LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT Vet Neal Baer Looks Back on Season 12: ‘Bully,’ ‘Bombshell,’ ‘Totem,’ ‘Reparations,’ ‘Bang,’ ‘Delinquent,’ and ‘Smoked’

September 19, 2024 by Marisa Roffman

Credit: NBC

[To read more of the LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT retrospective with former showrunner Neal Baer, check out part 1, part 2, and part 3.]

As the end of LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT season 12 approached, showrunner Neal Baer knew his time with the series was coming to a close. (He had signed a deal with CBS the previous year, and negotiated so it would start when his SVU tenure was completed.) But what was still up in the air—and impacted the storytelling—was which cast members would be returning for the next season.

In the final installment of this retrospective, Baer—who recently released a book, THE PROMISE AND PERIL OF CRISPR, and is teaching Master of Science in Media, Medicine, and Health at the Harvard Medical School graduate program—breaks down the last arc of season 12, as the series dealt with a crossover, returns, and a game-changing cliffhanger.

“Bully.” (Photo credit: Screengrab/NBC.)

“Bully” (Written by: Ken Storer; Directed by: Helen Shaver): Workplace bullying took several fatal twists, as a whistleblower was killed via an alcohol enema—and the abusive boss died by suicide after she publicly blamed her coworkers for pushing her to that point.

Though there were a number of shocking moments during Baer’s tenure, he noted it was actually season 4’s “Tortured”—which featured a victim with a severed foot—as a turning point for what he wanted to showcase.

“I think we were more honest, in a way, than most shows,” he says. “[But after “Tortured” and the missing foot] I made myself a promise…’We’re not doing that anymore, never again.’”

When they had unusual methods of death on the show, it stemmed from research materials their team had discovered. “There were a lot of reports about alcohol tampons,” Baer recalls. “We had a full-time researcher who was on the show, and I remember she told me about alcohol tampons and breathless ways to get drunk. It’s really fast, and I was like, that would make sense. We did that on a different episode[, too].”

In general, the evolving methods of crime-solving also allowed the writers to implement new clues or twists in their stories. “I was doing intense research on forensics—you could tell where somebody last drank water from the radioactive code in their hair, and place them [in a specific location],” he says. “And now there’s new stuff, like facial recognition with DNA—putting faces together based on DNA.”

“Bombshell.” (Photo credit: Screengrab/NBC.)

“Bombshell” (Written by: Daniel Truly; Directed by: Patrick Creadon): Sometimes the research paid off in more minor ways. A subplot in “Bombshell” found the detectives—and psychiatrist Huang (BD Wong)—questioning a witness suffering from the rare genetic disorder Fatal familial insomnia.

“It’s worth [doing the research for the story] because people love to see things they don’t know about,” Baer says. “I learned that from [working on] ER. You can’t do a whole episode about it, but you can do five minutes; it’s great.”

While investigating the stabbing of Jerry (Tom Irwin), a closer look at his personal life led Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Stabler (Christopher Meloni) to a swingers club where they met Cassandra (Rose McGowan), who was close with their victim.

“We cast Rose because there is something about Rose McGowan that you can get something really deep and interesting [from],” Baer says.

Though it’s unrelated to Jerry’s attack—which was done by his wife—Cassandra had her own secret: Her obsessed ex was actually her twin brother…and lover. (“Twincest,” as Stabler quipped.)

The duo were very aware of their familial relationship, but Baer points out the show was ahead of the curve in acknowledging accidental incest among couples. “We were very prescient about that, when we did the Jane Seymour-Helen Slater episode [season 5’s “Families”], about the father with two families and the kids getting together,” he says. “That’s happened now, and we know through 23 and Me—people are finding out that they’re related to their girlfriends, boyfriends and stuff like that. We knew that this is probably going on, that people don’t know, because this is not uncommon: It’s like four percent of children are [wrong about] who they think their biological father is.”

The swingers club also featured Benson and Stabler going undercover as a married couple looking to expand their horizons. “I know what the fanfiction is; I [was] always looking at it,” Baer notes. “It’s always about tantalizing and making the audience want more.”

“Totem.” (Photo credit: NBC.)

