Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (TV Series) End Game (2019) User Reviews

End Game

[bobcobb301 · 7/10 · 18 May 2019]

It seemed like they wrapped up the Rob Miller story way too quickly. He was untouchable and then one corrupt move and they get him?

And having Stone leaving after breaking the rules is the exact same thing they did with Barba. SVU needs to be more original than that.

Now THIS is how you kill off a character... without actually killing them!

[Top_Dawg_Critic · 9/10 · 17 May 2019]

WOW what an amazing season finale that brought an end to multiple conflicts! A little more oomph could've been added for a finale, but still a nice finish. Titus Welliver as Rob Miller was outstanding in his role, and man did his evil looks send chills up my spine. I actually hope Philip Winchester's character Peter Stone is not entirely written off, as I like him in his role. Also hope to see more of Titus Welliver next season. Nevertheless, outstanding episode and season finale. I hope they finally change the 1980's Corel Draw show logo for next season ;)

Great Story, Lost Potential

[jyanes · 8/10 · 17 May 2019]

This episode had so much potential to really stun audiences. As a season finale, the show writers build up to this climactic event. A great story had been brewing with Rob Miller, but poor execution in the concluding episode of the season. It was a great and entertaining episode, but seems to all go to waste by the time the screen fades to black at the end. There was not a huge confrontation between Miller and any of the SVU detectives that resulted in any consequences. Stone's out of character moves provided a nice contribution to the episode, but again, suffered no consequences. Instead, he just decides to leave. And Rob Miller was seriously found guilty? The episode built up all this tension and energy to just flatten out towards the end of the episode. No cliffhanger or consequences for any of the characters. Solid episode, but it had strong potential to be one of the best in the series.

SVU has matured.

[audaciousness · 10/10 · 18 July 2019]

"Sometimes the law isn't good enough..."

Wow. Now that was a season finale. Truly one of the most breathtaking, incredible episodes of any TV series I have ever seen; and undoubtedly the best finale of SVU.

I didn't expect the Rob Miller arc to end that way at all, but I'm so glad it did. SVU has always had a history of playing it safe and doing the ethical thing within the law... but that's not always the way life works.

In order to take down one of the worst and most dangerous criminals, sometimes you have to play by your own, albeit less than legal, rules to win.

SVU has truly matured. From a series where every character always did the ethical thing, which simply isn't realistic, to instead sometimes doing the moral thing which may not be playing within the rules of the law, we have seen brilliant development in one of the best series on television.

I give "End Game" a well-deserved 10/10.

Predictably bad ending to a lame arc

[imdb-597 · 18 May 2019]

The whole Rob Miller plot arc was ridiculous from beginning to end. This untouchable arch villian... give me a break! For one example in this episode he has two uniformed officers pick up Noah from his school... why were those officers not investigated? and all the similar incidents going back through this whole arc... the answer is - because none of this makes any sense, no such character could possibly exist, one look behind the curtain and they are gone. Yes, there are nefarious and corrupt powerful people, but this is not a believable example of one.

Generally, this show's strength is in standalone stories, 'ripped from the headlines' that reflect on our society. When it tries to make it about these characters, the quality generally declines

One of the Better Season Closers but the Final Scene Did Not Ring Quite True For Me.

[ScottAmundsen · 8/10 · 17 May 2019]

For some reason I had forgotten the Rob Miller character. My bad, as Titus Welliver is outstanding here, and no one since William Lewis has had Benson swinging in the breeze the way Miller does here.

My only complaint is the way they wrapped it up. I didn't believe the payoff; Stone was not that attached to Olivia to hang himself out to dry; not to the point where he is forced to leave.

(Not that I am sorry to see the last of Philip Winchester; I've never liked the man or the character he plays).

Amazing

[braedonblank-57217 · 9/10 · 18 May 2019]

I didn't want it to end. Amazing story. The show was one of the best. Just flat out amazing.

One of the most beautifully shot episodes I've seen.

[angelaedavis · 10/10 · 6 June 2019]

Amazingly cinemagraphed episode with a great music score. The colors, the angles with the intense music reminded me of Se7en at times. Even if you don't like the ending, it's worth watching just to see a perfectly shot show. The acting was on point as well.

Poor plot

[dreamlaw · 6/10 · 17 May 2019]

This episode came close to jumping the shark. As an attorney and an avid fan, I've always enjoyed the commitment the show makes to reality. The framing plot missed for me. It was too weak, too transparent, too poorly constructed. And Benson's increasingly angry self righteousness is too prevalent. She had every right to be angry and afraid, but the complexity of Benson has disappeared. She's seemingly always at 11. Overall this felt like a quickly thrown together episode to close out the year once they were certain to be renewed, but apparently without Stone.

