‘Law & Order: SVU’ and 'Organized Crime' are Not New Tonight, Here’s Why

NBC is benching Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Law & Order: Organized Crime this week. The [...]

By Daniel S. Levine

NBC is benching Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Law & Order: Organized Crime this week. The peacock network is airing two new episodes of Manifest Thursday night, with the first airing in its usual 8 p.m. ET slot and the second airing in the 9 p.m. ET slot usually reserved for SVU. After that, NBC will air a repeat of the SVU episode "Guardians and Gladiators" at 10 p.m. ET.

Last week's episode of SVU, "In The Year We All Fell Down," was an unconventional hour by the show's standards. It told two stories, with one involving Capt. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) being held hostage by the restaurant owner Vanessa Blake (Sarita Choudhury) who was pushed to the brink after she lost her restaurant due to the coronavirus pandemic. Benson was able to talk her down, even reminding Blake that she was not the only one to lose loved ones. In the second story, Carisi (Peter Scanavino) stayed by Rollins' (Kelli Giddish) side while her father, Jim (James Morrison,) was in the hospital.

The episode was followed by the Organized Crime episode "The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of," which followed Detective Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) and Sgt. Ayanna Bell's (Danielle Mone Truitt) ongoing investigation into Richard Wheatley (Dylan McDermott). However, the highlight of the episode was an intervention Stabler's children staged for him, with Benson leading it. The intervention did not go well, with Stabler suggesting if something was really wrong, Bell would know. Benson asked Stabler to tell them what he needs. "I love you," he shockingly told Benson. Sensing the gravity of what he said, he later told his children that he loves all of them before he left.

New episodes of both shows will return on Thursday, May 13 with another two-hour crossover. In the teaser, Benson asks Stabler for his help in the investigation of her brother Simon's death. In one scene, Bell claims "this screams Wheatley." Back in the 2019 episode "Murdered at a Bad Address," Simon returned for the first time since Season 13 to reconnect with Benson and meet Noah. Benson did not believe Simon had changed his ways, but she reluctantly agreed to meet him at a restaurant. He never showed up and Benson was told Simon died from a drug overdose. In Organized Crime, Wheatley makes his money through an easy-to-use mail-order medicine delivery service, which is why Stabler and Bell might think Wheatley's company was linked to Simon's death.

SVU usually airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET, with Organized Crime following at 10 p.m. ET on NBC. You can catch up with past episodes of both shows on Hulu.

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