‘Law & Order: SVU’ season 17, episode 9 preview: Benson faces off against Lewis Hodda again

On next week’s all-new episode of “Law & Order: SVU,” you better brace yourself for a blast from the past … and not in a good way. This story is going to bring Benson back to a case that has haunted her for many years, and puts her face-to-face against one of the show’s most notorious criminals in Lewis Hodda. We’ll be spending a good deal of time in the courtroom in this hour, as Barba is going to have to work against some difficult odds to ensure that the desired outcome is reached.

What makes this case so difficult is the fact that we are bringing back BD Wong into the mix once more as Dr. Huang, but as the synopsis below suggests, he is not necessarily going to be working on the same side as the rest of our main characters:

“Lt. Benson (Mariska Hargitay) seeks justice in the trial of child abductor Lewis Hodda (returning guest star Tom Sizemore), but when a plea deal is rejected, Barba (Raúl Esparza) must rely on decades-old evidence to make his case and faces off against former SVU colleague Dr. Huang (guest star BD Wong).”

There may not be too much more information released about this episode just yet, but we will say that it was clearly included in the November sweeps for a reason: It’s a huge story, and one that reminds Benson of the investigator that she used to be. For the sake of looking back, while also looking forward, these sort of cases are necessary.

(Photo: NBC.)