LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT: Executive Producer Neal Baer and Henry Ian Cusick Talk Guest Stars, L&O:LA Crossover

LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT will step outside of its comfort zone in the September 22nd season premiere.

Not only will special guest star Henry Ian Cusick (LOST) be appearing in both episodes of the two-hour premiere, but the show may be toying a bit with a potential romance between his character and Mariska Hargitay’s Olivia Benson.

“There’s a bit of a flirtation, certainly from Erik Weber’s point of view,” says Cusick of his character. “He’s very interested in Benson and I think it becomes a rivalry with Stabler and Weber.”

“We needed someone who was extremely charming, because Benson has had a number of men interested in her over the past 12 years,” executive producer Neal Baer adds. “I said, we need someone who really gets charm and can be a counterpoint to Stabler, in that he is as smart as Stabler. And we immediately thought of [Henry] Ian for that, and I think that’s what’s interesting, particularly in the second episode [of the arc]. We don’t often see someone who can pull Benson in another direction with his own smarts and kind of be a competitor with Stabler and I liked that element of him, too. He’s a strong character…and can stand his own ground.”

So, could the character come back after these first two episodes?

“I think my story has been told,” Cusick says.

But Baer is quick to add, “You never know.”

Hmm.

What we do know?

Benson might get what she wants this season…but Baer is hesitant to tell us what the heck that means: When I questioned Baer over the phone about his comments regarding Olivia finally getting what she desires and the role Erik might play in that, I could practically hear him squirming over the line. “[Long pause] Well isn’t that a cagey question!” he laughed. “I guess you’ll have to watch and see. She wants many things…[well] I wouldn’t say Olivia wants many things. She wants a couple of things and so I think that [Erik] represents something she indeed might want. Did that answer your question?”

Since it did not entirely satisfy my curiosity, I asked if the thing Olivia is getting may be a child — longtime fans know that Olivia was rejected as an adoptive parent a few seasons back — and was met with yet another pause. Baer then responded with, “I will tease and say — what can I say? — I will say that Maria Bello’s character has a lot to do with this as well. That’s episodes 7 and 10.” Hmm…

Christine Lahti will reprise her role as disgraced ADA Sonya Paxton in episode 9: As Baer explained it, it’s an episode “about alcohol abuse on campuses, which pulls Chris Meloni’s character, Stabler, again, head-to-head with Christine.”

The return of Marcia Gay Harden might spell trouble for Stabler: “Let’s see, first episode, she almost shot Stabler,” Baer reminded us. “Second episode she almost blew him up. So third episode, there’s no telling what will happen!”

The LOLA-SVU crossover isn’t exactly a crossover: “What happens is episode 3, airing September 29th…Jennifer Love Hewitt [delivers] an amazing performance as a woman confined to her home, afraid to leave because she’s been raped by this guy a number of times over the years and [Olivia] tries to bring her out,” Baer revealed. “And [Olivia] ends up going to Los Angeles because she goes across country — she goes to Detroit and Chicago, as well — to open rape kits, because there’s a backlog of rape kits in this country in many, many cities. The rape kits haven’t been opened or tested so they’re just sitting and in some places literally degenerating…so a lot of perps are going free because the kits haven’t been opened yet or tested, as I said. So she’s on a mission and that takes her to L.A. which then takes her to meet Skeet Ulrich’s character Rex Winters from LAW & ORDER: LA. So what’s interesting I think about this is he appears on SVU before he premieres in LAW & ORDER: LA, which is kind of a new thing. It’s a chance for him to make an appearance with Mariska — which is pretty fun, we’ve never done anything like that — and when LAW & ORDER: LA premieres right after us, it’s strictly an LA show. Mariska’s not in that. There’s no plans for a further crossover, unless we figure out some way for them to do something in New York or Mariska or Chris or Ice-T have to come back to LA.”

We may see a familiar infamous face return to the show: When Baer was questioned about whether or not we may see any of SVU’s past perps pop back up again — a move the show rarely does — Baer actually responded, saying that it was in the works. “I was just talking about that on Friday and the answer is yes,” he said. “Probably one of our worst perps ever may return.”

Any guesses on who the baddie might be?!

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