Law & Order: SVU Season 27 Episode 20 Review: With ‘Old Friends’ Like These…

Law & Order: SVU Season 27 Episode 20 features a case of the week involving a college reunion gone very, very wrong. A group of old friends gets together for a night of way too much drinking at their filthy rich buddy’s house. There’s a sexual assault, a victim left bloody on the kitchen floor, and an investigation that reveals everything from cocaine use, to planted evidence, to a long-held obsession, an affair…and probably some things I’m leaving out because it’s a lot. But the twisty-turny messiness of it all makes for some good TV, with the (very small this week) squad working really well together under the leadership of our very own ~~Captain Benson~~ acting SVU supervisor Sergeant Tutuola.

“Old Friends” also includes a really lovely scene where Olivia has the opportunity to talk through some of her frustrations and doubts following her recent suspension. Mariska Hargitay and Octavio Pisano are great here, really leaning into a certain casual, effortless dynamic that can only exist between two people who’ve known each other for several years, worked through some sh**, and come out stronger on the other side. If you’d asked me ahead of time who I’d like to see Liv have that particular conversation with, I doubt Velasco would’ve even occurred to me, much less made the list. And yet, now that I’ve seen it, I’m not sure I could imagine it any other way.

With Stabler, any kind of conversation about Benson’s future would be way, way too loaded. Would Hargitay and Christopher Meloni absolutely slay? Obviously. When do they not? But…still. Wayyyyyyyyy too much baggage there. (He loves her, ok?) And, if it were Fin or Amanda, I’m sure they’d both have great advice and/or be perfectly good shoulders to lean on; yet, for as close as she is with both of them, Liv’s still technically their boss. Velasco, on the other hand, doesn’t have that problem. In fact, it’s thanks to advice Benson gave him—which, in an excellent full-circle moment, he asks her to take—that he’s moved on to trying to do the most good he can outside of SVU. At this point, I’d even go so far as to argue that Velasco’s exit, then these couple of brief returns, has been the best ongoing/season-wide arc.

…which brings me to really the biggest problem with Law & Order: SVU Season 27 Episode 20. All of the most compelling bits—Fin as boss, Liv with forced time away from her job—are cut far, far too short. The suspension is over before it really has a chance to begin. Aside from that one (again, going to stress excellent) scene with Velasco, Olivia never really seems to consider doing good anywhere other than right where she’s always been, and even though she’s technically not running the investigation as the squad’s commanding officer, most of what we see from Benson is…what we always see from her.

We get it: Olivia Benson wants to be there for victims and destroy loser men in interrogation. But, like, did we need 20 episodes, plus a manipulative Chief to figure that out??? No. A few extra episodes of Fin running the show, combined with Liv sitting on her hands and hating it and/or fighting her way back in, could’ve been fascinating. As it is, it’s like…I can see the vision! There’s all this potential, fertile soil, seeds planted, (or whatever) and for some reason, we just didn’t get to watch anything grow.

MORE: The fall finale didn’t do the Tynan/Benson showdown justice.

