Law & Order: SVU returns in the 2025 TV schedule with a winter premiere to follow up on the fall finale hostage situation that was traumatic for Carisi, to say the least. Despite its status as arguably TV's most successful modern procedural, SVU is going to pick back up on that storyline to start 2025, and Peter Scanavino spoke with CinemaBlend about how Carisi is dealing with what he went through... or not dealing with it, as the case may be. After I rewatched the fall finale to prepare for the interview and winter premiere, I totally get what the actor means.
Fortunately, it's not hard to rewatch older episodes of SVU with a Peacock subscription, but that's just about all that's fortunate from the Season 26 fall finale that aired back in November. I felt immediately after watching it last year that it was one of the standout episodes of the season, possibly Scanavino's finest work on SVU out of eleven years and counting, and would be hard to revisit because of how heavy it was even by SVU standards.
Those feelings mostly didn't change when I rewatched the episode, called "Cornered," except that it wasn't hard to revisit at all. Still, the abrupt switch from the crisis being a straightforward Law & Order hostage situation to one of the hostages being pulled away to be assaulted while Carisi could only helplessly listen at gunpoint... well, that hit harder this time, which is saying something after how hard it hit the first time around!
Carisi was understandably a mess at the end of the episode, so when I spoke with Peter Scanavino about the winter premiere, he opened up to preview the time jump ahead to new installment on January 16:
It's definitely a few weeks, because he's obviously back at work. I don't think he'd be right back at work after the deli episode, but he's back at work. He's going through the motions, but he's got this problem where he's just sleepwalking through life, in a way. That's his issue now. He's changed, but he still has to do all the things that he had to do before, and how he's able to navigate it.
The winter premiere is called "First Light," and will feature Carisi's attempts to move on from what he went through. The sneak peek episode clip (seen above) reveals that he's not taking the latest development well, but also that Rollins and Benson are comparing notes to keep an eye on him. Kelli Giddish guest stars in the episode as well for the third time in Season 26.
Carisi himself of course isn't trying the case against the man from the hostage situation, with Law & Order's new DA Nick Baxter getting a shout out in the clip. In fact, according to Peter Scanavino, his character hasn't been trying any cases at all over the course of the time jump. He previewed:
He's back being an ADA. I don't think he's had another case since that one, so this episode is his first case that he's really taking on. Because he's been back at work, but not quite really engaging as the ADA, like he was before, this is the first case back.
Kelli Giddish guest-starring in "First Light" is hopefully a good sign that Carisi is getting the support he needs at home while trying to get back in the courtroom as an ADA, but it was also clear at the end of the fall finale that his road to recovery wasn't going to be very smooth. Peter Scanavino went on to share how the people around Carisi have reacted to the pace of his progress, saying:
I think everybody's very patient, but again, you can be patient, but it's his line of work. It's not about him, and while you want to be sensitive to what he's going through, he still has responsibilities and things that he has to do, and if he is failing, that has repercussions for other people, not just him. And so I think it's patience, but also there's some tough love involved, and maybe some people close to him say some things that he needs to hear.
Carisi wasn't ready for "tough love" when last we saw him in 2024; could that be exactly what he needs to get back to his old self to start out 2025? That remains to be seen, but fans can count on another standout performance from Scanavino in the winter premiere, which airs on NBC on Thursday, January 16 at 9 p.m. ET.
As always in the 2024-2025 TV season, SVU episodes release between Law & Order, which has a possibly career-ending twist for one character to resolve, at 8 p.m. ET and Found Season 2 with a Station 19 alum on the way at 10 p.m. ET. As for Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5... well, the wait is still on for Christopher Meloni's show to debut as a Peacock Original.
