I just wasn't in to this episode. It was rather boring and very predictable. I sat on my couch and told my friend Jen exactly what was going to happen. "Okay, I bet the killer is the daughter" followed by "I bet you anything she is going to take a pin or something and stab her dad in the neck." Granted it was scissors but come on people. When the writing or plots become predictable, the show sucks the big ones. This episode was so boring and I am praying that the rest of the season isn't like this.

I take it because we saw no preview that there will not be a new episode next week.

Im going to agree with Mary on this one. I mean i didn't read into much of the spoilers on this one because this season im trying not to read ahead and know, but this one was too predictable. I knew it was the daughter form getgo. I didn't find myself pleased with Erik's performance. I loved him more on Will and Grace. And this ADA.....ahhh i dont know, i just dont like her. Not because she's "being mean to elliot" aww poor baby crap. No! I just find her a bit irritating. Sorry, just my opinion. The end was just a little over the top for me.

Come on, just one episode to hold me down for this season! PLEASEEEEE

I hate to agree with Delivia (Andrea).. what’s the use of having great guests if the storylines are awful..

Has anyone of you noticed that this new ada sounded drunk?

Seriously, it was way too obvious who the suspect was. I thought I already heard the same “I did that!” line over and over. Can’t the writers think of something else?

They knew the daughter was the suspect and had grudge against her dad.. why let her dad reunite with his daughter w/o her chains on? Would it be better if they talked in her cell? What she did was so unexpected. I really didn’t see that coming.

The episode was o-okay, but they need to make this new season MORE interesting and with originality.


Oh, who was that girl behind the computer? CSU or TARU?

There was a preview

I guess I must have missed it. There was a really cool episode of Destination Truth coming on right after SVU and I changed the channel really fast. LOL! I will see if there is a preview up yet...

SVUlovesME Posted Oct 1 2009, 03:37 PM
"Hisgirl what happened to your long posts of review? I may agree/disagree some comments but I've always enjoy reading them, especially with all the legal mistakes involved!"

There is one posted for Unstable. But I'm back working so I don't have quite the same time or energy to get them done the day after airing. For the past two weeks have had to be in early and stay late in order to chat with a manufacturer in China to get stuff shipped before the long holiday.

But here is the one for Sugar, and it's not sweet.

As other people have said this was predictable and dull. That might have something to do with having seen so many of these scenes before in SVU. The scene in Garb Barn and the scene at the tennis court in Uncle. The young girl not wanting to be with the older guy from Paternity, among others. Finding something from security tapes they hadn't checked from Class. A parent falsely confessing to protect their child from Sin. Jealousy for the motive to the object of another's affection from Trade. Feel free to add to the list if you have more.

