Spoilers ahead for the winter premiere of Law & Order: SVU Season 21 on NBC, called "Must Be Held Accountable."
Law & Order: SVU is finally back with its winter premiere to reveal what happened next in the fight to take down billionaire rapist Steve Getz, and the case took a turn when Amanda Rollins was kidnapped by the father of one of Getz's victims, Frank Bucci. He was determined to hold Rollins until Benson, Carisi, and SVU found a way to nail Getz. Fortunately, Rollins was never in too serious of danger from Bucci, and her ordeal could change the way she operates moving forward.
Bucci took Rollins on a road trip against her will, but they were getting along surprisingly well for a man who kidnapped a cop without much of a plan and a cop who couldn't gain control of the situation. He got her talking about how she seems to have stalled in life, and isn't moving forward in her career, leading her to note that he was doing a better job as a therapist than her actual therapist.
When they finally landed in a motel to wait for news that SVU got Getz, Rollins realized that she was just like the mother she "hated" for not thinking she was worth much, and for chasing men who treated her poorly.
"Must Be Held Accountable" made it clear that these realizations carry a lot of weight for Rollins now that she has two little girls of her own, and Law & Order: SVU showrunner Warren Leight described the change as "an emotional breakthrough," then went on to share with Give My My Remote what the events of the episode mean for her:
[I]t all starts to bang around in her head. She’s always pretty tough and she acts out rather than thinks things out…And it’s that stunning realization you have as a parent, that you’re screwing your kids up the same way you were screwed up. It’s a tough road for her, but I think it leads her to some insight that that she hasn’t wanted; some some self-analysis she has avoided for her whole life up until this moment. It’s a different kind of hostage crisis.
Normally, considering Law & Order: SVU is such an exceptionally procedural procedural that it has lasted more than two decades without changing its premise, big character revelations in one episode wouldn't necessarily carry over to the next. SVU is about especially heinous sexually based offenses in the criminal justice system, not individual characters.
This time, however, Rollins came to some conclusions that could shift her entire perspective and possibly the way she lives her life. If this is "a different kind of hostage crisis," as Warren Leight stated, then how will Rollins get herself out of it?
Her emotional breakthrough didn't cause her to lose her head in the heat of the moment, and Rollins managed to get both her and Lucci safely back to SVU without any major catastrophes. Her emotions only got the better of her when she was safely alone with Carisi, who gave her a much-needed hug and let her cry.
The episode ended her story with Carisi securing a deal that would prevent Lucci from serving much time, as Rollins related with his drive to do anything to protect his daughters and Carisi wanted to spare Rollins taking the stand. While this was happening, Rollins was spending some quiet time with young Jesse and Billie.
When she returns to work, will Rollins have the same drive she did before she realized she was living her life in some of the ways her mother did, and that she hated as a child? Will she change how much time she spends with her daughters, or pursue different kinds of relationships? Carisi has seemingly been waiting in the wings for a while, and they're not direct partners anymore. And he wasn't handling her kidnapping very well.
Could his move to become an ADA combined with Rollins' emotional breakthrough mean a change to their dynamic, as friends or even more? Could their relationship take the turn that so many Stabler/Benson fans wanted back before Christopher Meloni left?
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Or will SVU proceed as procedurally as ever, and Rollins' emotional revelations from the winter premiere will only be revisited in special, Rollins-centric episodes? Only time will tell. See what happens next for the whole team when new episodes of Law & Order: SVU air Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET on NBC in the midseason TV lineup.
