Is ‘Law & Order: SVU’ season 17, episode 13 new tonight? New ‘Forty-One Witnesses’ promo

For everyone who is looking forward to seeing what lies ahead on “Law & Order: SVU” moving forward this season, we come bearing some particularly sad news: You’re not going to get a chance to see it tonight. NBC is instead replaying the episode “Patrimonial Burden” from this past fall, and you’ll have to wait until February 3 to see “Forty-One Witnesses” play out on TV.

When the episode does air, you better believe that this is going to be a powerful and frightening episode of TV, given that at the crux of it is something that could easily happen in real life: A sexual assault that happens on the streets of New York City, but one that no one bothers to report in. The title is a potential reference to how many people could have seen it, and you can see Benson’s frustration in the video below as no one seems to be particularly inclined to offer up information.

What’s going on here? We refuse to believe that these people are all such terrible people that they are refusing to help with malicious intent; maybe instead they are not speaking out because of some fear that if they do, something could happen to them. This takes trust in the police system, and as we’ve seen over the years, trust has waned. Hopefully someone gathers the courage to tell the truth, especially since all the SVU is trying to do is ensure that there is justice for the victim, and also that the streets are safer for everyone moving forward.

(Photo: NBC.)