Law & Order: Special Victims Unit season 17
Change and transitions define the seventeenth season.
It marked the final season for show runner Warren Leight and featured the departure of Danny Pino from the main cast.
Quick Facts
- Season number
- 17
- Starring
- Mariska Hargitay
- Kelli Giddish
- Ice-T
- Peter Scanavino
- Raúl Esparza
- Episodes
- 23
- Network
- NBC
- First aired
- 23 September 2015
- Last aired
- 25 May 2016
Facts from the source article.
Production
Mariska Hargitay and Ice-T had their contracts renewed for the season. Leight tweeted that Hargitay would direct again that year, and she ultimately directed two episodes: "A Misunderstanding" and "Sheltered Outcasts." Danny Pino departed the cast at the end of the sixteenth season, but his character was not killed off, leaving the possibility of a return. Leight told The Hollywood Reporter that he liked to leave that door open and would like to bring Pino back depending on his availability and story needs. Leight told TV Guide that the season's theme would focus on change and transitions, contrasting with the sixteenth season's focus on family; he stated that wherever everyone starts at the beginning of the season is not where they end. More character development was planned for Raúl Esparza's ADA Barba and Peter Scanavino's Det. Carisi, and Benson would be promoted to lieutenant. In the premiere, Rollins learns she is pregnant and tells Carisi and Benson, but states that Amaro is not the father. In the fifth episode, "Community Policing," Lt. Declan Murphy is revealed as the father. She gives birth to a healthy baby girl after the events of the ninth episode, "Depravity Standard."
Cast
Dallas Roberts returned in the two-hour season premiere as Dr. Gregory Yates, the serial rapist and killer from the sixteenth season crossover with Chicago P.D. The premiere was inspired by Robert Durst and his murder trial, exploring possible connections to a series of rapes and murders spanning 20 years. Danny Burstein and Rebecca Luker, married in real life, appeared in "Transgender Bridge" as the parents of a transgender teen who is assaulted. Whoopi Goldberg guest-starred in "Institutional Fail" as Janette Grayson, a Department of Child Services supervisor whose allegedly fake reports put children at risk; Peter Gallagher also guest-starred as Chief Dodds. Donal Logue returned as Lt. Declan Murphy in "Community Policing," where Rollins reveals he is the father of her child. Leslie Odom, Jr. and Daveed Diggs, actors from Broadway's Hamilton, guest-starred in that episode; Diggs returned in "Forty One Witnesses" alongside Hamilton co-star Anthony Ramos. Andy Karl was cast as Sgt. Mike Dodds, son of Chief William Dodds, introduced as Benson's second-in-command. Lindsay Pulsipher returned as Kim Rollins, Amanda's sister, last seen in season fourteen; she brings their mother Beth Anne Rollins, played by Virginia Madsen, to New York. Leight commented to TV Guide that nothing good comes from seeing her sister or her mother.
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