Last week's episode of "Law & Order: SVU" season 17 dealt with the death of a young boy named Avery and the arrest of Darius, who was held liable for his death after he accidentally pushed him off the bridge as he bullied the kid. This week's episode has the team deal with kids again, but ones in a very different circumstance.
A new episode of "Law & Order: SVU" season 17, which is titled "Institutional Fail," brings the team to the office of Janette Grayson, who will be played by guest star Whoopi Goldberg. This is after they happen upon a famished child roaming around the streets by himself.
In the investigation, the name of Manuela Ozuna emerges. They storm into her house, only to find another child in the same horrible condition. The team continues to get to the bottom of it by acquiring reports from the Department of Child Services.
Caseworker Keith Musio provides them only with backdated papers. While the reports he gives are too formless, they help the team become conscious of one thing – he may not have been paying attention to the kids' cases for months.
Keith quickly puts the blame on his supervisor Grayson, who he claims made the false reports. This is where this "Law & Order: SVU" season 17 episode gets more intense as the team realizes that there's more tomfoolery going on than they havve imagined.
More than what seems to be overlooking cases, a conspiracy could be happening inside the organization and the finger-pointing only makes it difficult for the team to know what is really going on and who really is pulling the strings behind such a detestable scheme.
With every single person held responsible denying the accusations, Chief Dodds, who also had time to speak about the changes bound to happen within Benson's team, decides to conduct an internal investigation.
But for Barba, it seems that everything is just moving at a snail's pace. Indeed, before things get settled, someone dies, having Barba springing into action to find the person responsible.
"Law & Order: SVU" season 17 episode 4 airs today on NBC at 9 p.m. ET.