“Totem” (Written by: Jonathan Greene; Directed by: Jonathan Kaplan): After appearing in season 4’s “Mercy”—a favorite of franchise creator Dick Wolf: “He loves it because the [characters] each have a different opinion of whether it was right or wrong,” Baer recalls—Elizabeth Mitchell returned to the series to play June, a piano teacher suspected of sexually abusing and killing a young girl.

“I thought she would be wonderful,” Baer says. (In addition to SVU, Baer had also worked with her on ER.) “Such a nice person…she’s really lovely. And back then there’s more and more research, like the Garret Dillahunt and Rosie Perez [episode “Hardwired,” which dug into the claims that pedophilia was a sexual orientation]—there’s more stuff coming out about it’s not so simple as, ‘They’re bad people!’ There’s issues here that are way more than problematic. These people cannot be around kids. We can help them try to control themselves, but [there is a claim by some that] this is a sexual orientation. And then you do this Elizabeth Mitchell episode and you try to understand.”

Benson and Stabler utilized Cap (Jeremy Irons) to help get insight into the case, and they realized the situation was even darker than they expected: June hadn’t killed the girl; she was instead covering up for her sister who was still in a horrifically abusive situation with their mother.

“I wanted to do something that was complex,” Baer says. “It’s not an explanation, but it’s understandable. I wanted us to understand.”

“Reparations.” (Photo credit: NBC.)

“Reparations” (Written by: Christine M. Torres; Directed by: Constantine Makris): The hour marked the second crossover of sorts with sister series LAW & ORDER: LOS ANGELES. In “Behave,” the series shot a few exteriors in Los Angeles—“I remember being out there in downtown with Mariska, saying, ‘This is so interesting, because we haven’t done this since ER and you haven’t shot in LA [since that arc],’” Baer recalls. “She’s been in New York now for so long [and] I have never shot in LA since ER.”—but “Reparations” was entirely on SVU’s NYC turf.

Terrence Howard’s Defense Attorney Jonah Dekker crossed over in the hour to represent a suspect (who was also a family member). “Crossovers are hard because they feel promotional,” Baer acknowledges.

There was, however, a plan for a franchise-wide crossover in the early years of the show that never came to fruition: “Terror,” a planned five-part event, involving LAW & ORDER, SVU, and CRIMINAL INTENT.

“That was all written,” Baer, who came up with the story with Wolf, recalls. “We were ready to start shooting. The scripts were done. It was a terrorist plot and anthrax…That was really pretty good.”

The producers were in the process of casting the event series when two planes hit the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Naturally, the project did not move forward after that. (It would also take until 2022 for the first franchise-wide LAW & ORDER crossover to occur, between the mothership, SVU, and ORGANIZED CRIME.)

“Reparations” also brought back previously censured ADA Casey Novak (Diane Neal) to try the case. (The actress exited as a series regular in season 9.)

“I think it makes the audience feel [like it’s more real to touch base with characters again],” Baer says. “With [Casey], it’s like, ‘Okay, here’s where she is.’…I like it as a viewer.”

“Bang.” (Photo credit: Screengrab/NBC.)

“Bang” (Written by: Speed Weed; Directed by: Peter Leto): When the show opted to tackle reproductive abuse, the writers wanted to showcase it in a specific light.

“I really wanted a suave guy,” Baer says. “I heard a story about a guy who had done this, and I wanted to twist it where, when he comes in, instead of being horrified, he’s like, ‘My children.’ It’s twisted. But it makes sense…and you’re just like, ‘Oh s—, this is crazy.’ And all the mothers are freaking out, and he’s like [overjoyed to see them all]. It’s just wow. “

“What attracted me to this and also what scared the hell out of me about playing this [role]…he’s a reproductive abuser,” Stamos told reporters when the episode aired. “It’s really unlike any character I’ve ever seen or read anywhere. He basically loves children so much…he manipulates these women and gets them pregnant most of the time without them knowing—poking holes in condoms and basically, again, manipulating them to have children. I think he loves children. I think it’s part of his desire to procreate, have more of him in the world.”

