Law & Order has been mixing up its usual formula in recent weeks of the 2025 TV schedule, with a ripped-from-the-headlines story ending without a verdict and then Reid Scott’s big episode concluding on a loss for the good guys. That episode, called “A Perfect Family” and available streaming with a Peacock subscription now, didn’t show Riley’s reaction to the jury's ruling, but the star spoke with CinemaBlend about what the detective would have done and the perks of an ending that isn’t necessarily happy.
The case hit close to home for Riley in “A Perfect Family,” with the death of a young girl making him think of his own teen daughter. Fortunately, the case didn’t become so personal that Bridget Riley ended up involved, but it wasn’t just another normal investigation for her dad. Complications arose when the police learned that the young victim had been killed by her mother, whose postpartum mental health had been severely neglected by her domineering husband.
There was no problem in proving the mother’s involvement, but the trickier question was whether DA Baxter, ADA Price, and ADA Maroun could get a conviction of the husband for manslaughter. The man ultimately was exonerated after Price decided against putting a the victim's young sister through testifying in court and then losing her last remaining parent.
The episode ended with Price telling Maroun that the father would be punished by knowing what he'd done even though he wasn't convicted in the court of law, but neither attorney seemed entirely convinced. This also meant that the final credits rolled without revealing Riley’s reaction to the exoneration. When I spoke with Reid Scott about the big episode, he shared his take on what would happen if his character reacted on screen:
I think he's going to fly into a rage, to be honest. Not only because he's a guy that can't abide injustice, but because of the nature of the crime itself. Essentially a parent-on-child crime is something that I think he just finds absolutely inhuman. And I love when Law & Order does that, when they serve up a quote–unquote 'unsatisfying ending.' They do that in myriad ways. Sometimes the prosecution loses. We've had another episode this season with our corporate assassin where we don't even serve up a verdict at all, and to see the audience's reaction to that was absolutely astounding. I was really, really surprised pleasantly, but I just love that it sparked a conversation.
Law & Order didn’t neatly tie off all the ends of “A Perfect Family” with a closed case, convicted bad guys, and the attorneys and detectives with something to celebrate. Despite all the work from Riley and Co. on the NYPD side, Nolan and Co. ultimately couldn’t get the win in court without putting a young girl through something terrible, leading to a man escaping justice but still providing a home for his remaining daughter.
It definitely wasn’t a win for the good guys, but I have to agree with Reid Scott that it’s quite interesting when the show is willing to deliver an ending that’s “unsatisfying.” After all, what's not fun for the characters to endure can be fun for fans to watch from home! The actor, who recently paired up with guest star Jesse Metcalfe while Mehcad Brooks missed an episode as Detective Shaw, went on:
But in this particular episode, I'm hoping that [with] a case like this, we will see and the audience will recognize when it reverberates for Riley, because certainly it will. I think these moments serve not only the story that we experience them in, but they become part of the larger tapestry in a show like this. And now that the show is very keen on exploring the personal lives and the inner emotional life of our heroes, I think these moments are very important for us to have just in the overall context of the show.
Other members of the Law & Order cast also opened up about the show digging into personal lives and character development more in Season 24, with Mehcad Brooks previewing back in the fall what would feel “updated” in the new season and Hugh Dancy shared the backstory for Price that he could finally include in the episode that introduced his brother.
For his part, Reid Scott got his first big shot of 2025 with “A Perfect Family,” and I for one enjoyed the introduction of Riley’s daughter after the debut of New Amsterdam’s Ryan Eggold as Riley’s brother last year.
NBC has a treat coming up for fans of the full franchise, with Law & Order crossing over with Mariska Hargitay’s Law & Order: SVU for the first multi-parter in several years on Thursday, April 17. As an added perk, the first episode of Christopher Meloni’s Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 will air in the show’s old 10 p.m. ET time slot, although the rest of the season will be available streaming exclusively on Peacock.
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