Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 26 Episode 8 Review: Cornered

“I think I’ve seen this film before,” is all one can think when watching Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 26 Episode 8, “Cornered.” Even though Carisi hasn’t been a hostage, we have seen squad members being held hostage before (particularly Olivia Benson).

The entire episode feels like a repeat of things we have seen before. The only thing that can and must be highlighted is Peter Scanavino’s performance. He takes a disaster episode and delivers the best performance since he joined the show.

The vulnerability he gives Carisi throughout the hostage situation and afterward is remarkable. Hopefully, the writers will take this and use it for future episodes. It is one of the few times that we have seen Scanavino’s raw talent in action, and he deserves to be applauded even when the episode leaves us with a sour taste.

Once upon a time, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit used to focus on special victims that weren’t always connected to sexual violence. The show gave voice to all kinds of crimes that would label someone as a special victim.

Recently, all we have seen are victims of sexual assault. When “Cornered” starts, we feel that, finally, we will see a different kind of case. Even though we’ve seen the hostage situation many times before, it is a breath of fresh air in contrast to all the sexual violence we have seen.

However, the episode takes a misstep and leads us right back into a sexual assault case. Boyd taking Tess into the cooler and assaulting her is entirely unnecessary. This time, this kind of storyline doesn’t add anything to the plot. All it delivers is violence, making the viewer feel even more uncomfortable than we already did after watching Ali get shot.

What could have been a great episode that focused on Carisi’s vulnerability, his behavior as a former cop and current ADA in a situation like this, and how he helped the rest of the hostages stay calm completely loses focus. We are no longer interested in that storyline because we want Tess to get to safety as soon as possible.

Tess’s scream is absolutely devastating. The audience can hear the pain coming from the pit of her stomach. If we wanted Boyd to go to prison before, we want this even more after watching what he does to her. Again, this takes the attention away from Carisi, who should have been the sole focus of the episode.

What truly makes the episode a disappointment is the idea of exchanging Carisi for Benson. Even though this doesn’t happen because Carisi stands up to Boyd and saves Benson’s life, even thinking about it makes fans feel like we’ve been going in circles since the William Lewis storyline.

Benson has been held hostage multiple times throughout the seasons, particularly during Law & Order: Special Victims Unit 2.0 with Lewis and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 17 Episode 11, “Townhouse Incident.” We definitely do not want to see this happen again.

One can understand why Benson would make the trade. She still feels like Carisi’s boss and is his friend, plus Rollins is also one of her best friends. She feels a sense of duty toward them and wants to save him.

But is she forgetting she has a son to go home to? As an NYPD Captain, she should know better than even to fathom the idea.

This isn’t a plot twist. Benson becoming (or nearly becoming) a hostage isn’t innovative and doesn’t make viewers feel sad or scared. On the contrary, most of us are tired of the same kind of story repeating itself.

Carisi saves the day (and bits of the episode) by not allowing this to happen. He makes it clear that she isn’t his boss anymore, and this is one of the bravest things he has ever done. Once again, Scanavino’s performance is what brings the episode together.

Having both Benson and Rollins outside should have turned out differently. None of them behaved the way they usually would have.

We see glimpses of the old (and real) Rollins when she fights the negotiator, talking about ranks. But that is where the attitude dies, and both she and Benson fail.

The waiting around doesn’t help the case or the victims being held hostage. If they hadn’t waited as long as they did, many of the casualties and situations could have been avoided. So, why choose this time to make them seem tamed?

Benson threatens that they will have a problem if something happens to Carisi but doesn’t really do anything to prevent this from happening. Sending Velasco and Silva to look into Boyd and Deonte’s past doesn’t help the case. It all seems a waste of time.

The only remarkable thing about Rollins’s presence this episode is that she sees Carisi isn’t okay because this situation has impacted him terribly. The show should explore this in upcoming episodes.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 26 Episode 8, “Cornered,” is a disappointing episode delivered through extremely shaky camerawork. Many scenes in which Carisi is inside the bodega look filmed in a tremble. If this is done to create tension, it misses the mark.

To do things that have been done before, the show has to put an innovative twist on them, which doesn’t happen here. The only salvageable thing is Scanavino’s performance, which needs to be exploited more in future episodes.

Hopefully, the second half of the season will be better than what we have seen so far.

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

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