Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: "And the Empire Strikes Back" and "Never Turn Your Back on Them" (2021)

Mystery to Me

SVU is back!

Airing on September 23, 2021, "And the Empire Strikes Back" and "Never Turn Your Back on Them" make up the two-part premiere for the twenty-third season of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Mariska Hargitay stars as the just, empathetic Captain Olivia Benson, with Ice-T, Kelli Giddish, Peter Scanavino, Jamie Gray Hyder, and Demore Barnes rounding out the cast.

This confusingly-plotted two-parter follows the SVU team as they pursue a sleazy, entitled Congressman who splits his time between preying on young girls and declaring his presidential ambitions. Oh, and thanks to near-death-experiences and no-holds-barred office politics, two ensemble members ride off into the sunset. And, of course, the episodes also give us a helpful recap of what happened at the end of SVU's sister show Law & Order: Organized Crime.

Yeah, it's a lot.

Listen to Áine and Kevin weave together an incoherent narrative around sound effect failures, Q, dumb storytelling choices, and the sexual chemistry between Benson and her old partner Elliot Stabler.

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