The episode did end up having an unexpected real-life impact: “John is a sweetheart—he met his wife on the set,” Baer points out. (She played the woman Stamos’ Ken was with when he got arrested.)

“Delinquent.” (Photo credit: Screengrab/NBC.)

“Delinquent” (Written by: Dawn DeNoon; Directed by: Holly Dale): In the penultimate hour, the detectives were on the trail of a teenage serial rapist.

The series frequently dealt with younger actors, requiring them to portray victims of abuse or abusers themselves, but keeping them protected and safe in real life was a priority for the team. “I remember doing ER, there was a scene with a kid, and the kid asked Michael Michele a question about sex that was [addressed] with them with that scene,” he recalls. “And Michael said, “You’re going to have to ask your mother.’ So that made me stop and [realize] you have to be very careful about what you do around kids. And you have to really cast older kids who look young, because you just can’t [do that], not only for the time issues [with production], but because it’s traumatizing. So you have to be very careful.”

At the end of the hour, the serial rapist, Hunter (Sterling Beaumon), killed the woman who had previously abused him. He insisted he was better now and wouldn’t hurt anyone else. But does Baer buy that? “I don’t think there’s an answer, which is what’s interesting,” he says. “I don’t think there’s an answer. I think it’s really more complicated. I think that’s what he’s saying. But that doesn’t mean that’s what he’s feeling.”

“Smoked.” (Photo credit: Screengrab/NBC.)

“Smoked” (Written by: Jonathan Greene & Daniel Truly; Directed by: Helen Shaver): Baer’s research led to an interesting revelation: “What’s the biggest counterfeit issue that isn’t heard about? That would be counterfeit animals or counterfeit cigarettes,” he recalls. “They’re huge. First, it’s drugs and luxury wear. But animals and cigarettes are a huge, huge, billion-dollar industry.”

And while Stabler went briefly undercover dealing with counterfeit cigarettes in the episode, the biggest element of the hour—which still has ramifications in present-day SVU—was the very end of “Smoked.”

After a survivor was killed before her trial, her daughter, Jenna (Hayley McFarland), was desperate to make sure her mother got justice. While the detectives were able to lock up the people responsible for Jenna’s mother’s death, she took drastic action: She bought a gun and opened fire in the squad room (where the suspects were being held), wounding and killing a number of people, including recurring character Sister Peg (Charlayne Woodard).

“I love her; she’s a lovely person,” Baer says. “Emotionally, maybe if I had to do it over, I probably wouldn’t [kill her off], because she was a wonderful character…but I thought this is really going to be a dramatic moment because we all love Sister Peg.”

But when Jenna made a move to continue her shooting spree, Stabler was forced to fatally shoot her.

“We shot guns [on the show] so rarely,” Baer points out, noting they discussed gun violence as a public health issue back in the mid-00s.

With Meloni’s future on the show still up in the air, the shooting “was about giving an out for Chris—[Stabler was] doing something that he had no choice to do.”

“I didn’t know how [the negotiations] would go,” Baer says. “So it would be easy to bring him back [if he had re-signed]. They’d be like, ‘Okay, you’re off for two episodes.’”

Looking back at the finale in hindsight—and with the awareness that Meloni would ultimately exit the series…and then return to the franchise in 2021 with ORGANIZED CRIME—Baer says it “worked perfectly” as a reason why Stabler would leave the unit after working there for so long.

Baer also acknowledges he assumed Meloni would return, at some point, to the LAW & ORDER world.

“I always thought he’ll be on stuff, he’ll do movies, but it’s like [George] Clooney: Is Clooney going to come back [to ER]? Of course,” he says, referring to Clooney returning to ER to help Julianna Margulies’ Carol exit. (The duo also returned years later as part of the show’s farewell.) “So I always imagined that Chris would go back—that they would find a way to fulfill a Benson and Stabler ending.”

LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT, Season Premiere, Thursday, October 3, 9/8c, NBC

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LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT Vet Neal Baer Looks Back on Season 12: ‘Bully,’ ‘Bombshell,’ ‘Totem,’ ‘Reparations,’ ‘Bang,’ ‘Delinquent,’ and ‘Smoked’

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