‘Law & Order: SVU’ Reveals New Assistant District Attorney in Historic Premiere

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit returned for its historic 21st season Thursday with an epic episode featuring a fantastic performance from Ian McShane as Sir Toby Moore, a Harvey Weinstein-like film producer who sexually assaults women during “casting couch” sessions. While Moore’s crimes finally caught up with him thanks to Olivia Benson’s refusal to leave the case alone, the episode also marked the debut of a new Assistant District Attorney. After years of studying to be a lawyer, Detective Dominick Carisi Jr. finally became the new A.D.A.

After SVU was renewed in March, Philip Winchester announced he would not be coming back to the show as A.D.A. Peter Stone. At the end of the Season 20 finale, Stone left New York because he felt he cared too much about Benson (Mariska Hargitay) to make the right decisions while handling cases.

Since no new star joined the cast during the off-season, fans were left to wonder who would take Stone’s place. That mystery was solved very early on in “I’m Going to Make You a Star.” Before the main title, the SVU team celebrated Carisi (Peter Scanavino) moving up in the world with a surprise party.

Unfortunately, Carisi’s first day on the job could not have been made more difficult. The SVU team thought Carisi would help them bend the rules as they usually do during the Moore investigation, but his new boss, D.A. Vanessa Hadid (Zuleikha Robinson) was not as willing as Stone was. She told the squad to keep digging deeper for more evidence after the first victim came forward.

During the investigation, Moore tried to get them off the scent by publicly admitting he had affairs. But that was not enough to stop Benson. While watching the press conference, they discovered that Moore made some changes to his office, meaning he must have gotten rid of some evidence.

Next, Rollins (Kelli Giddish) walked Benson and Finn (Ice-T) through the surveillance footage at Moore’s apartment building. The video showed Moore’s assistant overseeing movers, who took furniture out of Moore’s apartment after a victim ran out.

Amazingly, after a cleaning crew goes through Moore’s apartment, video showed Moore being followed by an elite group of “power people” that includes a former presidential cabinet member and a former attorney general. Then comes the jaw-dropping reveal: Hadid and other current D.A.’s office staffers show up later!

After interviewing Moore’s assistant, Benson and Finn enlist another detective to go undercover to visit Moore, pretending to be an actress. With her help, Benson’s team catches Moore in the act and they finally get to arrest him.

“These guys believe they can’t be held accountable… but we need to take him down,” Benson told Carisi before Moore’s first hearing. After they walked out of the court elevator, Benson, Rollins and Carisi were met with dozens of women with signs accusing Moore of assaulting them.

While Carisi’s first case ended on a good note for him, it was not the same for Deputy Chief William Dodds (Peter Gallagher). Hadid is sticking around and the higher-ups decided he can’t be trusted to work with the D.A.’s office. So, he is moving on and will work in an office in Staten Island. Benson was stunned by that, but he was ready to take on a demotion. As part of his “exile,” Dodds demanded Benson be promoted to captain.

Law & Order: SVU airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET on NBC.

Photo credit: Virginia Sherwood/NBC