Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: "Ballerina"

"We all do what we have to do." -- Birdie Sulloway

Carol Burnett is a television legend and certainly not in the position of needing to do any episodic TV work. But, damn, am I ever glad that she did.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit has a long history of casting their big-name guest stars against type (Robin Williams, Leslie Caron, Marcia Gay Harden, and Cynthia Nixon, to name a few), and Carol Burnett was no exception. In "Ballerina", Burnett played Bridget "Birdie" Sulloway, a former Rockette and society matron who ultimately proved to be not at all what she seemed. As a black widow -- or more accurately, a marital vigilante -- Burnett was a revelation. Frightening, haunting, formidable, commanding... And all of those attibutes could be applied to her character before the big reveal. After the audience learned that she married and offed five men over the course of forty years simply because they were bad men and the world was a better place because they were gone, Birdie became utterly chilling. And Burnett owned every moment.

And somehow -- somehow -- Burnett inspired sympathy in the audience when Birdie received her terminal cancer diagnosis. Birdie Sulloway was a pathological criminal, a murderer, who harbored no remorse for the things that she had done, and yet... I felt bad for her. That's a testament to the great talent that Burnett possesses, and SVU was an unexpected showcase for her that won't soon be forgotten. I smell an Emmy.

On a smaller note, Matthew Lillard was impressive in his own right. Chet appeared to be a child trapped in a man's body and his delusions about his "aunt" felt natural and earned. Chet believed that in doing right by Birdie, he was doing right by the world, and his sincerity was unmatched. His downfall -- thrown under the metaphorical bus by Birdie simply for unintentially crossing her -- was surprisingly tragic, and Lillard was simplistically affecting.

Thoughts?