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When non-horror television series go for the ghastly

By Carla Davis

The Handmaid's Tale -- "Unfit" - Episode 308 -- June and the rest of the Handmaids shun Ofmatthew, and both are pushed to their limit at the hands of Aunt Lydia. Aunt Lydia reflects on her life and relationships before the rise of Gilead. Ofmatthew (Ashleigh LaThrop), Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd), and June (Elisabeth Moss),shown. (Photo by: Jasper Savage/Hulu)
The Handmaid's Tale -- "Unfit" - Episode 308 -- June and the rest of the Handmaids shun Ofmatthew, and both are pushed to their limit at the hands of Aunt Lydia. Aunt Lydia reflects on her life and relationships before the rise of Gilead. Ofmatthew (Ashleigh LaThrop), Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd), and June (Elisabeth Moss),shown. (Photo by: Jasper Savage/Hulu) /
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Horror
LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT — Pictured: “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” Key Art — (Photo by: NBC) /

Just by the nature of its description, the television series Law & Order: SVU deals with horror in nearly every episode.

The New York Special Victims Unit investigates crimes that are “especially heinous”, so serial killers, rapists, and pedophiles are nothing new. But, this series went into especially dark territory when it introduced us to William Lewis, a serial killer who tortured, branded and raped his victims. Though his storyline was disturbing anyway, it really hit home when Lewis kidnapped the Queen of SVU, Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay).

It’s bad enough to hear the details of torture when it applies to characters we have known for a fraction of an episode, but Olivia is someone we had known for 14 seasons. She is our bada** bestie at this point, and she seems invincible.

When Lewis grabbed Olivia and took her on the worst possible road trip anyone could imagine, viewers were taken along for the ride. Thankfully, most of the really horrific torture occurred off-camera, but we know that he heated up wire hangers and other metal items on the stove and burned her with them. We can see from her bruises and cuts that he has hit her multiple times, and eventually, we know that he has not raped her yet.

In what was probably the worst experience for Olivia, Lewis forced her to watch while he tortured and raped an older woman, then they hit the road again. Eventually, after Olivia is tied to a bed, she manages to get loose and very nearly beats Lewis to death with an iron bar.

Lewis’s court case takes place in an entirely different episode, where Olivia is forced to be questioned by him (he decides to serve as his own attorney), but it seems he will be in prison forever. Don’t get too comfortable, because he manages to escape later, and once again kidnaps Olivia.

This episode was also horrifying since Lewis has abducted a young girl, using her to make sure Olivia cooperates when he forces her to play Russian Roulette with him. Lewis ended up shooting himself in the head and setting it up so it appeared Olivia had shot him.

Pablo Schreiber played William Lewis perfectly, enabling us to see the thrill he got from terrorizing and torturing women. And Mariska Hargitay’s traumatized reactions to him were spot-on. I could physically feel the effort it took for her to put the gun up to her own head and pull the trigger.

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