LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT Post-Mortem: Peter Scanavino Reflects on Carisi’s ‘Cornered’ Trauma and the Potential Fallout

November 21, 2024 by Marisa Roffman

LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT — “Cornered” Episode 26008 — Pictured: (l-r) Peter Scanavino as A.D.A Dominick “Sonny” Carisi Jr., Keith Machekanyanga as Deonte — (Photo by: Peter Kramer/NBC)

[Warning: This post contains spoilers for the Thursday, November 21 episode of LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT.]

Carisi’s (Peter Scanavino) terrible, horrible, no good, very bad season took a tragic turn on the LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT fall finale, “Cornered.”

When Carisi walked into an in-progress robbery in the fall finale, as Scanavino previously teased to Give Me My Remote, “each thing that happens is worse than the thing that preceded it.” First, the deli worker, Ali, was shot and ultimately died. Then, one of the hostages, Tess (Paige Herschell), was brutalized by Boyd (Silas Weir Mitchell), one of the hostage takers. And after Olivia (Mariska Hargitay) agreed to trade herself for Carisi, he refused to let her and pushed his way back into the deli. But when Deonte (Keith Machekanyanga), the second hostage taker, started panicking about the consequences of Boyd’s actions, Carisi told him there might be wiggle room for self-defense…and Deonte shot Boyd. (Carisi lied, and Deonte was arrested.)

Here, Scanavino breaks down the hour with Give Me My Remote, reflecting on filming the episode, Carisi’s trauma (and the character’s insistence he’s fine), and more.

To start off with a nerdy production question, given how much of the episode was confined in the deli, how did that impact the way it was shot? Were you able to film it more like a play, in chronological order? Or were those scenes produced like a normal hour of television where it was shot largely out of order?
So we were really, really fortunate, and the set that they built was just an amazing replica of a deli in New York. I mean, it really, really felt like you were inside the deli; did not feel like you were on a stage.

But the way we shot it was absolutely in sequence. As you know, when you film in TV, they’ll do the last thing first, and then the middle scene, like, towards the end, and then maybe the first scene that airs is going to be [shot] towards the end of the episode. So it is totally out of sequence. But with this one, we were lucky enough just to do one scene after the other, and the progression [of everything] as they happen. So it did feel like a play [or] like you were rehearsing a play.

Then also the element of just being in the same room made you feel kind of the claustrophobia of it: The fact that this was your world, that you could not leave this world. And also the way the amazing director Juan Campanella filmed it was we had three cameras trying to just capture all the action so that you were able to kind of really be free. And there were places where you were able to improvise, perhaps a little bit. You didn’t have to worry about, “Oh, that’s not on camera,” or you’re going to step on the other person’s line or whatever. So we were able to film it in a very fluid and improvisational style. And I don’t mean improvisational like we’re making up our own dialogue; I mean the actions and the intentions.

LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT: 'Cornered' Photos

LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT — “Cornered” Episode 26008 — Pictured: (l-r) Peter Scanavino as A.D.A Dominick “Sonny” Carisi Jr., Silas Weir Mitchell as Boyd — (Photo by: Peter Kramer/NBC)

Carisi makes the potential sacrifice of himself a couple of times in the hour to protect Olivia, both when he’s locking the door and she realizes it’s a hostage situation and then when he refuses for them to be swapped as hostages. What is going through his mind there?
Well, I think he just realizes that this is his responsibility, that he was unfortunate enough to walk into this robbery. But as soon as that happened, he was involved. And he can’t just trade himself out. And I think a lot of it, particularly with the scene where they’re trying to switch him and Benson, it just comes down to honor. How he wants to be able to look at himself in the mirror, and particularly [look at] his children. He has a [cut] line where he says, “I’ll never be able to look my kids in the eye, basically, if something happens to you.” And I think that’s absolutely true. I think he takes the responsibility for what’s happening and he realizes that it’s his, it’s not Benson’s.

Carisi makes it clear that he thinks he’s fine and he doesn’t want help—even if it’s clear to everyone else he’s not okay. What do you make of his decision and what fallout have you filmed so far with both work and his family?
Well, I think…[Long pause.] Sometimes it’s even harder to accept help when everyone’s offering it. I think he’s a bit stubborn. I think it’s also where he comes from, and how he was raised, where you kind of just go, “It’s fine,” and you move on. You just put your head down and you go forward. And I think this is the instance where maybe that’s not going to work for him.

