Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 16 Review: ‘Let Me Bring Pardon’

Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 16 revisits familiar territory. No, we’re not just talking about revisiting the comatose victim from earlier this season either. (Although, uh, choices have been made in doing that.) The more — maybe most — familiar territory we explore here is Olivia Benson’s “burden,” as she calls at the end of the hour, as a child who is the product of rape. Certainly, this (finally?) gives Mariska Hargitay a chance to do something other than stand there, look pretty, and regurgitate ChatGPT-sounding BensonBot lines. In a lot of ways, even, ‘Let Me Bring Pardon’ manages to succeed at, at the very least, being much more watchable than a number of other Season 26 episodes. Unfortunately, though, plenty still manages to go wrong here.

MORE: In case you forgot who these people were, see what happened with Ellie’s case in Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 6.

“I’ve been working really hard on forgiveness”

Bookending Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 16 with Olivia’s visits to her mom’s grave implies some sort of lesson has been learned, or a change has been made. Character development, if you will. If that’s the target here, the storytelling completely misses the mark. According to Liv, she’s been thinking about her mom a lot in therapy and trying to work on forgiveness. We’re on Episode 16 here. We have seen zero — count ’em, zero — indicators, all season, that Liv is putting in the work. A scene like this is fine for catching us up, but when there’s been about zero character to develop all this time and a complete mess relative to anything having to do with therapy in Season 25, color us skeptical.

But ok. Fresh start? Sure, why not? Let’s be fair and consider it a fresh start.

Captain Benson then goes to work and finds herself working on a case in which the victim is pregnant…as the result of what can only be rape because she’s still in a coma. Enter Fin, telling Olivia he understands Ellie’s situation “strikes a nerve” in Liv and her being all “????” just like the good ol’ days of SVU. That’s fitting enough because if she’s working through her issues with her mom in therapy, it’s fresh on her mind — moreso than usual — so even the bizarre “how did I get here” of a case can absolutely rub on those raw nerves. So, if we shut out the noise that is this particular choice of a case to revisit and further complicate, it’s progress.

It’s the way it all ends that, more than anything else, feels wrong. As Olivia tells a still-comatose Ellie her story, she finishes with “the one thing that I do know for certain is that your mother loves you. Unconditionally. Truly.” The way Hargitay plays it in the moment, and the way we focus on all that emotion on Benson’s second trip to the cemetery, it’s like a magical switch has been flipped. She realizes her mom loved her, too. Oh, and more magic happens because BensonBot gets Ellie to move again! Ugh.

But nothing about Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 16 makes that revelation feel earned. Liv doesn’t witness a pregnant person who’s pregnant after being raped have incredibly complicated feelings while still very much caring about her child. Instead, there’s Laura with her religion hollering at Liv about miracles while Liv is very visibly not having it. Steadfastly believing in the “miracle” of someone else’s fetus and wanting it no matter what is…not the same as being the one carrying that fetus. Maybe that “healing” will be enough for some viewers, especially after so long of getting nearly nothing personal for our main character. But when we look back on older episodes and how they handled Olivia’s origins and how her mom’s trauma contributed to her own…this latest attempt fails to impress.

MORE: In all fairness, Olivia’s mom came up as she described displacement to the victim in Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 14. Guess the therapy-speak was actually from…going to therapy and listening to the professional?

