Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 3 Review: ‘Divide & Conquer’

Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 3 is…an episode of television, we guess. After a strong second episode, we were hoping the series’ 26th season would stick with the positive momentum. Unfortunately, that’s really, really not what happened here. It’s just that this case should’ve felt huge, especially with the opening sequence that might or might not take decades off one’s life to watch it. And, well, it wasn’t. In fact, the more we heard about the rape victim’s husband, who had to watch and got shot, the less we cared about him. Especially with Nora, the actual rape victim, focusing more on him than herself.

Which, look: That’s…it is what it is. Trauma responses don’t tend to be rational, so Nora focusing so much on James isn’t necessarily a problem. It just becomes one, when you find out that the rich white dude, who believes “a man has two jobs: to protect and provide for his woman” (ick) purchased an AR-15 after a random sucker punch in the park — that’s day-to-day life in the big city! — because “he’s worried this country is going to descend into a civil war.” Like, that’s a giant red flag and no. And…you’re supposed to…prioritize his feelsies over his wife’s? No thanks.

Also, not for nothing? Even when he sounded like he regretted telling Nora to just do whatever the dudes in their house wanted, he never actually apologized directly to her. If anything, it’s just more of the “boohoo, poor me” of it all.

Ugh. Hardest of hard passes, y’all.

But!

If we totally take the details of the case out of the picture and just view Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 3 in terms of the obvious goal — to get Benson and Rollins being bestie cops and solving crime together again — it’s a win. If we sound irritated and judgmental about the episode itself, please be aware that we literally do not care if fans who love Rollins, Rollisi, or just what Rollins is supposed to be to Benson are in love with “Divide and Conquer.” In fact, we hope they are. The moment at the very end is cute and definitely sets up the idea that these two characters will work together again. Not to mention, that whole heart-eyes, “there’s the hardball ADA I married” Rollisi nugget is exactly what the people deserve.

…but this is Season 26. And, honestly, we can do so much better. Also: Is it seriously still weird to absolutely no one else that Liv is forever texting but only seems to ever catch up with Amanda at/through work? The scene when they — oops! Convenient! — run into each other at the elevators at 1PP just seems like, mostly, small talk the two should have already had many times over, off screen. Get creative! Give it some substance! Or not. Just keep telling us how close they are while kinda showing us the opposite. Fic is more fun for character-driven stories anyway.

More on Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 3

• I know I’m usually very “show, don’t tell,” but like. I promise they could’ve just told us about most of what we saw at the very beginning. That includes the whole nagging wifey/kitchen knife lesson. Nora beating herself up over being “mad at him for putting knives in the dishwasher” later in the episode works even as just a tell instead of a show. Promise.
• Full offense: I’m still mad at NBC for canceling Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist. So, initially, seeing John Clarence Stewart here just made me want him to start singing and dancing to F up the case. Once the case already proved it was a mess without his help, I just wanted him to start singing and dancing to keep my attention.
• “Have we met?” Well, Liv, your face is on the news constantly and has been for decades. So, he probably knows who you are because of that. IDK.
• The second they mentioned Albanians, my first thought was “Officer Monte Cristo.” Never getting over it.
• “But my main concern, Sergeant. Is getting the man who raped Nora.” I honestly wish they’d leaned into this tiny second where it seemed like Liv and Amanda were going to butt heads on this case. It could’ve really given Giddish and Hargitay some good material to work with and set up this idea that they can’t always be on the same “team.” But we had to rush through everything because we spent 84 years showing the 1PP thing and the home invasion instead of doing…anything of substance. So, wasted opportunity.
• “I don’t care what happens to me, ok? I just want my marriage to survive this.” This, I kinda understood despite it kind of butting up against my personal “women first. Victim first” mentality. “James can never know that I told you how he reacted.” However. This…is 100% a no from me. Like, this man shouldn’t be her main concern after what happened to her, especially not when it comes to him being embarrassed he reacted the way he did. Come on.
• “Welcome to the cesspool of human depravity.” Fin discussing SVU? Or me at Twitter under Musk. (No, I’m still not ever calling it “X.”)
• The cuts from Nora getting the phone call about James’ blood clot, back to Liv’s office, to the next thing, to the next…chop, chop, chop.
• “Focus on the eyes.” You mean…cops can still identify masked individuals, so folks wearing respirators to protect their health — and yours — aren’t automatically criminals trying to avoid being caught for doing crimes? THAT IS BRAND NEW INFORMATION.
• Imagine if the new girl was anywhere, at all, learning anything, at all, from the infamous Captain Benson.
• “I’m in Intelligence. We keep it clean.” So, New York and Chicago are, uh, different.
• “I was trying to have a plan to protect you in the future in case the world collapsed.” Bro, stop following Twitter Blue (or whatever he calls them now) users and touch grass.
• That is…quite a chase after a guy with a messed up leg, through a bunch of crowds no less. Also, Amanda just…manifests out of nowhere when Liv catches the guy. Again with the weird editing.
• But it’s fun seeing them run after a dude together again!
• “But you were the one that was victimized.” That part.
• “I was being strong.” “That’s not strength, Nora — that’s avoidance.” If I speak on pots and kettles both being black…
• Liv chooses after the friend calls her to the bar (big theme with vics and drinking lately) to tell Nora they caught her rapist instead of, like, telling her before that?
• “…can not truly support another person until we deal with our own, individual trauma.” I…don’t know how I feel on this one. In some ways, that could be something that, as Liv says, is from her experience and has worked/is sloowwwwwwlllly working for her. But in others, the implications…eh. Sometimes, folks who are still hurting still deserve to love and be loved, actually.

What did you think of Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 3 “Divide and Conquer”? Leave us a comment!

New episodes of Law & Order: SVU air Thursdays at 9/8c on NBC.