More Law & Order: SVU Season 27 Episode 20 reactions

“I got bagels and cream cheese and lox.” Sign me up. (I prefer whitefish, though.)
So, when I called the Benson/Velasco scene “really lovely” up above, I meant in terms of the quiet, personal moment. However. The shadows on those two, just dark smudges until they come more into the light, is also…really lovely in a literal sense.
“Well, if you’re suggesting that I should retire, I’m gonna puncture your other lung.” MA’AM. (I cracked up.)
“I’m not saying anything. I’m just giving you your own advice: You gotta go where you’re doing the most good. Is SVU still that place for you?” Wow, is that a reaction from Hargitay!
“You know, Joe, for the first time in my life…I don’t know anymore.” We all know Liv can’t stay at SVU until the end of time (unless the idiots in charge end the world sooner than we think) and all, but this is still a giant, shocking OUCH moment.
“It’s not the worst pep talk.”
“I mean, I’m thrilled, but it—it’s weird, right? No explanation?” I simply do not think they should’ve made this quite as glaring, especially when what could’ve been some really interesting possibilities around Rollins’ own return to the unit…never went anywhere. Imagine if we’d gotten to watch her keeping an eye on Griff before he made it obvious he was Team Benson!
Fin really does know how to make an entrance.
“Not my idea of a good itme, but here we are.” HE’S SO FU**ING REAL FOR ALL OF IT!
“Supervisor Tutuola looks good on him.” “Hm. Just don’t tell him that.” I could easily watch multiple episodes of this. Multiple. Episodes. This is a gold mine!
“Hello. I’m Sergeant Tutuola, SVU. This is Captain Curry.” AMAZING.
When the tough mom is gone for the day, and cool dad’s all “what’s up.”
“5:00 a.m., I bet that’s Josh.” “The H—’s Josh?” “Another one of these clowns. Left before everybody woke up.” I LOVE THEM TOGETHER. What if we had a whole spinoff that was, like, Fin and Curry doing this.
“I have, like, 50 pairs.” “I only have two.” There are two kinds of people…
That quick, blunt, “you’re not.”
“Um, is it? A national holiday that I don’t know about?”
“Ok! Acting Supervisor. This is your meeting.” What a fun interaction between Ice-T and Hargitay. Her amused little way of using the title. Him squinting at her like “what.” Then, there’s this: “Actually, uh, the view from here is kinda nice. So, uh, you take the lead on this Fin, and I…I’ll be your right hand.” And she just plops down at that desk and puts her feet up, while he’s trying so hard not to crack the F— up.
It’s fun but also fond and supportive in a way that only Liv and her usual right hand can be???
“On it, Boss.”
“…my group just ended up being one of the best parts of my life for the past 20 years.” Can’t relate.
“Yeah. I’m a minimalist, you know? No one needs more than four pairs.” “Well, Imma need you to take those off. I got the other three pair from your apartment.” “You got a warrant?” “What do you think.” Have I mentioned that I love Fin? Because, well. I LOVE FIN. There were several years there where he was just, like, reduced to one-liners. The precious few episodes we’ve had him in this season, he’s been written much, much better. He still throws those lines out there—just actually has some substance he gets to work with while he’s at it.
Fin, just standing there blinking as Josh goes off. Nothing but respect for my Acting Supervisor.
“Adam doesn’t understand the word no. Ryan’s, like, in love with Nora. And Preston’s an…I don’t know…unpredictable drug addict.” One thing about it: This Josh dude had Adam and Ryan figured out. But I do see we’re back to some disrespectful lines about addicts. Not a fan. At least it’s not Amanda who has to say the nasty thing this time. Much better to make it the guy who’s characterized as an a**hole from the start instead of someone with so much history, who’s technically supposed to be on the side of good.
“You gonna open up your little secret room? Or am I finding a sledgehammer.” I am, once again, going to say how much I adore Curry. Aimé Donna Kelly is so good in this whole scene, but I particularly love how much fun Curry seems to be having with making a show of exploring that door. Like, all the little physical details with the knocking and the pointing and the just…casually being there…
“Whoa. A lot going on in here, Presto!”
“She doesn’t like birth control, and I’m not ready to be a dad again.” “…right.” I snorted.
“Josh blamed Angela for her own assault back in college.” Vile. Any man, especially anyone claiming to be a friend or good guy, who does this? Throw them out.
I’d like to hope people wouldn’t still be in a friend group with someone who date raped them all these years later…but the real world says otherwise. (I hate it. Not judging the survivor, judging the world.)
“I’m saying Angela made a decision, and then afterwards, she wished that she hadn’t.” “I’ve heard that one before.” That hard expression from Ice is everything.
So, Nora willingly hooked up with the married guy who assaulted their mutual friend years ago. Society is terrible.
The way Liv enters an interrogation room. That’s it—that’s all it takes.
“Running to Mom and Dad?”
“Out of all of them, he’s the only person I think I’d be friends with. No matter what. Like, if we met today.” To be clear, Richie Rich is saying this…while also pointing the detectives to Josh as the most likely suspect in Nora’s rape? And he thinks it’s…over…money? Why are men.
“I’m good without your help.” A moment for Rollins.
“Nora’s ring, dumba**.”
The look Fin gives this man when they find that in the bag…
I forgot how well Rollins and Fin work together, somehow???
“Is that a dare?”
“At my work. Inside the mouth of a porcupine.” I know Fin wanted to be like “WTF, dude” there.
Big fan of the air quotes and sarcasm when Josh talks about Nora’s “business.”
“Arrest you? That’s funny timing. I was just thinking about that.” OH THAT GRIN WHEN CURRY THROWS HIS CORNY LINE BACK AT HIM.
“Is this you playing good cop?” “Well. For that strategy to work, there’d have to be a bad cop, too. And it’s just me. So. No.” She was also referred, ok.
Love watching Olivia bait and hook this guy. Just the whole interrogation…brilliant job playing dumb for Liv, brilliant acting from Hargitay…good stuff. What she does is an art—surgically precise art.
“…long shared history you can’t understand in only a few days.” Presented without comment.
The. Way. She. Sits. Down.
“Not really seeing the good guy here.” Same.
“What I’m seeing is, um…is a delusional guy who thinks that Nora finally wanted to be with him. So, he brought condoms—not for your wife. You made your move on Nora, and she rejected you. She pushed you away, and she hit her head. And your ego got hurt.” I don’t know what it is about Hargitay when she whispers lines like that “and your ego got hurt.” But pair that with the hate in her eyes, and you really do get excellent TV.
Just..classic Benson. I don’t care that I’ve seen it all before. It’s good.
Also love when she leans in, all, “am I getting the nuance now?”
THE. END.