Spoilers ahead for the Season 25 finale of Law & Order: SVU, called “Duty to Hope.”
Law & Order: SVU reached a milestone that few shows ever have or will with Season 25, and the finale was a bit more thrilling than the average episode in the 2024 TV schedule. Special Victims was on the hunt for a serial rapist known for binding his victims’ hands with twisted wire hangers. Basically, “Duty to Hope” didn’t need to bring up either of Olivia Benson‘s nemeses to be pretty darn dark! There was a standoff before the NYPD could capture the perp, and SVU resolved in the perfect way… but I don’t expect SVU to do this regularly or other crime dramas to try it often.
The case was stressful enough for Special Victims (and Carisi) even before the standoff, with Trial Division Chief Heidi Russell – a.k.a. Carisi’s new boss – pushing a case through court way too quickly with minimal evidence, Fin getting shot in the arm by the wrongfully accused man’s son who tracked him down via the internet, and the unit having to try as hard to catch the bad guy as to exonerate the innocent man.
Then, there was a breakthrough via some touch DNA that connected a former Marine by the name of Glenn Duncan to the crimes. Given that there were still fifteen minutes left in the episode and the trailer for “Duty to Hope” had heavily promoted a shootout and standoff, it was safe to say that they hadn’t closed the case just yet. They arrived at Duncan’s apartment, only for the dishonorably discharged Marine to open fire with an automatic weapon, wounding an officer and prompting Benson to risk her own life to pull him to safety.
Normally in SVU (and other crime dramas including those elsewhere in the nine-show Dick Wolf TV universe), a standoff with an armed perp holding a hostage would probably involve a major character delivering a dramatic speech to talk the bad guy down in a prolonged and wonderfully dramatic sequence. This time around, the ESU guys on site had an infrared device that quickly told them where the rapist was and that he had a hostage, both alive with heat signatures. Take a look:
That didn’t mean there wasn’t a chance for a dramatic speech, as Benson called Duncan’s phone to give him a chance to surrender, but he knew his options were death or prison for the rest of his life. He’d made his choice: he and his hostage would die together. So, the cops breached the apartment, easily killed him, and saved the victim. It took less than two minutes.
Now, I watch a lot of crime dramas as part of this job, including all three FBIs, all three Law & Orders, and Chicago P.D., which means I see a lot of standoffs and hostage situations in a given TV season. While I enjoy the drama and high stakes for the characters, I do often wonder why the various teams don’t just use infrared to clear up a lot of questions without risking their own lives. SVU‘s Season 25 finale showed how hostage situations can indeed be resolved quickly with that tech, so I feel validated… and filled with understanding for why most crime dramas don’t go this route each and every time.
SVU needed to close the case sooner rather than later, because there were other loose ends to tie off. Fin needed to spring the innocent man from jail and give a talking-to to the boy who shot him. Benson needed to attend Maddie Flynn‘s 16th birthday party, lend The Compass to Maddie’s mom, and then call Stabler to tell him about the necklace. In what amounts to the closest thing to an SVU/Organized Crime crossover this season, Christopher Meloni recorded the Stabler half of the phone call.
Basically, if the episode was going to fit in these important character moments before the end, then the standoff had to end pretty quickly, and the infrared was a great way to pull it off. If infrared was used in every hostage situation in every crime drama on television, though, a lot of the drama would be lost, and who wants that? On the whole, I liked how the technology was used in the Season 25 finale, but I’m fine with watching scripted standoffs being resolved the old-fashioned way more often than not.
Any future SVU standoffs are a ways off, however. Although the show was renewed for Season 26 on NBC, Benson and Co. won’t return until the fall for new episodes. In the meantime, you can always revisit earlier episodes from the past quarter century with seasons streaming via Peacock Premium subscription and/or Hulu subscription.