Spoilers are forward for Episode 11 of Regulation & Order Season 24, referred to as “The Hardest Factor” and set to stream with a Peacock subscription.
Regulation & Order began out its newest episode within the 2025 TV schedule with Shaw, Riley, and Baxter catching a the killer of a rich man, however the case received much more difficult as soon as it fell to the prosecutors. The additional complication for Nolan? His brother turned up on the workplace to confront him about their father’s failing well being, main Nolan to ultimately make a troublesome choice and even speak in confidence to Maroun.
After I spoke with star Hugh Dancy about “The Hardest Factor,” he proved that he is put numerous thought into what makes his character tick over his 4 seasons thus far so far.
Nolan’s Household Reunion
The primary episode after Regulation & Order‘s large ER reunion lastly revisited Nolan’s storyline along with his father within the hospital, though he would have most popular to maintain it removed from the murder case that was additionally about assisted suicide. His brother Thomas confirmed up on the workplace to speak about their dad, who simply took one other flip for the more serious and wanted to both enter hospice care or be connected to a feeding tube.
Nolan positively did not need to have the conversations at work, however Hugh Dancy was an enormous fan of attending to play such a difficult storyline for his character. Talking with CinemaBlend, he had excessive reward for Justin Chatwin, who got here on board to play Thomas Value:
It was a type of humorous train, as a result of clearly, we shoot an episode in eight days. Of these, I are usually in, to illustrate, 4. So the stuff I had with Justin in all probability boiled all the way down to half a day or one thing unfold over just a few completely different days. However due to the scenario they’re in, we spent nearly as a lot time speaking beforehand as we did filming. Slight exaggeration, however greater than I’ve completed up until now.
If a present goes to movie 20+ episodes for a single season, then the solid has to movie at a really quick tempo! Apparently, the actors enjoying the Value brothers had some strong conversations about their backstory, together with the writers. Dancy went on:
It was useful for me, positively for Justin, as a result of he was leaping proper in on the deep finish, and in addition for the writers as they had been determining the episode, to consider what their household is like and why these two guys who appear to be they perhaps needs to be fairly shut are at loggerheads, and what was the influence of the truth that that they had misplaced a sibling? And all that stuff.
Most visitor stars come onto Regulation & Order to play characters with no connections to the leads of the present; that clearly wasn’t the case for Justin Chatwin, and he had a key function within the episode. Would Nolan have agreed to a plea deal if Thomas hadn’t accused him of being “cheap” however “merciless” about wanting to maintain their father on life help, particularly after the demise of their different brother, Christopher?
Hugh Dancy, who beforehand opened up in regards to the sorts of Regulation & Order tales he’d love to do extra of, was enthusiastic in regards to the present exploring Nolan’s backstory. After I requested how a lot of Nolan’s backstory he knew however hadn’t but proven on the sequence, he responded:
I do know a certain quantity, and a few of it is come up. A few of it was when it comes to his skilled historical past, [which] was referenced within the very first episode that I ever shot after which actually simply did not make the ultimate minimize for time. So I do know that he was a protection lawyer, and he is made the selection to maneuver over to being a prosecutor, which is pretty unusual. I knew the very fact of him having misplaced a brother to habit was one thing that was referenced within the first season that we shot, and that is at all times been there behind my thoughts as a deeply vital reality for anyone. It is not one thing that reveals day by day at work, however when this got here round on this episode, and we began speaking about household, I believe I used to be pretty insistent that that is, if not the important thing to the entire thing, one thing that actually must be subtly, I hope, dropped into the combination.
Contemplating that the primary episode of the Regulation & Order revival was a number of years and greater than 50 episodes in the past, I believe followers can admire how considerate he is been about his character in maintaining Nolan’s earliest backstory in thoughts all through his 4 seasons thus far. Whilst Nolan went by the lack of Sam Waterston’s DA Jack McCoy and a tough begin with new DA Nick Baxter, the backstory was nonetheless current. So, is not it becoming that certainly one of Dancy’s most frequent scene companions be a part of this storyline?
Nolan Opening Up To Maroun (Begrudgingly)
Nolan and Maroun labored carefully collectively on the murder/assisted suicide case, and he or she was available to satisfy his brother each occasions he got here to the workplace. The primary assembly with Thomas was definitely pleasant, however there was rigidity between the brothers the second time round. The ADA gently requested what was fallacious when her boss was visibly shaken later, and Nolan truly opened as much as her about his dad.
Would he ever have opened as much as her about his private life, if not for his brother instantly displaying as much as the workplace? I requested Hugh Dancy that very query, and he mentioned:
There’s not an opportunity in hell that he would have shared any of this. [laughs] He isn’t an automaton, and I can think about him probably providing a few of this up if one thing was occurring in her life and he was in a position to empathize together with her. As a result of they’ve a fairly shut relationship, even when I’ve threatened to fireside her once in a while. However no, he would not have introduced it up, as a result of it is nonetheless on this episode, it is nonetheless occurring. It is all occurring proper then, and it’s extremely alive for him. So I believe his intuition could be completely to not speak about it.
Maroun has shared a few of her previous with him, and he is properly conscious of the tragic lack of her sister, so Dancy and Odelya Halevi have performed barely extra susceptible scenes with one another prior to now. The Hannibal alum addressed attending to play that type of scene along with his co-star within the newest episode:
It is nice. I believe that is a extremely fascinating relationship anyway, as a result of they’re type of friends, however clearly I am her superior on one stage in a approach that any work associate is. You are collectively in all probability most of your waking hours. Any time we get an opportunity to do extra than simply transfer ahead with the plot, I am glad of it.
All in all, it was an emotionally draining episode for Nolan Value as a personality, however a enjoyable episode for Hugh Dancy as an actor. So, what’s it like for him when he will get to play very private tales on a present that’s famously procedural? He defined:
It is atypical, for positive. [laughs] It is enjoyable, and I do know that [the writers] have been doing this extra consciously this season in looking for methods to organically relate no matter’s happening in these folks’s work lives, to typically to what is perhaps occurring outdoors of the workplace or the precinct, or no matter it is perhaps. And that is enjoyable. It simply provides one other coloration to what we’re doing.
It stays to be seen if/when Regulation & Order will revisit Nolan’s household once more in Season 24. The brothers allowed their father to die peacefully slightly than lengthen his life with a feeding tube, in order that a part of their lives is over. That does not imply that Thomas Value cannot flip up once more for a reunion along with his brother, proper? My fingers are crossed with new episodes persevering with to launch on NBC Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET!
As at all times, Regulation & Order is adopted on Thursdays by Regulation & Order: SVU, however the wait continues to be on for when Regulation & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 debuts as a Peacock streaming unique.