Law & Order: SVU Reveals Maddie Flynn’s Fate — How the Case That Benson Was Obsessed With Ended
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Cease all on-foot pursuit of neon-colored energy-drink vans! Quit wearing all beaded bracelets lifted from life-size sex dolls! Maddie Flynn, the teenager who went missing in Law & Order: SVU‘s Season 25 premiere, has been found.
Thursday’s episode of the procedural reveals that Maddie had, indeed, been trafficked by the same “George” who doped up Tanya Garcia and left her for dead in a Jersey motel. The good news: Maddie is alive! The bad news: She’s been made to look like a boy, loaded up on fentanyl and sold to a pervert with a thing for trees.
More from TVLine
Will Trent Teases a Major Character Reveal: Who Is Antonio Miranda?
Shōgun Premiere Recap: Does FX's Epic Samurai Tale Rule? Grade It!
But when Maddie passes a note that reads “Call NYPD” to a stranger, the alert eventually makes its way back to Benson and her team. Though everyone thinks Liv is in way too deep on this case, her obsession turns out to yield a good outcome: While Fin & Co. doubt that the drugged-up boy they’re seeing is the sunny teen kidnapped weeks before, Capt. Benson is able to look at the grainy photo of the boy and realize that it’s the same kid they’ve been looking for.
The newly invigorated investigation brings Olivia to Pittsburgh, where she meets the FBI’s East Coast expert on child abduction, Special Agent Shannah Sykes (played by Jordana Spiro, Ozark/My Boys). A moment of appreciation, please, for how few effs the Law & Orderverse gives when it comes to casting actors who’ve already been on the show. In the Season 23 finale, Spiro played Delia Hackman, a domestic violence victim who murdered her husband. She got a lot of screen time. It was a very memorable role! And now, not even two full seasons later, Spiro is back as an odd, if effective, FBI profiler. God bless the Dick Wolf Cinematic Universe, which is not subject to the laws of time and space.
Anyway… when the team tracks down George on another train trip, they arrest him. Well, Sykes beats the snot out of him and is near tears when she’s done, and then they arrest him. But Maddie’s nowhere to be found, because he sold her.
Memories From the Set: Law & Order: SVU Edition
There is much distracted compass-rubbing and fretting on Benson’s part, but eventually, they have a solid lead. As Benson and Sykes drive to where they hope Maddie is, we learn that Sykes’ sister disappeared years before while she was walking to the municipal pool in Allentown, Penn., where she’s from. “I don’t feel her in the world anymore,” Sykes tells Benson, who listen sympathetically.
Eventually, they arrive at the house where they think the pervert has stashed Maddie… and they’re right! And she’s alive! Liv chases the guy who bought Maddie until he surrenders. At the hospital, Maddie says she’s pretty sure she wasn’t sexually assaulted during her ordeal (though the fentanyl drugging makes things fuzzy), then she has a sobbing reunion with her parents. Her captor confessed and is going to jail for a long time. George probably is, too. Way to get a win, Liv!
Back in New York, Sykes meets up with Benson and cements their new deal: The FBI is going to loan her out, embedding her with Manhattan SVU, and she’s happy about it. She’s been bouncing around for a decade, she says, and “The real Shannah’s been missing for a long time.” Benson is pleased, and replies: “Well, let’s see if we can find her.” Looks like we’ll have a new face around for a while!
Or rather, another new face: Capt. Renee Curry, formerly of IAB, officially starts at SVU — and Fin is Not A Fan. “Curry needed a change,” Benson tells him, ordering him to give the newbie a chance. “And you needed a Rollins,” he says, a little rudely but not a lot wrongly. By the end of the hour, though, Fin seems like he’s warming up to his new co-worker.
Now it’s your turn. What did you think about the resolution of Maddie’s case? And are you looking forward to seeing how Curry and Sykes blend with the team? Sound off in the comments!
Best of TVLine
Get more from TVLine.com: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Newsletter
