Law and Order: Special Victims Unit "Accomplice Liability" (Dick Wolf Entertainment, Universal Television, NBC-TV, aired April 3, 2025)

by Mark Gabrish Conlan • Copyright © 2025 by Mark Gabrish Conlan • All rights reserved

The Law and Order: Special Victims Unit episode that followed Law and Order on April 3 was called “Accomplice Liability” and was a follow-up to an episode originally broadcast November 21, 2024 called “Cornered” (https://moviemagg.blogspot.com/2024/11/law-and-order-special-victims-unit_25.html). In “Cornered,” Dominick Carisi, Jr. (Peter Scanavino), the assistant district attorney assigned to the Manhattan Special Victims Unit, gets caught in a robbery turned hostage situation when he stops in a Brooklyn bodega for his usual cup of coffee and a card for a bouquet he’s bringing his paralegal. Alas, he walked in just after newly released convicts Boyd Lynch (Silas Weir Mitchell), a 50-something white guy, and his 20-something Black “prison bitch,” Deonte Mosley (Keith Machekanyanga), are holding up the place. The hostages include Carisi and two young women, Tess Milburn (Paige Mitchell) and her roommate, Elizabeth Alden (Toni Khalil), who stopped in at the bodega on their way from a yoga class. At one point Lynch decides to take both Tess and Elizabeth and lock them in the store’s walk-in freezer, and later he gets Tess alone in there and rapes her. Then Carisi, after an abortive attempt to get the bad guys to accept Captain Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) of the Manhattan SVU as a hostage in his place, goads Mosley into shooting his partner by telling him that if he does so, the law will consider it self-defense and he won’t be prosecuted for it. Mosley takes the bait – and is then promptly arrested by the police. He’s understandably upset that he was lied to, though writers David Graziano and Julie Martin (both old Law and Order hands) seem to want us to believe that by deliberately deceiving Mosley, Carisi was acting ethically and in an above-board manner by doing what he had to do to end the hostage situation and save innocent lives.

“Accomplice Liability” picks up as Deonte Mosley is about to go on trial for the various crimes, including murdering the bodega owner, under the doctrine that even if you didn’t do the specific crimes of murder or rape, because you were there as part of a criminal conspiracy you’re every bit as guilty in the eyes of the law as if you had pulled the trigger (or your dick) yourself. The case falls into the hands of Brooklyn assistant district attorney Camille Rourke (Stacey Farber), who unsurprisingly makes it clear to Carisi that it’s her case and she doesn’t appreciate his second-guessing her trial strategy. The case falls on the testimony of Tess Milburn, who in the meantime has become so traumatized by having been raped that she’s become a drug addict. She nearly dies from an overdose of benzodiazepine and fentanyl, and she’s also acquired a large Black quasi-boyfriend, Marquis Wallace (Miles Dausuel), who’s obviously taking advantage of her and getting her to have sex with him in exchange for drugs. The Manhattan SVU detectives and the Brooklyn D.A.’s office are both naturally worried about keeping Tess alive and in coherent enough shape to testify. Benson even gives her one of her usual lectures to convince her that as traumatic as it will be for her to relive the rape, the experience will be cathartic and she’ll come out a better and mentally healthier person. Tess sneaks out of her police-provided hotel room the night before she’s supposed to testify and the cops ultimately track her down and find her pretty non compos mentis, though they’re able to sober her enough to enable her to testify. One of the plot points is whether or not Carisi can keep his cool on the witness stand or can be goaded into losing his temper; he manages to avoid a temper tantrum on the stand but goes into one when he sees Deonte smirk at the defense table after talking to his attorney. Rourke gets upset with him and fears that his outburst has blown her whole case. Ultimately the jury convicts Deonte of the murders (including his partner, whom he did kill directly, as well as the bodega manager whom Boyd Lynch actually shot fatally) but not of raping Tess – though she seems to have gained from the experience and she and Elizabeth make up after Tess, at the height of her addiction, stole Elizabeth’s laptop and gave it to Wallace for drugs.