Mariska Hargitay Promises Law and Order: SVU's Finale Is "Compelling" & "Absolutely Frightening"

SVU signs off with a two-hour episode that's a "rough" finale

By Chris Harnick May 24, 2017 1:05 PMTags
Watch: Mariska Hargitay Says "SVU" Season 18 Finale Is "So Good"!

It's finale time for Law & Order: SVU and that can only mean one thing: The stakes are incredibly high.

"I've got to tell you, it's so good," series star and executive producer Mariska Hargitay told E! News at her Joyful Heart Foundation gala.

The season 18 finale, a two-hour event, starts off with "American Dream," an episode about a hate crime against a Muslim family that results in the death of their daughter. A crucial witness is deported and charges against the suspect are forcefully dropped, leading to rising tensions between communities. In "Sanctuary," the fallout from the release continues and Benson (Hargitay) and Barba (Raúl Esparza) are caught between two families seeking justice and public unrest reaching violent peaks.

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Mariska Hargitay's Law and Order: SVU Hair Through the Years
NBC

"It's compelling, it's absolutely frightening," Hargitay told us. "It's a rough episode and I am so incredibly proud of it."

Peter Scanavino, Detective Carisi on the long-running drama described the episode as "gruesome," but not like a gruesome crime, rather "it's some pretty horrible people that we have to track down."

"There's a lot of frustration involved in terms of trying to do what's right…It's two hours, just settle in and say, ‘That's going to be the night,' and just watch," he said.

Law & Order: SVU's two-hour finale kicks off on Wednesday, May 24 at 9 p.m. and continues at 10 p.m. on NBC.

(E! and NBC are both part of the NBCuniversal family.)