Spoilers forward for Episode 14 of NBC’s Legislation & Order: SVU Season 26 within the 2025 TV schedule, referred to as “The Grid Plan” and out there streaming subsequent day with a Peacock subscription.
Legislation & Order: SVU discovered a method that works going again to the pilot in 1999, however the NBC hit typically departs from that method. That was the case for “The Grid Plan,” which not solely revealed the assault another way than traditional, however featured a sufferer who proactively made herself a part of the investigation. Doing so did not actually assist her case, however a scene between Megan (The Good Couple‘s Donna Lynne Champlin) and Benson (Mariska Hargitay) clarified what was driving her. Champlin spoke with CinemaBlend in regards to the highly effective episode.
Megan got here to New York Metropolis to have enjoyable with as many Broadway reveals as she might match into her week away from Iowa, however this being Legislation & Order: SVU, one thing went horrifyingly mistaken for her when she was attacked in an alcove in Occasions Sq.. “The Grid Plan” did not really present her assault initially the way in which episodes typically do, and I began to surprise if a sequence that Donna Lynne Champlin talked about in our interview had been lower.
As an alternative, it was saved for later, and Megan spent a lot of the episode involving herself within the investigation till the Particular Victims crew stopped her. Benson lastly appeared to get by way of to her, declaring that Megan was displacing worries about her well being with the assault that she believed she might do one thing about. Benson confided one thing that she definitely does not inform each sufferer, and Donna Lynne Champlin broke the scene down, telling me:
Mariska’s character talks to me and sees that I am doing this [displacement], and tries to inform me that I am doing this. She tells me, ‘My father was a rapist, and now I am the pinnacle of the SVU, so I do know just a little bit about displacement.’ However sadly, my character is not at that second fairly capable of hear that and likewise be, I feel, appropriately supportive to her character. I bear in mind we did a pair takes of that. My first response to that when she says that line to me, my character is like, ‘Whoa.’ And I then obtained a word. I obtained a path, which I agree with, that was like, ‘That is a wholesome particular person’s response. Your character remains to be not in an important place, so you must give me an unhealthy particular person’s response to that.’
The response of an individual who hadn’t been not too long ago hit by a dire medical prognosis after which a brutal sexual assault would doubtless be sympathetic and sort; Megan wasn’t in that type of place emotionally, which Champlin linked with after receiving a word on her efficiency. She went on:
I used to be like, ‘Oh, proper, in fact.’ That was actually the most important wrestle for me in that scene, was to not react with as a lot compassion and empathy as I might. That is one of many explanation why this episode was type of an Olympic occasion, as a result of my character is continually feeling all the pieces after which feeling nothing, after which performing rationally, after which performing completely insane. It was simply these actually enjoyable, actually fast switches. Even in the midst of a scene the place she’s calm, impulsively she’s talking too loudly, and he or she simply seems to be round like, ‘Oh, that was actually loud. I am sorry.’ It was simply a lot enjoyable, and any scene with Mariska is rather like nirvana.
Megan stopped interfering with the investigation because the trial approached, however that did not imply that she was prepared for what awaited her within the courtroom. When she was on the stand, the protection legal professional each introduced her MS prognosis in open courtroom after which kind of interrogated her about whether or not her assault was really consensual intercourse.
It was when Megan was being bombarded with harsh questions on the stand that she flashed again to the assault scenes in Occasions Sq., which Donna Lynne Champlin filmed in silhouette in an alley. The actress needed to ship emotional performances whereas merely sitting in a chair on the witness stand, and he or she defined what she loved about it:
I believed it could be tougher than it was. I really actually loved it. I loved not having to fret about blocking. I simply actually loved the luxurious of speaking and listening. It’s a luxurious, particularly on a TV set, as a result of all the pieces strikes so rapidly. You block the rehearsal in like 5 minutes, and you then shoot it. I actually type of liked not having to fret about something however the phrases. And I discovered that a lot simpler to navigate the emotional curler coaster of that scene.
The one ones who do a lot shifting in SVU‘s courtroom scenes are the attorneys, and even that depends upon how lively Carisi is in a given week now that he is on the mend type his personal ordeal. Which means fast blocking in rehearsal, however challenges in different features of filming. Champlin continued:
The one laborious half on TV and movie whenever you’re doing a giant lengthy scene – I feel it was eight pages, we spent all day on it – is after they do pickups. A pickup is after they really feel like they’ve the start, which, as an actor, is your emotional ramp, they usually go, ‘Okay, we’re gonna begin with Megan’s sobbing, and we’re gonna decide it up from any person saying, ‘Please do not sob.’ And also you’re identical to, ‘Ah, can I simply have 10 seconds?’ [laughs] That is the toughest half as an actor, after they do pickups within the center.
Champlin went on to say that it “at all times makes me snicker after they” ask for pickups that contain leaping proper again into heavy moments, however she has her “personal toolbox” and “personal manner of doing it.” Whereas there wasn’t rather a lot to make Megan snicker in her episode of Legislation & Order: SVU, she obtained as completely satisfied an ending as attainable: a responsible verdict, a supportive husband, and the conclusion that her ordeal did not wreck New York Metropolis for her.
The format was only a bit totally different than traditional for Legislation & Order: SVU with how concerned the sufferer was from begin to end, and you’ll revisit the episode streaming with Peacock. New installments of SVU may even proceed airing on Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on NBC, following Legislation & Order at 8 p.m. ET. As for the third present within the franchise, Legislation & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 lastly has a streaming premiere date.