Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 26 Episode 3 Review: Divide & Conquer

Amanda Rollins’s return for Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 26 Episode 3, “Divide & Conquer,” is a painful yet sweet reminder of what the show is missing now that she’s gone. Truthfully, none of the new detectives have made the squad room feel as complete and familiar as it did when Rollins was around.

Nevertheless, it is exciting to see she is thriving. She is back doing what she truly loves, has been promoted, and now runs her unit: the Intelligence Division. Funny enough, Rollins is to Law & Order: Special Victims Unit what Voight is to Chicago P.D. And we all know Amanda has a Voightish side to her.

It is good to see that even though Rollins is working the case with Benson, she can stand on her own feet. This becomes very clear when the two have an almost argument about why they needed Nora to come forward about her rape. The disagreement doesn’t last long, but it helps showcase how far Rollins has come outside SVU.

Even though “Divide & Conquer” isn’t the most thrilling or entertaining of episodes, a few things must be highlighted. As mentioned before, the first one is Rollins’s return.

Because she works in a different division that focuses on cases without a sexual connotation, Rollins can take the lead on the robbery side of the case. However, because she worked at SVU for so many years, she can work on both sides of the case and see the evidence from two perspectives.

These perspectives are helpful and provide viewers with different insights, allowing us to form our own conclusions. That’s when the next thing that must be highlighted comes in.

There was a time when Law & Order: Special Victims Unit allowed viewers to see the investigation behind the scenes. This means we got details from the M.E., CSU, TARU, and many other technicians and scientists involved in the investigation. Truthfully, that is something that many viewers miss and would add a lot to the storylines if the showrunners chose to bring it back.

For this case, it is essential to learn more about the safe and hidden camera and other details usually provided by CSU and TARU. Hopefully, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit will go back to its roots and let us in on the investigation details through other sources rather than simply listening to what the detectives found.

In the past, it felt like the show didn’t know how to handle a bigger squad. For one team member to get enough screen time, others had to be sacrificed.

Even though that is the case on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 26 Episode 3, “Divide & Conquer,” the missing members of the unit aren’t actually missed. There isn’t a moment when you stop to wonder where Velasco, Bruno, or Silva are.

On the contrary, the dynamics between Fin, Curry, Rollins, Carisi, Benson, and Corgan are enough to keep viewers busy, entertained, and captivated. This makes one wonder how the show portrays the other characters and their storylines.

If a character isn’t missed during an episode, something is wrong. Usually, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit has been good at making viewers like (or tolerate) every character in the squad room. That always led to fans mentioning when one character or another was missing.

However, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 26 doesn’t seem to be making the rest of the characters as valued and loved as other seasons did.

Every case on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is very particular and must be discussed respectfully. This episode’s storyline isn’t any different. However, how the case starts does make us dislike the victim’s husband, at least for a split second.

When the robbers come in, and one of them asks Nora to take her clothes off after having shot her husband, the husband tells her to do what the robber is telling her to do. Everyone, including the audience and the rest of the characters present, knows what that means, so how could he say that?

Wouldn’t it have been better to let the man hurt him further over telling his wife to do as he says? That moment is quite upsetting, but knowing that it doesn’t go unnoticed on the show is rewarding.

Often, details about the cases concern the audience but are disregarded on the show. “Divide & Conquer” addresses the husband’s attitude when he admits he was wrong. He freezes, and instead of protecting his wife like he had done his entire life, he says what he can to keep her alive.

Like most shows, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit will get some things right and some wrong. However, the one consistent characteristic of the show is that there will always be an Olivia Benson speech that will make both the survivor and the audience feel better.

Even when the storylines get boring, the characters are superficial, and the episode makes us miss the good old days, Benson will always be there to improve a tiny part of it. On Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 26 Episode 3, “Divide & Conquer,” it helps that Rollins is there too doing the same thing.

And it will always be better if we witness Benson and Rollins chasing perps down the streets and catching them. There is nothing more satisfying than two badass women getting the job done.

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Law & Order: Special Victims Unit airs Thursdays at 9/8c on NBC.

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