More on Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 16

• The wrong was done to Ellie by Chris. No one can forgive him except her…and she’s in a coma. What even is this with the moms?
• “You and Chris really did love each other, Ellie.” Girl, what.
• Oh, hey! A squad talking and including Captain Benson!
• …but what now about Carisi filling her in on his case “on the way in”? Lots of Liv telling us things happened off camera to start this one off, and yet, she can’t ever tell us about her kid or her bald burden.
• “I know you have a relationship with Ellie.” Define relationship. Is it “had very strange ‘I squeeze your hand to make magic identification of attacker’ moment” or.
• Your comatose daughter’s rape baby is not “the most amazing news.” Seek help.
• Love Liv’s reaction to that, though.
• Fin’s “that’s messed up” about sums it all up.
• “…that judge who framed me…” Sounds a lot like a giant, orange felon.
• “You want me to just go back in there like the old days and knock some sense into Chris? Because believe me, I will.” Is this Fin talking about Chris the convict or Ice-T talking about Chris, the guy who played Elliot who Fin initially didn’t care for or.
• …what I’m saying here is, someone pop Elliot upside the head sometime. (Sorry to Christopher Meloni.)
• “Never underestimate the power cash has to affect a person’s morality.”
• “Let’s just say the Captain’s going that extra mile for reasons that are none of our business.” …the famously “doesn’t talk” Fin Tutuola hinting at things that are, as he says, none of these people’s business. Did someone spike his coffee or.
• “But this baby. Is a miracle. Miracles don’t always happen the way we want them to. Sometimes, they happen when we need them to. Please — please don’t take my miracle away.” This is sick.
• “…the child’s best interests…” Didn’t realize New York was now a fetal personhood state but ok.
• “Ellie’s baby is the product of rape.” Is this a good time to talk about another Ellie and another child? Or does he still not exist.
• The reflections were pretty cool. Not just because they’re actually clearer than some prestige TV’s poorly-lit closeups either. As…odd as I may find the connections we’re making here and how we’re forcing this to be about Serena and Liv when it’s not the right place/case to do it for me, there are at least visual cues to tell us “hey, this is a [very distorted WTF] mirror image of Olivia’s own backstory.
• …but with that reflection in the tablet screen, seriously, y’all. You had, and missed an opportunity for a big ol’ Noah montage. WHERE IS NOAH.
• Obligatory BensonBot: “My job? Is taking care of victims. And your daughter is a victim, and after everything you’ve been through so are you. So, I’m going to look after both of you if that’s alright.” 
• “I should’ve been there to protect her.” “Do you hear how that sounds?” “Considering you’re the one who put her there in the first place.” Can’t believe I’ve been robbed of Fin/Curry for so long. More of this! All of it!
• But also: Tag yourself — I’m whatever Aimé Donna Kelly’s expression is screaming when she delivers that “do you hear how that sounds” line.
• I’m also with them both on not forgiving this dude. And wow, can’t believe we’ve been robbed of Fin reminding everyone he knows people like when he gets in dude’s face and threatens to make it “uncomfortable” for him. Terrible to cheer on from real-life cops? Totally. From Fin? Let’s do it.
• Side note: Why are we pretending to care about him again???? It made sense in Episode 6. It does not here. Go away, abuser.
• “She’d have jumped over that table and smacked the blonde out of his hair.”
• …again. Fin can’t pretend like he knows nothing when he already went wayyyyy out of character and got the gossip starting.
• Sassy Liv with the neurosurgeon dude. Personality!
• It’s always a nasty AF youth pastor type, huh.
• “So you’re saying God called you to rape a comatose woman.” GET HIM BRUNO.
• Liv has no idea if her magical coma communication powers were legit, but we used the identification from them in a trial? Um. Y’all. What is a consistent story?
• “God allows bad things happen to good people. Every day.” Heartbreaking: The worst person you know just made a great point.
• Tag yourself: I’m Bruno’s bitter cackling and Liv about to go full Un-Stabler.
• “And to answer your question, I do believe in God. And I hope that you do half as much as you pretend to. Because then you would know that there’s a place for people like you that’s way worse than any prison that we could put you into. But until that happens, I’m gonna make sure that you spend the rest of your days in a six by eight cell. I promise.” On the one hand, the delivery is fantastic, and I’ve very much missed a good Livterrogation scene. Especially with her this angry. But on the other…Liv? Is religious? Now? This just all sounds very much more like something Stabler would say. If we didn’t pretend he went to NYPD on, like, a different Earth in a parallel universe (or whatever), of course.
• I know hospitals are cold, but this puffy coat indoors would be overkill even for me.
• “I understand the burden that your child will carry when — when they enter this world. And I understand it because…because I carry it, too.” AND SO DOES YOUR SON. YOU HAVE A SON. HIS NAME IS NOAH.
• Really, truly great performances across the board here, and I do appreciate the improvement, especially as it relates to Olivia feeling like a real character again. But it really is another “for something this big, you have to go big” situation, and I very much do not believe that is what happened here.

Agree? Disagree? What did you think of Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 16 ‘Let Me Bring Pardon’? Leave us a comment!

Law & Order: SVU airs Thursdays at 9/8c on NBC. The series will return on April 3.