Barba & Esparza

So, the elephant in the room is the People vs Richard Wheatley. A lot of people say that they ruined Barba. That we should have been careful what we wished for and he shouldn’t have been brought back for this. For one, Raùl signed onto this. He loves Barba, a lot, and he’s always said he’s happy to come back if the story is right. I think he understands the story deeply, and is able to look past the “Barba was defending a bad man” thing.

Was Wheatley horrible? 100%. Is it likely his own ego is what lost them the case (because a mistrial is not a win, even if Wheatley was happy about it)? Definitely. Wheatley breaking and threatening Carisi was damning to the case. Rafael didn’t want him up there.

And yes, a massive reason Barba took the case was because he wanted to protect Liv. She felt he was hard on her? Imagine if it had been someone like Buchanan. She would have been ripped to shreds. I even felt he was pulling his punches with Stabler. ((Note; as someone who wildly dislikes Elliot, I do have a bias in enjoying watching Rafael dismantle him in court.))

But he also explains other reasonings, and he’s right. Elliot should not have been allowed ANYWHERE near the case. Other procedures were not followed correctly. The system failed in a way that would let someone like Wheatley walk, and Barba shined a bright light on it.

We later see a storyline similar in Last Call at Forlini’s. No, there wasn’t a corrupt officer or anything. But Delia asked for help over, and over, and over, and over again. Her abusive husband was continuously allowed access to her, and when he broke the restraining order? Slap on the wrist, back out on the streets.

Rafael saw that system fail again. This time it did too little. This time it led an ill, tired, broken woman to murder. He’s so soft in this episode. He’s not making a lot of cracks, he’s not biting in court. He’s helping his client off the stand when she’s in pain after the years of abuse, and he’s getting her a fantastic deal because he knows the law fucked up. Similar to what he did with Mickey Davis.

Rafael is still Rafael. He’s still the man that learned to care through working with Liv and SVU. Even Liv cracks a bit at it. Had he not brought up Stabler, they possibly could’ve rekindled. Now I’m not saying he shouldn’t have; she needed to be called out. Elliot left for 10 years without a word. She didn’t hear from him after she had been kidnapped (twice), he didn’t know she had a kid (well, adopted), he didn’t know said kid had been kidnapped. He might not have even known she was made captain unless Fin told him. And Liv points out at the end of the People vs Wheatley that Stabler STILL hadn’t asked about her. I get his wife died, but apparently he was able to have a whole ass emotional affair in that time with Angela. But he can’t ask about Liv? Idk what happened between that ep and Last Call, I watched them both back to back. But Liv let Stabler back into her life smoothly, meanwhile she couldn’t even call Barba for help after one bad case. I’m glad he called her out, even if it keeps them fractured.