LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT Season 26 Finale Recap: A Detective Gets Promoted

[Warning: This post contains spoilers for the Thursday, May 15 season finale of LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT.]

LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT ended its 26th season with a promotion for Velasco (Octavio Pisano)…but didn’t directly address the impending exits of Pisano and Juliana Aidén Martinez.

Velasco learned about his promotion at the top of the hour when Olivia (Mariska Hargitay) suggested they go get a drink.

“Did I do something wrong?” Velasco asked his boss.

“You know, I can be nice sometimes,” she replied. 

When they got to the bar, Velasco tried to preemptively smooth things over. “I know I’m really not good with words, but I wanted to say thank you,” he said.

“For what?” Olivia asked.

“For not giving up on me,” he replied.

“Well, I’m not going to lie Velasco—there have been a few times a while back I considered throwing you out on your ass,” she answered. “But it turns out you’re not entirely a lost cause.”

And then Velasco was surprised with the rest of the squad, congratulating him on being promoted to Detective Second Grade. (Olivia told the chief about his great case work and his command presence.)

While the hour ended with Velasco officially getting promoted, it was more vague about his on-screen future. Instead, Olivia flashed back to his journey on the show as she watched him on stage.

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