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[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 8 “Cornered.”]
What should be a regular day turns into a very traumatic one for Carisi (Peter Scanavino) in the Law & Order: SVU fall finale.
After forgetting his paralegal’s birthday, Carisi goes to a corner deli to pick up flowers—only to walk in on a robbery. He ends up a hostage, can’t keep the deli worker from being killed or one of the other hostages from being raped, and lies to one of the robbers to get him to turn on the other to put an end to the situation. (He says he can argue self-defense, then refuses to help him since he didn’t help the other victims.) After it’s over, he insists to Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Rollins (Kelli Giddish) that he’s fine, but it’s clear he’s not.
Below, Scanavino breaks down the episode and teases how the events will affect Carisi going forward—and his relationships with Rollins and Benson.
Is there anything that Carisi thinks he could have done differently?
Peter Scanavino: I don’t know. I’m sure there is because I’m sure that he wishes that everybody had walked out of there alive and that none of the awful stuff that transpires during the episode actually did. I’m not sure how he would’ve achieved that, but I think that could have been a regret for him, you know what I mean?
Peter Kramer / NBC
There’s only so much he could do in this situation, but at the same time, because of who he is, I understand why he feels like you just said.
Yeah, I think whenever something happens, you replay it and go, what could I have done differently? If I would’ve done this? Did I have a chance there? Should I have taken that chance? Was I scared? Is that the reason I didn’t do it? Or would that have been stupid? Would that have been worse? So I think in traumatic situations you kind of replayed them in your brain and you think would about this moment or that moment, you start questioning yourself, which is just kind of the nature of it, I suppose.
What’s clear at the end of this episode is that he’s not okay and he should be listening to Rollins and Benson, but why is he trying so hard to just move past it rather than say take Benson’s advice and talk with a therapist?
Well, I mean, it’s basically the day of. I think he just needs to calm down and I think his default is, I’m fine. I think a lot of people say that I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m just going to move on. I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m fine. Even when they’re not. And I think that’s just kind of what he’s falling into, maybe old habits and maybe that’s a realization that he does need help in whichever format that takes. That’s something that he needs to explore. I think he needs to come to that realization himself.
How are we going to see the events of this episode affecting him going forward?
Well, they definitely ripple throughout the season. I think in the following episode there’s definitely a different Carisi that emerges, almost like a slight detachment as he’s trying to process this and the unexpected emotional toil that it’s kind of taken on him.
Peter Kramer / NBC
How are we going to see it affecting his relationship with Rollins?
I don’t know. I think when these things happen, it’s stressful for everybody involved because you don’t know what to do for the person sometimes, and that can be—frustrating is the wrong word, but painful for a loved one to see, another loved one going through something and you don’t know how to help.
What are we going to see from Carisi and Benson? Because I imagine that she’ll be noticing this different Carisi that you just talked about,
Right. Well, they’re obviously very good friends and you try to help in any way you can. And sometimes that requires maybe tough love or to speak plainly and frankly with somebody, you know what I mean? Some people need to be encouraged and spoken to very sweetly, and sometimes people need to have a conversation they can snap out of it. And I think Benson definitely has that kind of permission with Carisi.
Is it going to get to the point where he does go to therapy, do you think?
I don’t know. I don’t know.
What would it take for him to do that?
Well, I don’t think that’s such a thing that he’s like, I would never go to therapy. I’m not sure. I think he could definitely be convinced to do something like that, but it has to be the right time and right place and something that he wants to do.
What was the toughest scene to film from this episode?
A hard scene was when they’re trying to exchange me for Benson as a hostage, and I kind of have to make this decision that this is my responsibility and that I can’t just let my friend walk into peril when I was the unfortunate one to walk into the deli in the first place. And I think from that moment on, he realizes that he’s kind of in a fight for his life. That was a difficult scene.
What else is coming up for Carisi?
Well, we’ve only filmed a couple episodes since that. I’ve been off for one. So I think there’s the episode of him dealing with kind of the repercussions of this and how he’s doing mentally and trying to find his footing again. And then he finally somewhat does, and then he kind of goes into another case where there kind of starts to be some tension between him and Benson. He’s different. He’s changed from this episode.
What’s coming up with Carisi and Rollins after this episode? Have you filmed anything else?
No. That’s the only thing.
Are we mostly going to see Carisi sticking to the ADA role going forward? Are we going to see him working with SVU a little bit more, maybe slipping back into that detective role a little bit at all?
Definitely working more with SVU and not the traditional courtroom ADA role.
Law & Order: SVU, Return, Thursday, January 16, 2025, 9/8c, NBC