'Law & Order: SVU': Latest Episode Fuels Ice-T Exit Rumors

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit presented an all-new look to the team in the March 30 episode, with one big piece missing. Sgt. Odafin Tutuola, played by Ice-T for more than two decades, was nowhere to be found. Is Ice-T really planning to leave the series? Based on his recent comments, it doesn't sound like it. Fin just needed a night off.

"Lime Chaser" centered around a twisty case for the team. Abby Clark (Maren Lord) woke up on the street and stumbled into a nearby deli, reporting she was raped. The detectives figured out that she was the victim of a scheme involving a bartender (Dominique Worsley) who received "orders" for women of a specific kind. He would drug them, then they would be taken to a hotel to be raped by men visiting New York. During their investigation, the team learned Muncy's brother Teddy (Michael Trotter) knew the bartender involved. Of course, the team cracked the case, but not without Det. Toni Churlish (Jasmine Batchelor) recklessly putting her life on the line.

If you haven't been keeping up with SVU's 24th season, the cast was almost unrecognizable. Capt. Olivia Benson, played by Mariska Hargitay, was the only longtime cast member in the episode. A.D.A. Sonny Carisi (Peter Scanavino) was only casually mentioned as helping the team get a warrant, but he was not seen onscreen. Fin was also missing because he took the day off.

There have been rumors that Ice-T might be leaving the show. He joined the show back in Season 2 in 2000, meaning only Hargitay has been on the show longer. Ice-T's relationship with Law & Order mastermind Dick Wolf goes back even further, as he starred in the 1998 TV movie Exiled: A Law & Order Movie as a pimp. After that, Wolf asked Ice-T to join SVU as a detective, even though his rap career included songs like "Cop Killer."

"He goes, 'You don't like cops, do you?'" Ice-T recalled in a Today.com interview. "And I go, 'Well, Dick, I used to be a criminal, and the cops were the opponent. It wasn't that we didn't like them – we knew they were there to do their job, and we were doing our job.' He said, 'But you admit we need them?' I'm like, 'Hell yeah.' He said, 'Play the cop we need.'"

In that same interview, Ice-T said people still know him as Ice-T. They know he is "about as far from a cop as you can get." Then again, he admitted that those under 23 don't know him as a rapper. Instead, they know him "as a cop" on television. "Every once in a while, somebody will call me a cop, and then people straighten them out really quick," he said.

Ice-T has no plans on leaving the show, but he hopes the character goes out in a crazy way. In other words, don't expect Liv to just say one day, "Fin has retired." If that happens, Ice-T isn't going to be happy.

"He's the last one standing – like, everybody else died, and Fin is alive," he told Today.com. "At the end of the day, hopefully, they don't twist my character and make me go out like a sucker or a rat or some bulls—. They let me go out right – in a blaze of glory, some kind of way."

While on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in March, Ice-T said he was sure the show will go on. "This year, we had one of the greatest ratings seasons ever," he said. "So, we haven't been picked up for a 25th season, but you got Dick Wolf. I mean, Dick Wolf has six shows on NBC. So, we're sitting pretty. We'll be back for seasons 25, 26. I'mma stay on until the wheels fall off."

SVU airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on NBC, between Law & Order and Law & Order: Organized Crime. All three shows are streaming on Peacock.