i hate unresolved endings for any form of entertainment, but it did work well for this case. i do wish they'd reminded the audience of the trial prep that olivia did with casey regarding the false accusation against stabler, since i think that the way the glimpses of the trial were presented relied a little too much on the back and forth of what happened according to each side and not enough on the actual facts and science of the case.
either way i'd love to see a poll done now, so many years later. i remember my mother blaming my sexual assault by a stranger on my decision to go to a concert at night when i was 15, the same year this season aired, and she was a huge fan of the series. sexual violence is easily still one of the most difficult things to prosecute but i'd like to think that both the laws and society have come far enough to recognize that no matter what, this man abused a position of authority and by his own admission forcibly held a woman down during sex "to get it over with". maybe that isn't rape 1, but it's certainly sexual assault.
She KNEW Benson was coming over, AND when she had just found out the guy was arrested. Combined with her past behavior and her accusation against Stabler, i think she was lying. I'm not completely sure though. The ending is definitely a cop out, but there's no way with the evidence that was there that he'd be found guilty. There would 100% be at least reasonable doubt and there'd be a mistrial or not guilty.
The professor is obviously a scuzz, but the student was annoying as hell and sabotaged herself at every step. Can we convict both of them?
The ending feels like a copout. Not every episode needs to have a clear-cut and happy ending, but they almost never do what they did here. So this feels like a stunt to gain attention.
Shout by ColaBlockedParentSpoilers2018-01-26T08:55:40Z
If you're wondering what happened, like I did, they polled the audience to get the verdict. 60% voted not guilty, 20% voted guilty, 20% voted that they needed more information.