Spoilers ahead for Episode 18 of Law & Order: SVU Season 26, called "The Accuser" and available streaming now with a Peacock subscription.
NBC has big plans for the next Law & Order Thursday in the 2025 TV schedule. Not only will it deliver the first two-parter since the deadly crossover in 2023, but the Law & Order/SVU crossover will be followed by a special broadcast of the Season 5 premiere of Christopher Meloni's Organized Crime. As a longtime fan of SVU going back to the Benson/Stabler days, I got my hopes up a little too high that Meloni would get a cameo at the end of "The Accuser." While those hopes were dashed, the previews for the upcoming crossover certainly perked me up.
The two-parter between Law & Order and SVU airs starting at 8 p.m. ET on Thursday, April 17 on NBC, called "Play With Fire Part 1" and "Play With Fire Part 2." The first preview for the event aired after Mehcad Brooks' big episode of Law & Order on April 10, and it admittedly got me crossing my fingers even tighter that Christopher Meloni would appear in the next hour of primetime. Take a look:
Per NBC's episode description, "Play With Fire Part 1" brings Mariska Hargitay's Benson over to Law & Order when a "mysterious phone call... leads detectives to the scene of a brutal murder." The promo indicates that the murder is of Maria Recinos, a victim who first appeared on SVU Season 7 back in 2005, in the episode called "911." She returned just last year, in the Season 25 episode titled "Probability of Doom," with the reveal that she graduated from the police academy. Sadly, her then-bright future clearly ended in tragedy.
While the post-Law & Order episode preview set the stage for the crossover, SVU's promo for "Part 2" is a bit longer and juicier. Take a look:
Admittedly, some of the footage in the post-SVU preview is the same as the earlier one, but it does shed a little more light on the victim and how hard her murder is going to hit Benson. Plus, the video proves that this isn't just going to be a minor crossover with a character or two jumping from show to show. It looks like "Play With Fire" will have all hands on deck. In fact, according to NBC's episode description, "SVU and the 2-7 uncover a pattern of rape and murder targeting marginalized women," while "Carisi and ADA Price team up to charge the suspect with multiple crimes."
Fear not – I'm certainly not going to skip over that appearance from Christopher Meloni's Stabler at the very end! From the way that the preview is cut, it looks like Stabler pops up to help apprehend a fleeing suspect in the most Stabler way possible: violently. In all seriousness, I'm not going to go all-in on believing that's really part of the SVU half of the crossover. After all, Organized Crime is airing the Season 5 premiere directly after the L&O/SVU two-parter on April 17, and this wouldn't be the first time that an SVU promo misled fans on what to expect from Benson and Stabler.
Still, I'm optimistic and much more excited for this coming Law & Order Thursday than I was before those previews aired! Organized Crime is only returning to its former 10 p.m. ET time slot for that night, as Season 5 is releasing as a Peacock original. Whether or not that preview truly is giving away that Stabler makes an appearance on SVU, fans can 100% count on seeing him back on NBC for just that one night with the special OC broadcast.
In another franchise perk, Mariska Hargitay will guest-star on Organized Crime for its second episode, which also releases on Peacock on April 17. Whatever happens in the crossover, you'll be able to see the partners back together again soon.
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