Olivia Benson Helps a Woman Remember in New 'Law & Order: SVU' Season 26 Images

The world of Law & Order returns January 16. The midseason premieres of both Law & Order Season 24 and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 26 will hit NBC next week. Ahead of that, NBC has released new images ahead of the upcoming ninth episode of Law & Order Season 26. In "First Light." The images feature Captain Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), A.D.A Dominick "Sonny" Carisi Jr. (Peter Scanavino), Sgt. Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish), Sgt. Odafin "Fin" Tutuola (Ice T), and more. The logline for the upcoming episode, according to Rotten Tomatoes, is as follows:

"An abhorrent web of lies and betrayal is uncovered when a woman is confronted with video of a night she can't remember; Carisi struggles to move on from his ordeal when the suspect changes his plea."

Carisi Deals With the Aftermath of Being "Cornered"

In the midseason finale, Carisi was held hostage in a bodega. Scanavino told TVInsider this week that "he's kind of lost" after the hostage situation. "He’s back at work. He’s kind of going through the motions, but he doesn’t have a lot of life to him," Scanavino explains. From the pictures, it looks like his wife, Rollins, will be front and center in his healing process. When Giddish exited the series as a regular, it left a noticeable void in the show, but with her reprising her role as Rollins more and more, especially in the latest season with the Intelligence Unit, the dynamics between our main characters feel more complete.

With Rollins being there during Carisi's hostage both in her law enforcement capacity and as his wife, she provides a unique perspective to help him through. From the images, Rollins seems to be crucial to both what Carisi is working through as well as the main plot, with the woman unable to remember the event taking place in the video mentioned in the plot summary. Scanavino explains that with the trauma from everything that happened:

"Obviously, he is going to be bringing this home. And the person that’s probably most aware of it is Rollins. But I think given her character’s history and what their relationship is, she knows how to deal with it better than anybody and she knows when to give him space and when to engage with him. And I think she’s probably infinitely patient with him."

Law & Order: SVU returns January 16. Catch up with past episodes now on Peacock. Stay with Collider for the latest updates.

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