What the heck was that??

[Just-A-Girl-14 · 4/10 · 11 November 2019]

What an awful conclusion to the Rob Miller story. It started out great but ended up terrible! Instead of finding real evidence against him, Stone chose to break the rules because Olivia was so important to him. So important that he just had to leave...? The whole thing felt rushed and it didn't even make sense. We didn't get to hear how he was involved in the case of the dead teen. If she fell off the sky, who's helicopter was that? How was Miller involved? If there was a party, there had to be a lot of people there, right? Did Miller scared them all? Where's the good police work we're used to? All we got was "we have nothing against him". He threatened Olivia many times, what about wearing a wire? The idea of setting him up was good but not in the way it was done. Nikki was so afraid to testify against him for assaulting her but was not afraid to testify against him when his lawyer called her to the stand? Why? Was he not a threat anymore? Are we supposed to believe the jury convicted him based on Nikki's "show" alone? I didn't like it! It felt rushed, like they had to wrap up the Rob Miller story real fast and at the same time find a way out for Stone. It didn't make sense. It was also not a great way for Stone to go. Didn't Barbra leave exactly the same way? Do all ADA's have to leave by breaking the rules? I liked Stone. I was sorry to see him go! I thought he and Olivia could have a future together but I guess not (again). Maybe it's time for a female ADA.

Lame end game

[TheLittleSongbird · 4/10 · 13 September 2023]

Season 20 was pretty underwhelming overall. Of all the twenty four episodes, only "Alta Kockers" and "Dear Ben" were great let alone outstanding. Though "Man Up" and "A Story of More Woe" were very impressive too. All the other episodes in the season's better half (when ranking the episodes) were decent but very uneven, and there were a number of disappointments in the season. Namely "Part 33", "Mea Culpa", "Zero Tolerance" and "The Good Girl".

"End Game" was a pretty lame way to end this patchy season, though not irredeemable. Felt this way when seeing it for the first time a few years back, my feelings are pretty much similar on rewatch except a little worse. Can't fault the guest cast, but like their previous appearance "Assumptions" it is a case of their performances being much better than the episode themselves where they deserved so much better. There are a few good things with "End Game" but also a lot wrong.

Those good things are going to be started off with. It is slickly photographed throughout, a perfect match for the gritty tone, and the location work looks both striking and atmosphere-filled. The music is only used when necessary and when it is used it does stick in the mind and not done so ham-handedly. Both the main theme and opening voice over are memorable.

Once again the interesting and very sinister character of Rob Miller pretty much steals the episode, with a quite creepy performance from Titus Welliver. Callie Thorne is a strong presence too and can't fault the regulars on the whole.

Unfortunately, there is plenty to fault the rest of "End Game" for. The story is tension-free, flimsily plotted in terms of the case and rushed from trying to do too much (this would have been better as a two parter). Too much of it doesn't make sense and neither does everything related to Stone, which has no tension either and Stone is as flat as ever. Phillip Winchester is the exception when it comes to the acting, never looking comfortable and he is very bland.

Did also find the dialogue awkward and ham handed, with a difficult issue not handled with much tact. The ending insults the intelligence and left me indifferent emotionally, considering what happens that should not have been my reaction. It would have left more impact though if the show did a better job in general of developing Stone as a character, "Dear Ben" is the one episode where there is any development that is illuminating or investable, but everything here is stuff we never got to know or wasn't explored enough.

In conclusion, not a good way to end and not a good representation of a show that was brilliant in its best years (which has been long behind it for a long time now). 4/10.

Pure nonsense

[lilibethwa-37865 · 1/10 · 17 April 2021]

