Spoilers forward for Episode 14 of Legislation & Order: SVU Season 24, referred to as “Dutch Tears.”
Legislation & Order: SVU got here again to primetime after a while off with an episode that shone the highlight on Fin. The character’s evening went from fairly nice to fairly heavy when he went dwelling after receiving an award, solely to be confronted by a person who he’d put behind bars again in his Narcotics days. The person had been sexually assaulted repeatedly in jail, and needed justice ASAP. That meant Fin and Bruno pulling an all-nighter because the Particular Victims boots on the bottom, and within the course of, the sergeant dropped an replace on his former companion: John Munch, performed by Richard Belzer.
Fin and Munch have been companions for a few years, after Ice-T joined SVU in Season 2. Richard Belzer additionally performed his character on many reveals, beginning as Munch again in 1993 on NBC’s Murder: Life on the Avenue. He turned a collection common on SVU as soon as it premiered following the cancellation of Murder in 1999, with appearances on different reveals together with Legislation & Order: Trial By Jury, The X-Information, and Arrested Growth, to call only a few. He left SVU as an everyday in 2014, on the finish of Season 15, and was final featured on the present in 2016 as a Season 17 visitor star.
Whereas Munch is credited with greater than 300 episodes of SVU on IMDb, the present hasn’t addressed a lot about his future after retiring from Manhattan’s Particular Victims. Fortunately, Fin went on a blast to the previous whereas speaking to Bruno, and it left me able to hit up my Peacock Premium subscription to revisit the outdated days. Fin mentioned:
See, I had a companion years in the past, an outdated murder detective. He had the identical actual protection mechanism… He retired. I suppose he simply ran out of fuel. Final I heard, he moved again to Baltimore. Met a divorced feminine rabbi. And he purchased again his outdated cop bar. It’s 1:30 a.m. He’s in all probability cracking a joke to some barfly. That skinny bastard had a punchline for each second of the day.
“Moved again to Baltimore” is a nod to how Munch debuted for the primary time within the Baltimore-set Murder: Life on the Avenue, and the remaining sounds fairly in-character for Munch even when this was the primary that followers have heard of it. Bruno famous that it gave the impression of Fin missed his outdated companion with that speech, however Fin merely mentioned that he’s “not into nostalgia” as a result of “that stuff’s heavy” and “brings you down.” Bruno mentioned that he was flattered by the comparability, which makes me want that he may additionally go to the outdated days of SVU and meet the person who Fin described!
Although loads of time has handed and loads of detectives have entered and exited Particular Victims over the 24 seasons, I nonetheless discover myself pondering of Benson, Stabler, Munch, Fin, and Cragen because the basic crew of SVU. Is that actually as a result of they have been the highest staff within the historical past of the present? Or is it simply because theirs have been the reruns that have been all the time airing on USA once I watched in my youth? I can’t say for positive, however not like Fin, I’m all in regards to the nostalgia. Additionally not like Fin, I can simply use a streaming service to revisit the basic crew.
Because the debut of Legislation & Order: Organized Crime, the L&O universe has been capable of reunite Fin, Benson, and Stabler, whereas Cragen appeared in SVU’s five hundredth episode and once more in Season 2 of OC. Old skool followers had gotten latest updates on all people apart from Munch; now, that’s now not the case. Whereas the present presumably received’t be happening blasts to the previous on a weekly foundation, I loved that Fin gave a shout-out to his outdated companion in “Dutch Tears.” As for what’s occurring subsequent week… properly, Mariska Hargitay stepped behind the digital camera in addition to in entrance! Check out the promo:
The following new episode of Legislation & Order: SVU was directed by Mariska Hargitay and airs on Thursday, February 23 at 9 p.m. ET on NBC. One SVU actor just lately opened as much as CinemaBlend about working with Mariska Hargitay and watching Chris Meloni do splits, making it clear that behind-the-scenes within the L&O franchise is much more enjoyable than being a part of that TV universe! You may as well discover some extra viewing choices now and within the coming weeks on our 2023 TV premiere schedule.
