SVU is back!

Airing on September 23, 2021, "And the Empire Strikes Back" and "Never Turn Your Back on Them" make up the two-part premiere for the twenty-third season of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Mariska Hargitay stars as the just, empathetic Captain Olivia Benson, with Ice-T, Kelli Giddish, Peter Scanavino, Jamie Gray Hyder, and Demore Barnes rounding out the cast.

This confusingly-plotted two-parter follows the SVU team as they pursue a sleazy, entitled Congressman who splits his time between preying on young girls and declaring his presidential ambitions. Oh, and thanks to near-death-experiences and no-holds-barred office politics, two ensemble members ride off into the sunset. And, of course, the episodes also give us a helpful recap of what happened at the end of SVU's sister show Law & Order: Organized Crime.

Yeah, it's a lot.

Listen to Áine and Kevin weave together an incoherent narrative around sound effect failures, Q, dumb storytelling choices, and the sexual chemistry between Benson and her old partner Elliot Stabler.

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