LAW & ORDER Post-Mortem: Reid Scott on the Emotional Riley and Bridget Scene and the Haunting Case Outcome

April 3, 2025 by Marisa Roffman

LAW & ORDER — “A Perfect Family” Episode 24018 — Pictured: (l-r) Justine Colan as Bridget Riley, Reid Scott as Detective Vincent Riley — (Photo by: Virginia Sherwood/NBC)

[Warning: This post contains spoilers for the Thursday, April 3 episode of LAW & ORDER.]

LAW & ORDER’s Riley (Reid Scott) re-considered how he interacted with his daughter after working a tough case on the Thursday, April 3 hour, “A Perfect Family.”

The episode started with Riley taking Bridget (Justine Colan) to school…but he had quips about her outfit (which he didn’t think was weather appropriate) and he made light of the group chat drama.

“You don’t take me seriously,” Bridget complained.

But after being called to a crime scene and investigating the death of a preteen girl—who also had issues with her parents—Riley reconsidered his approach with Bridget.

The detective sent her a text and pulled her out of school for a brief check-in. “I’m sorry if I haven’t been taking your problems seriously,” Riley told her. “I mean, you know if there’s ever anything wrong you can talk to me?”

Riley insisted it was important for her to do that, even if it didn’t seem like it was working, “You just keep talking, alright? Promise?”

“Bad day at work?” Bridget asked knowingly. But it appeared to get through to her.

“I love that scene,” Scott tells Give Me My Remote. “It was something that I looked forward to all week long before we got to it because it really was an opportunity to kind of see a side of Riley that we don’t get to see. Usually, he’s working the case, he’s working the job, we might be able to see the cracks in the facade of what really gets him and what really ruffles his feathers. But this is his family.”

“So I was looking forward to it as the scene, and then to get the work with young actors—I get a real kick out of it,” he continues. “Especially one as talented as [Colan]. She was so easy to work with, so easy to talk to. I tend to lead with humor, definitely, and I’m a dad, so then I crack some corny dad jokes, kind of break the ice and loosen everything up. But she was just such a fantastic young actress.”

When it came time to actually shoot the moment, “we got to bring some real emotion,” Scott shared. “I surprised myself: I actually got a little choked up. I kind of had this scene mapped out in one way in mind, which was, ‘He’s still Riley. He doesn’t show a lot of emotion. He’s saying these words and they’re genuine, authentic, and true.’ But, you know, he’s not a softie.”

“But, man, something about working opposite [Colan], she looked up at me with her big brown eyes and I melted a little bit,” he continues. “I got a little teary in a couple of takes. But it was great. It was so satisfying to be able to play a moment like that. I love this character. I love seeing all these sides of him. I think it’s important that the audience knows the man that he is. He’s a man that could be tender as well as strong. He could be open as well as reserved, depending on what the situation calls for. But at the end of the day, what’s important to him is his family.”

Unfortunately, there was not as much success with the case. Though the cops were able to prove their victim, Emily, was killed by her mother, Melinda (Allison Miller), it was also clear Melinda was suffering from a mental health breakdown and wasn’t in control of her actions. The ADAs realized they should be charging Emily’s father—Melinda’s husband—Derek (Brett Zimmerman), who knew that Melinda was sick and prevented her from getting the treatment she so desperately needed.

In order to potentially charge Derek, they had a wild card they could play: Amanda (Delaney Quinn), Emily’s younger sister, who saw what her mother endured at the hands of her father. Price (Hugh Dancy) tried to get Derek to take a deal, that would prevent Amanda from taking the stand, but Derek refused. Price brought Amanda to court and got her on the stand, but ultimately couldn’t go through with it. But without Amanda’s testimony, Derek was found not guilty.

“I think he would have a real visceral reaction [to the outcome], because, obviously, in his mind, they cracked it,” Scott says. “They found the perpetrator. They brought her in. They know the facts. They know what happened. But for her to kind of get off on the insanity plea…I think it’s a mixed bag for him. As a parent, I think he knows all too well that postpartum depression and conditions are a very real thing. So I don’t think he thinks it’s made up.”

“But at the same time, where’s the justice for the child?” he continues. “And those kinds of cases are tough, I imagine, for Riley. That’s the kind of case that echoes and reverberates for him for years, because she was brought to justice in a way, but not really held accountable. And at the end of the day, he has to live with the ghost of the little girl who hasn’t been avenged.”

And the weight of that sticks with Riley. “I think that’s the way Riley approaches his job: He has a responsibility to the dead,” Scott acknowledges. “That’s who he serves. He serves the dead. He tries to bring them justice, and he tries to bring some closure to their story. And one like this, that sort of gets away or is left open-ended, regardless of who the victim is, is really gonna hurt him. But the fact that it was a young female child? I think it’s something that’s going to haunt him for a very long time.”

LAW & ORDER, Thursdays, 8/7c, NBC

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