‘Law & Order’ Boss Previews ‘SVU’ Crossover, ‘Back & Forth’ Between Benson and Brady About Case

After a lengthy hiatus, what better gift for L&O fans in the new year than a two-hour crossover between NBC’s Law & Order and Law & Order: SVU, airing on Thursday, January 8, at 8/7c. “It’s really like a 90-minute movie,” says showrunner Rick Eid. “It’s integrated and seamless. You’ll see all your favorite characters in each hour.”

Leading the way on the mothership and SVU emotional case respectively: Lt. Jessica Brady (Maura Tierney) and Capt. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), who partner to unravel a complex case. Hint: They who won’t always see eye-to-eye.

Look for more danger and suspense than usual this week. The first hour ends with an explosive discovery that places both squads in danger, while in hour two, SVU’s Det. Terry Bruno (Kevin Kane) has to protect his team during a raid on a suspect’s home. “I can tell you,” says Eid, “there are car chases and explosions. It’s a big kind of hopefully thrilling crossover.”

Below, Eid shares some more plot turns with TV Insider.

How does the storyline for the two-hour crossover episode begin?

Rick Eid: It starts with a young Ukrainian woman who comes into an ER who has suffered some sort of injury or trauma. We assume it’s sexual assault, but then she disappears from the emergency room. Brady, who is out looking for her, soon finds herself in close proximity to a violent crime that takes place [which leads to a complex murder investigation with huge legal and ethical implications]. It is not only shocking and painful, but it motivates her throughout the show to figure out what’s going on so she can get justice for this exploited young woman.

Can you share more details on that storyline?

It’s an emotional beginning to the episode for Brady. She is right next to the woman when she gets shot, so blood is literally on her. It turns out that the victim instinctively pushes Brady out of the way and saves her life.

Any chance that Brady was the target?

No. That’s a different crossover for next year. [Laughs]

We’ve learned that Brady will “bend the limits of interrogation.” Does she round up a number of suspects? Can you speak to that?

Brady’s always a dogged cop, and I’ll just say in the episode, she’s even more determined and focused. As the case unfolds, it’s clear that there’s something horrible and nefarious going on here. She’s very aggressive in the tactics she is using to get information. There’s a little back and forth between her and Benson about the way to handle this case. And so there’s a nice relationship between the two of them in this episode as well.

In what way “nice”?

I’d say nice dramatically. Speaking as a writer, nice conflict means nice.

Of course, we’ve seen both Brady and Benson interrogate suspects and Brady seems to be quite a bit tougher with suspects than Benson, who has a certain empathy she can’t rid herself of, even after decades as a cop. Can we expect Brady’s interrogating tactics to cause some trouble?

Yes.

Will we see much of newly returned SVU sergeant Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish)?

Yes, Rollins is big in the story. We did a pretty good case in getting all our characters in the show in a pretty meaningful way.

Where does the story go from that shooting? Are Russian or Ukrainian criminals involved? Was the woman trafficked? Was she a witness? Can you hint at what to expect?

I don’t want to give too much away because the first hour, a lot of it is like, “What the hell is going on here?” That’s the feeling we’re creating. But, yes, it’s true, that she and other young Ukrainian women are being trafficked. I won’t say how they’re being trafficked or why they’re being trafficked, but there’s definitely a trafficking component to the plot.

Where does the crime case go from there? Are the perps caught in the first hour and following the mothership formula, will it lead to a court case?

We’ll find some of the perps and there will be some legal proceedings in the first hour, but [the case] continues to unfold. By the second hour, you’ll begin to appreciate the magnitude of the criminal organization involved. That’s the best way to say it. By the time the second hour comes along, the show becomes a classic Law & Order episode in which justice is messy. Who are we trying to take down?

Virginia Sherwood/NBC

Can you say more?

I don’t want to give anything away, but it’s a pretty high-concept plot. The easiest way to describe the dilemma is like, do you want to get justice for the young women who have been trafficked or should we take down a potentially dangerous organization which is on the precipice of doing very dangerous things? We can’t have our cake and eat it too in this situation. We have to pick our battles here, and our characters feel differently about the best way to proceed.

It’s a terrible moral choice to be forced to make. Will Brady and Benson take different positions?

I think they are aligned as it relates to that choice. That is, they feel like they’re focused on getting a murder conviction against Sarah Tandon [Collen Foy], the woman who they believe is primarily responsible for this horrible trafficking. That’s their focus, while the District Attorney’s office is a bit more lofty and big-picture oriented. They are trying to potentially consider whether to make a deal with that person and go after other people that might do more damage down the road. Greg Germann and Nia Vardalos will reprise their SVU attorney roles and face off against ADAs Sonny Carisi [Peter Scanavino] and Nolan Price [Hugh Dancy] in the high-stakes case.

This isn’t inspired by the real-life Epstein story, is it? 

No, I will go so far as to say these women are not being sex trafficked. It’s something different.