‘Law & Order: SVU’ Season 27 Sneak Peek Unveils a Heart-Pounding Exploitation Case [Exclusive]

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit returns tonight with the fourth episode of Season 27, “Clickbait.” The episode of the Mariska Hargitay-led series marks the first after the departure of Octavio Pisano‘s Detective Joe Velasco. Collider is thrilled to share an exclusive clip ahead of the episode that sees Detective Terry Bruno (Kevin Kane) and newcomer Detective Griffin Ellis (Corey Cott) seek out the founder of an AI company to hopefully get a name for the user creating explicit, artificially generated material of an underage girl. The founder of the company is played by Matt Jones (Bob Hearts Abishola). “Clickbait” also marks the official return of Kelli Giddish as a series regular, with the promo implying that her expertise is exactly what may help the team to solve the case. The logline for “Clickbait” is as follows:

“When a tween suffers a life-threatening miscarriage, the SVU must unravel a web of online fabrications to identify a suspect; Rollins carefully weighs her career options.”

‘SVU’s New Showrunner Brings the Show Back to Its Roots

New showrunner Michele Fazekas is not new to the franchise. Fazekas wrote and executive-produced episodes in Seasons 3 through 7, with standouts including “911” and “Fault.” The reception to the first three episodes by fans has been overwhelmingly positive, saying the characters, especially Hargitay’s Captain Olivia Benson, feel well-rounded. In a recent interview, Fazekas says as showrunner, “in some ways, I’m going back to when I was on the show, which was like Seasons 3 through 7. I remember what we were doing then that worked well. It’s like, ‘Alright, we’re gonna bring some of that back.'”

While Fazekas is stepping into leading the show with almost 30 years of history behind it, moves behind the scenes allow her to really freshen things up. The series has seen the exits of some writers/executive producers, in addition to former showrunner David Graziano stepping away from his role leading the show. Additionally, in response to Pisano’s exit and Cott’s entrance, Aimé Donna Kelly was promoted to a series regular, and Giddish returned for another season. All of these things open the door for Fazekas to also hit on topics with meaning and intention. With Hargitay’s organization, the Joyful Heart Foundation, championing a cause against image-based abuse, “Clickbait” looks to be another strong episode, handled with the right care.

Fazekas explains that fans can expect this season to see “twisty” cases “[where] you don’t know what it is.” She adds, “and [we’re] also giving some challenges to Benson that she hasn’t had in a while. In a great way, we’re giving her something to push against.” Fans have already seen some of that, with Benson getting arrested by ICE Agents in the season premiere to protect a key witness. SVU also has a new Chief of Detectives, Chief Kathryn Tynan (Noma Dumezweni), who has already proved to be very hands-on.