But he also doesn’t quite know how to get the help that he needs. And that’s…you know, people say therapy, but that’s a pretty general term. There’s many different kinds and many different ways somebody can find help. I think that’s something that he’s gonna have to determine and find out what that is and what that looks like for him. That’ll be a part of his journey going forward.

Is there a rock bottom you think he needs to hit, or is there a chance he might avoid actually hitting that point and find a way to get some help before then?
Well, I don’t know necessarily if I would call it a rock bottom, but I think he starts to get glimpses of what life will be like if he just lets this thing fester. And I think he can say that’s not what I want.

Olivia struggled in a similar way last year: Spiraling, not really sure how (or able) to get help and make the situation better. How aware is Carisi of what she really went through and how much is he looking to her to potentially get out of this, even if they do end up ultimately approaching it in different ways?
I mean, I think it’s also fresh. I’ve only filmed two episodes post [this one], but I think it’s all still really, really fresh for him. It’s so recent that he doesn’t have the ability to kind of zoom out in that way. It’s still very much within that world.

I don’t know if we’re going to get into it or not in the episode, but I think the fate of the people that perpetrated this thing, I think still weighs heavily on him. I think he wants to make sure there’s no plea deals for these people. That this is it. So I think it’s kind of caught up with his sense of justice. What is justice here? And then also maybe doubts as to whether he could have done things differently or what he did wrong. When you go through a traumatic event, you always replay the moments over and over in your mind. Could I have done this differently? If I hadn’t done that, would that have happened? So I think he’s still very, very much in that world. He doesn’t really have the ability right now to zoom out and see the broader picture of himself and even life in general.

Is this going to be revisited in a kind of major way in terms of another episode devoted to it, even if it’s a subplot?
I don’t know. [Laughs.] I have no idea.

Will the show be revisiting the potential perp from “Tenfold”?
I’m not sure. I’d imagine that storyline is done. I mean if I ever do see that guy again…[Laughs.] It’s not going to be good.

I thought that episode, he was so hard charging on that—almost to the point of, you know, almost spinning out of control, I’d say. It was, “What is my responsibility towards this person that I would loathe in every circumstance, but also is coming and asking for help so that he doesn’t commit the thing that I’m accusing him of committing?” I thought it was an interesting storyline by [showrunner] David [Graziano].

When Carisi was a detective, he could have a hunch like the one he had in “Tenfold”…but there were still people like Benson to keep him in check. Now, as an ADA, he has bosses, but he’s the senior law person we see on the show. What is the balance like of how far he can take things—?
Well, I was very conscious of, like, I don’t want to do anything…I don’t want to be abusing my power. And I think it was kind of very much toeing the line of that in that episode. But there was a line, that was cut, where I basically say, like, “I’m not trying to whack the guy. I just want him out of the schools.” And I think that’s what he was trying to do. He was like, “Listen, whether or not he’s done anything, this guy should not be teaching kids.” And that was his objective in that episode. And you know, unfortunately, that line didn’t make it in. It could have clarified a lot of his position.

This is also a season where Carisi has had a larger presence, and arguably an actual arc…but the episodes have aired out of order, things have been cut, etc. What is your process in handling that as an actor so things feel consistent?
I mean, it’s difficult, I’m not gonna lie. Because there’s all kinds of constraints. There’s time constraints, and you have to tell the story, and the story is paramount, right? So everything that informs the story, or the action of it, has to be in.

But sometimes, you know, as an actor, you’ll have the scene, and you’ll craft it out, and you’ll be like, “Okay, this is the line where it changes for me,” or this is the line where it flips. Or the new information comes in for me. And then that will be in the episode because of the constraints that I’ve mentioned. And…[He makes a pained noise.] But you just have to see…it doesn’t exist as how you envision it. It exists with the way it is or it airs. And then you also just have trust with all the editors, and everybody at Wolf [Entertainment] that you know they know what they’re doing.

So while you might be, personally, like, “Oh, I wish that part was in,” you understand that you’re part of this much bigger thing where you’re just telling a story. It’s not necessarily about your character, you know what I mean?

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT, Thursdays, 9/8c, NBC

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LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT Post-Mortem: Peter Scanavino Reflects on Carisi’s ‘Cornered’ Trauma and the Potential Fallout

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