[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Law & Order: SVU Season 27 Episode 3 “A Vicious Circle.”]
Heading into the latest Law & Order: SVU episode, Detective Joe Velasco (Octavio Pisano) had already told his captain, Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), of an assignment that took him away from the squad: He was tapped by the DEA to go undercover guarding Ramirez’s drug runs, given his experience with cartels. It was something he’d been told to keep even from her. Keep her informed and be careful, she stressed. Well, that went well, but now, he’s running into a new problem in the form of Chief Kathryn Tynan (Noma Dumezweni).
Velasco’s back with the squad for the case-of-the-week, but then he tells Benson that Tynan wants to see him. He thinks she heard about what he did for the DEA — possibly through Detective Jake Griffin (Corey Cott), who appears to be her mole — and that’s something Benson should have told her. The captain assures him she can handle herself.
When Velasco goes to see Tynan, DEA agents he’d worked with are there as well. She assures him that there’s nothing to worry about, and she just wants to chat, share feelings, and see if they have the same goals and desires. As she sees it, one of the best parts of her job is helping everyone achieve their mutual goals.
After, Velasco tells Benson that the DEA asked Tynan if they can have him. Yes, it’s for more undercover work — in San Diego. Tynan thinks it’s a good idea. And what does he think? “I mean, I don’t like the way they went over our heads,” he says, but she knows there’s a “but.” The guy they’re after is someone who very much needs to be taken down. With Sergeant Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T) out after he was attacked in the premiere, he doesn’t want to leave her empty-handed.
“I haven’t stayed with SVU out of loyalty. I would never expect anyone to do that. I’m here because I think that it’s the place I can do the most good. You need to be where you can do the most good,” Benson tells him. Velasco admits that during his last job for the DEA, he didn’t sleep for four nights because he was up, buzzed, excited. She knows he’s going to take the job.
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The episode ends with Velasco visiting a still-recovering Fin — he holds his side as he sits down, but doesn’t answer the detective’s question about PT — and recalling their conversation about trying to balance out the scales of the bad things they’d done. He’s realized that when he’s doing the job, he doesn’t think about the scale anymore or himself at all. Fin wonders if he’s going somewhere. Velasco just wants to thank him for everything — “You don’t have to say a word, I already know,” the sergeant says — then he leaves.
What do you think of how SVU wrote out Velasco? Let us know in the comments section below.
Law & Order: SVU, Thursdays, 9/8c, NBC