4 December 2017 | amckee-64063

10 | Magnificent

Now I understand why so many people love this show. Holden is the type of gloriously deranged villain that I usually expected from something like Criminal Minds, and his conversation with Rollins and Amaro is one of the most epic talkdowns I have ever witnessed. His video messages were intensely creepy, especially the one at the end-- although that one offers a ray of hope by revealing that this poor, lonely boy died doing what he loved: attracting attention. Icing on the cake was Benson's heartwrenching struggle to care for her son, her job, her new boss, and her social worker, none of whom have anything better to do except suck up her attention. This is a truly magnificent episode, and it does SVU, along with the whole police procedural genre, proud.