LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT: Aidan Quinn to Reprise Burton Lowe

Aidan Quinn will reprise his role of Burton Lowe in a May episode of LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT, a rep for the show confirms.

Burton was officially introduced, on-screen, in SVU’s “The Five Hundredth Episode,” but he had previously been mentioned by Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) over the show’s run: Burton and Olivia were engaged when she was 16 and he was 21.

During the course of the 500th episode—and after multiple women came forward to claim Burton had groomed them, with one accusing him of assault—Olivia eventually began to accept that the relationship they had was technically sexual assault and he had groomed her, as well. Olivia confronted him, but Burton refused to apologize; she got her own bit of closure by throwing a tape he made her in the water. (And while Burton’s reputation was in tatters, none of the allegations at the time were able to lead to charges.)

Quinn initially revealed he’d be returning to the series in February in a radio interview. Additionally, SVU showrunner Warren Leight teased on Twitter that he and executive producer Julie Martin were writing “a Benson/Burton scene” via Zoom.

Though details about the return are being kept under wraps, a source notes the episode is not the season 23 finale. (Update, April 25: Here’s the official logline for Quinn’s return in “Confess Your Sins to Be Free”: “When the only evidence in a crime is a church confession, Carisi must find another way to prove his suspect guilty. Benson agrees to meet with an old friend seeking to make amends for past transgressions.”) 

Additionally, GRIMM star Reggie Lee will guest star in episode 20 of SVU, Give Me My Remote has confirmed. (Not the same hour as Quinn’s return.) Lee will play the father of an MIA teen, whose case is investigated by the squad. Of note: Though it’s not an official crossover, SVU stars are set to appear in the ORGANIZED CRIME hour that night.

Lee’s casting was first reported by TVLine.

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

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