Crossovers have been a Law & Order tradition since Briscoe and Munch became best friends in the 1990s.
More recently, Benson has turned up on Law & Order a couple of times a season, usually to butt heads with Brady or Price over how they’re treating survivors.
The 2026 crossover felt more like an extended episode of Law & Order: SVU, and Benson was surprisingly mellow about certain injustices.
(NBC/Virginia Sherwood)
Benson’s Empathy Toward Brady Was a Nice Change Of Pace
Most Law & Order crossover episodes turn Benson and Brady into adversaries, but not this time.
While Benson had insisted on doing things her way during the Law & Order: SVU Season 26 crossover, this time she was far more willing to treat Brady as a friend and partner.
A lot of that had to do with Brady being willing to open up ever so slightly about her trauma, which is a language Benson understands well.
As soon as Benson learned that Brady had come so close to being shot herself, Benson’s attitude softened.
(NBC/Virginia Sherwood)
I loved that Benson was so supportive of Brady.
It wasn’t a surprise, but because these two women have butted heads before, it was extra sweet that it didn’t happen this time.
I prefer two strong women working together and supporting one another to the power struggles we often see on TV, even if Benson’s past ones have been more justified by her passion for helping survivors.
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Benson not only understood Brady’s trauma, but offered her the same non-judgmental support she would to any survivor.
It was a role reversal from the previous visit, when Benson was annoyed that Brady kept reining her in so they wouldn’t lose the case, and it worked perfectly.
(NBC/Virginia Sherwood)
Brady’s Mistake Was Obvious, Even If She Was Operating From Trauma
My least favorite Law & Order trope is that the cops often get what they want by making ridiculous threats.
This type of behavior is often treated as if it is standard police procedure, and Brady even fell back on that when she claimed that cops “are allowed to lie” to get information from suspects.
I liked that Benson told her not to beat herself up about it and that cops can only do the best they can when they get triggered, but nevertheless, I’m glad Brady faced some consequences for it.
It’s about time that coercive behavior is called out. Suspects have rights for a reason.
(NBC/Virginia Sherwood)
The judge was quick to rule without hearing Brady’s side of the story, but Price’s response was stupid.
If anything, he should have asked for a short recess to find out what Brady had to say about this before the judge ruled, not helped the defense by giving a non-answer about how Brady is a good cop without explaining any specifics.
The judge’s decision to throw out this evidence, which magically made the defendant no longer a flight risk, felt slightly contrived to me.
Did you think Sarah should make bail? Hit the comments with your thoughts, and don’t forget to share this article with your friends so they can join the conversation.
I wasn’t sure why that evidence was the only proof the defendant was a flight risk. Either she has the means and opportunity to flee, or she doesn’t.
Was Sarah’s Abuse Made Up?
I was surprised that Benson assumed Sarah was lying about being abused.
(NBC/Virginia Sherwood)
Benson typically errs on the side of believing claims until proven otherwise, and with good reason.
The world is quick enough to assume survivors are liars, especially those who would have a motive to make up abuse, and Benson doesn’t want to add to that.
It’s understandable that she would doubt Sarah’s story since Sarah never said anything about abuse until she was arrested, but the Benson I’m familiar with would have quietly investigated to see if there was any truth to the claims, on the grounds that a survivor is a survivor regardless of what pain she also inflicted on others.
Benson was also far more mellow than usual about letting that creepy guy go to get Sarah.
I guess she saw it as standing up for all the women who had been trafficked, but it felt slightly out of character.
(NBC/Virginia Sherwood)
The Hate Group Angle Would Have Made for a Perfect FBI Crossover Too (Just Saying)
I wasn’t a fan of the involvement of the white supremacist group in this mess.
It’s important to keep shining a light on racism, especially in these times when many people feel emboldened to say and do the most awful things to each other, but it felt like a distraction from the fact that these women were trafficked in the first place.
Instead, Benson got into a debate with Price over whether gene editing to cure disease is ever ethical, and the case quickly shifted to the question of whether to let the creepy eugenicist go.
Nothing huge — just a video call or brief consultation would have been enough
What did you think of the 2026 SVU Crossover?
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We all complain about those TV characters who deserve better. These characters suffered from trauma or horrible writing. Check out our list.
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Death is always difficult to process for a TV Fanatic.
So often, deaths serve as jumping-off points to explore a character’s story or as a way to sign off on a character with maximum emotional impact.
But they can also feel a little cheap or unsatisfying, depending on how a series executes them or just how the storylines play out in their wake.
(Disney/Christopher Willard, Disney/Anne Marie FoxCBS/Screenshot, )
For the most part, 2025 wasn’t a character slaughter as is so often the case.
But there were a great deal of television deaths that left us scratching our heads or considering that maybe, just maybe, the powers-that-be should’ve avoided them at all costs.
There are just some characters in which series are just ill-equipped and unprepared to lose, or their deaths fundamentally changed the plot, but not necessarily in the best way.
Bobby Nash – 9-1-1
(Disney/Christopher Willard)
Many 9-1-1 Fanatics had already sensed that we’d be losing someone, and the idea that it was Bobby had been circulating well before the episode aired.
