Spoilers ahead for the second episode of Law & Order Season 25, available streaming next day with a Peacock subscription and viewing live with a YouTube TV subscription.
Law & Order spanned the end of Season 24 to the beginning of Season 25 with a rare serialized case, with the return in the 2025 TV schedule picking up where the spring finale had ended: the murder of the man who had assaulted and killed Maroun’s sister. The evidence all seemed to point towards Sam, with Price questioning if she’d had something to do with it. That element of the crime wasn’t resolved until about halfway through the premiere, and their working relationship was rocky. So, I had to wonder: would they continue to be rocky after what Hugh Dancy said about the relationship?
Well, part of Law & Order‘s longtime popularity goes back to the procedural style that debuted with the pilot back in 1990, which means that most cases begin and end within the span of one hour. Still, considering that Hugh Dancy as ADA Nolan Price and Odelya Halevi as ADA Samantha Maroun are the only remaining cast members who have been around from the revival’s start, these characters have the longest-running relationship on the show since its return in 2022.
With Sam upset in the premiere that Price had lost the case against her sister’s killer and then suspected her of murder, and with Price dealing with his loss as well as the possibility that she’d killed somebody, they weren’t on the best terms. When I spoke with Hugh Dancy at NBC’s Law & Order press event ahead of the premiere, he’d said this about that sense of betrayal between the two:
I think there’s obviously a big question mark hanging over the case itself, and about the fact that the defendant of the case from our finale last year is now dead, and how did that happen? And was Sam involved? But then there’s also the personal betrayal that she’s feeling, that I basically flunked the case of this person that she knows, is responsible for her sister’s death. There’s a lot of stuff to clear up, and we get into all of it.
They did ultimately close the case by the end of the first episode back this fall, but characters’ personal storylines aren’t necessarily closed just because a plot wraps up, and they had some loaded personal interactions in the previous finale and Season 25 premiere. So, how do they see each other – friends, or colleagues, or mentor/mentee? Hugh Dancy explained:
I think all the above, and I think you’ll see in the first episode, we are able to talk to each other in a way that’s, as it were, outside of work. Ultimately I’m able to ask her the difficult questions and she’s able to confide in me, whatever that may be. I think all the above, but then I do occasionally threaten to fire her. [laughs] So I don’t know what that means, but I think they’re close
Then, immediately after the premiere, the promo for Episode 2 aired on NBC with Maroun teasing her boss about being smitten with his new love interest, making me curious about whether we’d see any lingering effects from that murder case on their relationship. As it turns out, Episode 2 was not an episode that ended with Price threatening to fire Maroun or with one of their many clashes. Sam has always struggled to remain objective the most when her sister’s case was involved, and that may be over after her killer was killed himself.
Basically, Law & Order wasted no time in settling my question about whether Price and Maroun’s working relationship would be damaged after their conflict at the end of Season 24 and start of Season 25. All seems to be well between the duo, and the most conflict in the latest episode was actually between Price and Baxter, with Baxter determined that the 15-year-old killer would be tried as an adult, while Price wasn’t so sure.
I’m definitely not mad that the procedural format applies to Price and Maroun’s relationship so far, since I’ve enjoying seeing their usually solid but occasionally antagonistic working relationship over the years. With the question of that “betrayal” settled, I’m now curious if we’ll see his new girlfriend back again this season. Their courtroom clash didn’t end in a breakup, so maybe Nolan really will find lasting love this time.
Find out with new episodes on Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on NBC, ahead of Law & Order: SVU at 9 p.m. ET and Law & Order: Organized Crime at 10 p.m. ET. You can also revisit earlier episodes streaming on Peacock.