LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT Exclusive: Demore Barnes to Return as Garland

LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT is getting a visit from a former chief: Demore Barnes will reprise his role as Christian Garland in an upcoming episode of the series, Give Me My Remote has learned exclusively.

Barnes joined the show in a recurring capacity in season 21, portraying SVU’s new deputy chief. The actor was promoted to be a series regular for the 22nd season, before exiting in the season 23 two-hour premiere. (Jamie Gray Hyder also left the long-running drama in the same episode.)

“In the midst of what’s transpired, there are things I know, and things I don’t,” Barnes said in the aftermath of his exit. “What I know is that it is almost every actor’s desired rite of passage to appear on just one episode of SVU. And yet here I am. I’ve not only gone on to do more than one episode, but I know I’ve done it with style.”

“We were proud to help create the characters of Christian Garland and Kat Tamin,” SVU showrunner Warren Leight wrote on Twitter at the time. “We were privileged to work with [Barnes] and [Hyder]. It’s been a joy to become their friends. We already miss writing for them, and working with them. Godspeed.”

Last viewers saw Garland, he had quit his job after being intentionally shut out and shunned by Chief McGrath (Terry Serpico)—a consequence for Garland speaking up about police misconduct.

Update, April 14: Here’s the official description for the episode “Tangled Strands of Justice,” airing Thursday, April 28: “Garland asks Benson to reopen a missing persons case he worked as a rookie officer.  A victim in one of Carisi’s recent cases is arrested.”

LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT, Thursdays, 9/8c, NBC

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