This could have been one of the better episodes but it was let down by the actual writing, which included what is hands down the most unintentionally hilarious death scene in the entire history of the Law &Order universe. Less entertainingly, everybody missed the blatantly obvious fact that one character was confessing to the initial murder just to protect someone else, and Casey Novak didn't even notice that that defendant's vague allocution while pleading guilty didn't line up with the crime scene evidence. And finally, I'm getting really tired of there being one last dramatic turn or event -- usually involving somebody dying -- popping up in the very last few minutes of an episode for no good reason except to be shocking. It's a cheap trick that turns up way too often in both the original L&O and SVU.