Yet, there’s something to be said about denial. But 9-1-1 Season 8 Episode 15 left us reeling when we had to watch the emotional core, stalwart character, and leader of the pack, Bobby Nash, die in a terrifying biolab due to a virus.
If it wasn’t already devastating enough, they set the entire sequence to Hozier’s “Work Song” as we watched Bobby saying goodbye to the love of his life, Athena, and praying in his final moments. It was the type of devastation that many viewers have simply not gotten over.
And there’s still a question of whether this death was even necessary. It changes the entire series as the 118, more family than a firehouse, have to navigate this grief, loss, and extreme trauma. Bobby’s death feels like a shock value moment to spark a new life in the series.
But truthfully, it just puts the series in an unsettling place that, at times, feels directionless as they try to navigate around the huge decision they made.
Did 9-1-1 need to kill off such an inspiring character who had finally learned how to navigate things like suicide ideation, trauma, and guilt to forge a different family for himself, found genuine love again, and still had so much to offer?
No, not really, and viewers are still angry about it and the lingering effects of his tragic death, regardless of how poetic, still undermine all that he represented. But alas, that’s why he fits this list.
Monica Beltran – Grey’s Anatomy
(Disney/Anne Marie Fox)
So, anyone who has tuned into the over two decades of Grey’s Anatomy knows that they are infamous for killing off beloved characters in devastatingly glorious fashion.
When they teased that we would be losing a character after an explosive season finale, it kept many viewers on edge. Of course, the Grey’s Anatomy Season 22 season premiere resulted in none other than Monica Beltran succumbing to injuries she sustained during the commotion.
Unfortunately, the death was more anticlimactic and frustrating than meaningful. The series benched Monica for so much of her tenure and never actually committed to the Monica/Amelia romance that they kept teasing endlessly.
Her death felt entirely unnecessary, as in, at any given point, someone should’ve saved her sooner. And while she died heroically, it didn’t do much good when her death felt like a blip in the lives of nearly everyone else at Grey Sloan Memorial.
It felt like a cheap way to make Amelia Shepherd suffer. Again. And a total waste of a strong albeit criminally underdeveloped character.
Vince Leone – Fire Country
(CBS/Screenshot)
Apparently, there can only be one strapping Leone man to shine over all, and it had to be Bode, so Fire Country decided it wanted to up the stakes and kill off Vince. It’s safe to say it hasn’t gone over well, and understandably so.
What’s frustrating is how Vince’s death came to be with a massive fire at a retirement home, his own father being stubborn and, truthfully, responsible for Vince’s death, and just a cluster of atrocious decisions all around by nearly every other character.
Vince’s death felt contrived, and it really and truly didn’t even need to happen, which makes it all the more unsatisfying.
He didn’t even get a proper sendoff or a serviceable onscreen death scene, as we essentially returned from hiatus with Vince’s funeral during Fire Country Season 4 Episode 1.
It’s true that, much like Bobby Nash, Fire Country has lost some of its sparkle with the unnecessary death of Vince Leone, resulting in a mostly heavy season for all the characters and more unnecessary tension.
Nikki – Alert: Missing Persons Unit
(Bettina Strauss/FOX)
Many of us are still trying to figure out exactly what transpired behind the scenes that led to Nikki’s death in this series.
No one saw Nikki’s death coming because it was so random and out of the blue, and worse yet, the actress, Dania Ramirez, never appeared again for a proper death scene or farewell.
Nikki’s murder takes place offscreen; we only get flashes of whomever from a distance, and this half-baked storyline about the mob boss she was helping being the one who killed her.
And then the rest of Alert: MPU Season 3 simply carries on without her as if she were never an integral part of the unit in the first place.
It was so jarring that it sparked a conversation about how much of a disservice it is when shows kill off female leads “just because.”
Cragen – Law & Order: SVU
(Peacock/Screenshot)
Is anyone else still trying to figure out why Cragen had to die in the Law & Order Universe?
It’s hard to say whether it was better or worse that there were teasers suggesting a death would result in the return of former characters like Cassidy, Huang, and Stabler to Law & Order: SVU. We pretty much suspected that Cragen had died, but then, it made the anticlimactic nature of his death that much worse.
Cragen wasn’t seen onscreen enough to introduce an arc of him being sick or slowly dying, anything to really layer this in as a legitimate story arc that would have meaning.
No, they just randomly announced that he died of “natural causes”, and we were privy to his memorial service during the season premiere, along with some footage from him giving his retirement speech.
We have yet to see what impact this death was supposed to have on the series, the current season, and the characters.
For such a longstanding, iconic character who left such an impression not just on this series but the franchise, it was a puzzling, underwhelming way for him to go.
Alexandra Dutton – 1923
(Paramount/Screenshot)
The very best thing about 1923 Season 1 was the steamy and adventurous romance between Spencer Dutton and his Lady, Alexandra. They came from such different backgrounds, but they shared a passion and values that seemed to make them unstoppable.
We knew things would be rough when they were ripped apart at the end of the season, but nothing prepared us for the long, arduous journeys they took, separately, to find one another again.