No Munch, no Huang, no Cragen and no Warner other than a brief mention in the opening.
I have looked several times now but I can't find any Fin at all in the group shot at the end of the credits.
Did TPTB have to make the Geocach players have to be so geeky? The stereotype that anybody would does things that are high tech are unattractive losers needs to be shattered. And what was Olivia's problem with them? Insulting them by calling them "girls" wasn't going to help her get them to talk. And comments like that from Olivia come off as incredibly fake.
They find the suitcase and it's in perfect shape. Samsonite may make sturdy luggage but being tossed from a moving train at 55-60 mph should leave some marks even if it survived intact. While we're on the train, the Amtrek train from New York City to Florida leaves at 3:15 in the afternoon and doesn't stop until it reached Washington DC at 7:30. And that train doesn't stop in Tampa.
If Chantal was on the train in the afternoon, wouldn't someone have told her mother she didn't show up at her game? Wouldn't her mother have noticed her daughter wasn't home that evening? If she had actually made it to Florida, wouldn't her mother have noticed her daughter was gone for several days? If Chantal took the train down and flew back there would be a record. Once the detectives realized it wasn't Emily getting on the train, they should have checked how she got back.
Chantal used Emily's credit card and Driver's license to get the train ticket. Don't anybody notice it was a different girl in the picture?
Chantal was a small girl, maybe 5' tall. Even if Emily didn't weight too much, the suitcase would have weighed 90-100 lbs. Can we really see Emily hoisting a 100lb dead weight and throwing it out a window? And that's assuming the window actually opens. Trains, like hotels, have stopped having openable windows to avoid people throwing things as well as themselves out of them.
Just because a dead body is found naked does not make the murder a sex crime. This time we needed Warner to do the autopsy and tell the detectives that they needed to turn the case over to Homicide.
The detectives go up to Emily's family to tell them she's dead. Even with the license photo matching, would they have wanted them to ID the body itself? They didn't even bring a picture of the dead girl to confirm the ID. They have been wrong before when they just used a license to do an ID. Why not have to the parents come down and be sure? They need to make arraignments anyway.
Now we come to the issue of the boat. Elliot stated they had permission to come aboard but he never said who gave them permission. If Owen wasn't the owner of the boat and the owner gave permission, then there are no problems with the attempt to board or the subsequent search. But if it was Owen's boat, that's a different story. The detectives would need probable cause to enter the boat and they didn't have it. All they had was that Emily's step-mother said she had been living on the boat. All Owen had to say was that Emily didn't leave there anymore. There is an exception to the 4th Amendment that allows warrantless searches of vehicles on the theory that they can be moved. Whether a sailboat that is tied up at a dock would meet that condition hasn't been considered yet. But most courts have a decided preference for requiring search warrants when it is possible to get them.
How did the detectives get into Emily's apartment?
Given the current state of the economy, who has a workplace like Ad-Vance anymore? Two or three years ago, they were around. But with so many people looking for work, there's no need to keep your employees so well cared for. Especially if Vance was having financial difficulties as his lawyer said in court.
If Vance was in financial trouble, how was he able to buy Tasty Sugar 3 months earlier?
Elliot's undercover "date" with Pamela was the highlight of the episode. But did the squad have money in their budget for the tab? We needed Cragen and Munch in a scene before that one teasing Elliot about being the one to go, not to overspend or to be careful. It's part of what used to make SVU good and what's missing now.
Why wasn't Pamela just the littlest bit suspicious about her date asking about the guy her friend was seeing? She just whipped out her phone and showed him the pictures without trying to get the conversation back to herself and what she wanted.
How did Vance know what day the detectives were asking about when they asked him where he was the night Emily died?
Chantal seems rather attached to a father who says he was never there. We needed to learn more about her to have that behavior make sense. It was just there with nothing to backup why she was so determined to be THE woman in Daddy's life.
There is a good but unanswered question whether the women on Tasty Sugar could be persecuted under New York's prostitution laws. Penal Law §230.00 defines a prostitute as one "who engages or agrees or offers to engage in sexual conduct with another person in return for a fee." According to People v. Block, "The "fair import" of the word "fee" is "payment in return for professional services rendered". If Pamela's requests are used as an example, the only thing she actually offered was sex on the condition of her requirements being met. I agree with Paxton that would qualify as prostitution.
Olivia is okay with women offering sex in return for being able to buy shoes but she had problems with women being paid to make porn. That makes no sense.
Paxton's interview/interrogation of Lysette was just ridiculous. Why do it where she is comfortable and has people around that support her? If she wanted to intimidate her, briing her down to the station for a chat. But the bigger mistake was to give away her game plan.You don't tell the other side what you are going to do and how you're going to do it. Not unless you have all your ducks in a row. And Paxton didn't.
It's nice to see Elliot has learned enough to call Kathy when he's not going to be home on time. More of that please.
Lysette does not seem scared when she walks into the squad room. She sounds like she is reciting a story. And who would give their secretary a shirt that would be evidence in a murder case to have her get it dry cleaned. That story wasn't plausible.
There would have been no problem with Vance's confession being admissible. He was perfectly rational when he was arrested and presumably when he declined to wait for his lawyer. People confessing to crimes get upset remembering what happened. That's not enough to keep a confession out. In fact, the "excited utterance" is yet another exception to the hearsay rule.
Vance's statements in court would be admissible if he had made it to trial. It is a bit surprising that the judge didn't let him plead guilty at his arraignment.
I was almost as surprised that the judge just allowed the EED defense as Vance's attorney wanting to use it. It is not a complete defense. It simply reduces the charge from murder to manslaughter. It doesn't work in a trial but is mostly used as a tactic in pleading guilt to a lesser charge. And claiming he was under stress because of his business having problems so he killed his girlfriend when she broke up with him is beyond a Twinkie defense. Especially since he was claiming she had left the building while he was still there.
Shots of a happy Vance at the train station might not have disproven the EED defense if you believed Emily was alive when she got to the station. He could have gone to try and win her back. But the missing link in Vance as the murderer was who was on the train to throw the suitcase out of the window? If you believe vance was in New York City giving Lysette the bloody shirt, he couldn't be on the train.
Did the police ever run any forensic tests on the luggage? Did they ever fingerprint it? Or have Warner fume the body with superglue to see if there were fingerprints on it? There was a decided lack of investigation here.
Nothing Vance said to Elliot in the jail cell when have been admissible. No Miranda warning or waiver.
Anything Chantal told Olivia would have admissibility problems as well. Even though they weren't at the station, Chantal would be considered in custody. When Olivia went to talk to her, Chantal would not have been felt she was free to leave. Or more likely told Olivia that she had to leave Chantal's home. Assuming the judge agreed, Chantel's confession would be suppressed.
Chantal's sudden change from daughter protecting her father to a crazed killer as rather abrupt. And it was overdone.
There was a huge difference in how Olivia dealt with Chantal in this episode and Cecelia Strayer in Svengali. There Olivia seemed to be more more understanding about what caused Cecelia to murder an innocent girl. But there was none of that here. And Olivia's comment about how her father never loved her was out of place.
Other people have already commented on the last scene. It made no sense that two people accused of murder would be allowed uncuffed in the middle of the squad room. The more interesting question is why were there scissors out on Olivia's desk? And why didn't Olivia remember she had left a potential weapon lying out on her desk?

All in all, a bad job of writing.