Usually, when SVU episodes are bad, it's because they're cringe or outlandish or over-the-top. But this episode literally makes no sense at all. At all. It's the laziest writing I can remember. It's kind of insulting to the audience, to be honest. They literally had "no evidence" on the guy. No evidence? This dude is out here openly threatening people, but you have no evidence of his bad behavior. He can pay or scare people off to shut up about his behavior, but he killed a teen just cause she might have recognized him? And no one knows how he even did it? Let's not even talk about the fact that this dude was beloved and respected by everyone when we first met him. Where are his allies in this episode? Nah, he's now a full-on villain. And then, there's the matter of Nikki. Nikki, his original victim, was too afraid to testify, to share details of a case with Benson because she didn't want to be disbarred. But suddenly agrees to not only testify, but go out and try to frame the dude at Stone's request? Ok... I don't know if the writers were eager to go on vacation or something, but this villain needed more than a 2-episode arch for it to make sense. The "let's frame him" idea could have made such an interesting storyline, where they don't get discovered, and just have to live with the ethics of it. But no, they got quickly found out like a bunch of amateurs and faced no consequences. Again, ok... (If Stone's plan all along was not to frame him, but just to force Nikki's testimony, that is never made clear.) At the end, Stone wins of course 'cause that's the way SVU rolls. Do you really expect us to believe that Miller would be found guilty of MURDER (not, say, stalking or something easier to prove) anywhere in the real world? Please, shame on you, SVU writers.

Terrible Ending

[askgutmagic · 5/10 · 23 June 2019]

There had better be an appeal that he wins in the next season cause if you get sent down for murder with zero evidence then the system is seriously screwed. Such a let down of an ending. And the show lost a lot of credibility as a result.

Nonsense

[jl_minter · 2/10 · 17 October 2021]

This episode made no sense whatsoever. Even I was hoping that Miller would be found not guilty in the end, as this whole case was a joke. It could have been handled so much better. SVU at its near worst.

Signs of a tired franchise

[dhad · 1/10 · 11 April 2023]

For years the Law and Order franchise set the bar for network television legal drama. Genre fans could count on objective, linear plot lines (with required twists, turns, and red herrings) that made legal sense-sometimes solid, sometimes interpretable,. That's how the courts work, interpreting written law based on evidence and precedent. It's been a winning formula of producer Dick Wolf for decades.

But television evolves. Executive producers move on. Salaries escalate. Corners are cut. And writers responsible for innovative, gripping stories exhaust ideas. It's why so many highly-rated series call it quits after seven to eight seasons. It's not just ratings that kill programming, but intentional artistic decision.

S. V. U. Began to lose steam around Season 17. Yes, there were some outstanding episodes to follow, but no seasons with the consistency to match the first 16. Story lines began to take on soap-opera subplots of the major characters, the telltale sign that either, A) the old production team was tapped-out, B) the new production team was too lazy or not legally enough educated to push new boundaries, C) network executives thought it would it increase ratings, D) network executives cut budget, or E) a combination of all. This reviewer suspects "E".

And that leads us to this mess of an endeavor called "End Game," so implausible and absurd that it's laughable. Read the other negative reviews for why (they nail it).

Should NBC have pulled the plug? Should Wolf? They didn't, so here's hoping the executive production staff, under new leadership of Law and Order legend Warren Leight, can right ship in Season 21.

Haha, Just Awful

[bkkaz · 1/10 · 11 February 2023]

It's really tough to speak to all the awfulness in this episode. Is it the hammy overacting? Is it the brainless script? Is it the melodramatic direction?

Let's tart with all the fawning over Mariska Hargitay. I mean, seriously. There's a level of sycophancy that transcends to a pathology. Must every man who comes into her sphere lust after her? Must they all remind her how smart, dedicated, empathetic, beautiful, etc., she is supposed to be? Are egos on the show so fragile that this is now required?

The guy playing Stone's son is terrible, and he deserved to be off the show, but not like this. Not with another Barba-esque break with reality. What is it with Law and Order now that no one behaves professionally anymore? Lawyers are shouting at each other in the courtroom, DAs are breaking the law as though it's merely a guideline, and cops are ignoring boundaries they're supposed to maintain.

Just plain awful, haha.

Laughably bad

[BubbaSchwabb · 1/10 · 1 November 2023]

This is by far, without a shadow of doubt, the worst episode of law and order I've ever seen. It's just so far outside the bounds of reality that it's impossible to get on board with. So the deputy district attorney colludes with a witness to fabricate evidence, she admits it on the stand, and they end up getting a murder conviction with admittedly no other evidence? Not a chance. First, even as a non-lawyer I understand that this would never fly in a court room. First, I have to imagine that's grounds for a mistrial. Second, I'm sure disbarment would be the least of their worries because they would both be likely be getting charged. Like someone else said, there really should be another episode in a later season where the conviction gets thrown out on appeal.

On top of all the logical problems, the character implications are irredeemable. They framed someone. Guilty or not, they, the government, took away someone's rights without any evidence. That's what cops and prosecutors are. They are the government. When the government cheats and fabricates evidence to take away someone's freedom, it's not something to celebrate. The way the episode ended on it as if it were just a minor inconvenience was disgusting and shameful.