It was brutal on screen and off, as the thrills and chills they brought to us became fear and anxiety. Would they ever see each other again? Would Alex live long enough to give birth to the child she was carrying?
Sadly, the answer to those two questions was yes, but the caveat was that it took until the final minutes of the series, and Alex was almost too far gone to survive.
(Lauren Smith/Paramount+)
Everyone holding out hope for a happy ending saw those hopes dashed when Alex, who badly needed surgery that would change who she was forever to survive her ordeal, wouldn’t give up even a moment with her premature child, literally sacrificing her life for his with her sheer determination for him to survive.
But this didn’t have to happen for the story to thrive.
In each prequel, Taylor Sheridan determined that the sunshine had to be ripped from the sky. Isabel in 1993 and Alex in 1923. Neither was necessary from a storytelling perspective.
Their deaths didn’t serve any purpose, and those who loved them never flourished in the wake of their deaths. No lessons were learned. It’s just another in the increasingly long line of disappointments with female characters in the Sheridan Universe.
Tracy McLusky – Mayor of Kingstown
(Jeremy Parsons/Paramount+)
Why stop with 1923 when Taylor Sheridan did us dirty on Mayor of Kingstown, too?
The entire series has been about Mike McLusky paying for mistakes he made long before we knew him. Thus, Tracy’s marriage to Kyle McLusky has been rife with tragedy and misfortune through no fault of her own.
Mayor of Kingstown Season 4 was already difficult for the family. Kyle went to prison, certain he could take one for the team, spend six months inside, and move on, taking his family out of Kingstown and away from the misery.
Instead, part of Mike’s prison past returned with vengeance on his mind. His tactic? Get to Mike through Kyle… and Kyle’s family. We saw a white supremacist escape prison, visit Tracy’s house, and kill her while she begged for the life of her son.
It was vile and heartbreaking, and it never had to happen. It’s hard to fathom the purpose of a show where you’re willing to snuff out any ray of light that dares poke through the darkness. But this was too much.
Again, it served no long-term purpose. It just sets up a finale where the McLusky brothers can get their own revenge, before settling into a reality that they can’t have nice things, and if they keep on the same course, they will meet the same fate.
While they at least prepared us for it when we learned before that Will was battling with medical issues, it still didn’t make the shock of watching him suffer a headache and die from an aneurysm in JJ’s arms in the middle of their kitchen on a casual day in their life any less difficult to witness.
Apparently, the actor didn’t want to return to the series; nevertheless, Will’s death was such a devastating development that it still felt unnecessary to the show’s overall plot and like an undue hardship on JJ.
It was tough to watch her suffer so much and say goodbye to yet another BAU spouse, even if it did lead to some of AJ Cook’s finest work on the series to date.
Lottie & Van – Yellowjackets
(Paramount/Screenshot)
Lottie and Vanessa’s deaths on Yellowjackets were both absolutely ridiculous.
Especially since we’ve spent so much time with these characters, it’s almost insulting how they both died completely avoidable deaths.
While Yellowjackets may be a show about grief and trauma, that doesn’t mean the series should just resort to artificially creating more for the characters to work through.
At its crux, Yellowjackets was also about survival and what happens after such traumatic events, so the idea that Lottie and Van could survive so much and get this far, only to die all these years later in such a senseless way, is infuriating.
It was death just for the shock of it.
Plus, Lottie and Vanessa are some of the strongest, most capable characters on the show, so forgive us if we have trouble believing that Lottie died by falling down a flight of stairs.
Foggy Nelson – Daredevil Born Again
(Disney/Screenshot)
No Daredevil fan will ever be able to fully get over Foggy’s death. When news broke that the series would return in some form, the excitement was in seeing these characters brought back to life on screen.
Of course, that was temporary when Foggy didn’t even make it out of the season premiere alive, as his death served as the turning point for the series, a new era for Daredevil, and particularly for Matt Murdock.
Losing his best friend changed everything. And it challenged Matt, a devout Catholic, as he grappled with losing his faith amid the sheer violence and brutality that surrounded Foggy’s death and the guilt he feared.
There’s no question or doubt that it shifted the series’ nature, and maybe it led it in the direction everyone involved wanted it to go to produce a compelling enough story.
And yet, Foggy’s death still feels like something that simply did not need to happen for the sole purpose of elevating Matt’s arc.
Clark Evans – Invasion
(Apple TV/Screenshot)
Clark Evan’s death on Invasion was not only unnecessary but also did a disservice to Aneesha’s character, whose role as a doctor and mother held her to the principles of a reluctant combatant, understanding that violence was necessary in the interests of the common good.
With Clark’s death, her purpose became one of rage and vengeance.
It was a cheap trick to force a reaction from a character who had held her course admirably.
Furthermore, it punished Clark for his completely human choices, presumably because he wasn’t “worthy” of Aneesha, which is total BS.
They were two fallible individuals who had found love in each other and deserved the chance to grow old together. Clark’s death is the worst sort of emotional trope: meaningless and disrespectful to the narrative and the character.
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