‘Law & Order: SVU’ season 17, episode 20 preview: When could Mariska Hargitay, cast return?

Tonight, “Law & Order: SVU” brought us an installment in “Sheltered Outcasts” that was certainly powerful (especially for Carisi), and it also turns out to be the last episode for a while.

At the moment, there is not an officially-confirmed return date for the show to NBC, though the Futon Critic lists the next new episode to be airing on Wednesday, April 27. (Update: It has been updated to be May 4.) If that does turn out to be the case, the show will almost certainly air new episodes for the rest of the season until late May. Shows this year are running a little bit later than we’ve seen them in the past, which may be networks’ way of taking advantage of the May sweeps period for as long as humanly possible.

As for what we can precisely say about the rest of the season, it should be one that presents many challenges for Mariska Hargitay and the rest of the cast. Also, this is the last stretch for Warren Leight as showrunner, and we imagine that there will be some big storylines coming up that help commemorate his run on the show.

Also, there are going to be some cases that are ripped-from-the-headlines once more, continuing what has been a lengthy tradition for this show. Specifically, we’d say to think along the lines of one that is inspired by reality television, which just so happens to be something that we’ve seen them pull off before in some other forms.

Stay tuned, as we’ll have some further news along the way.

(Photo: NBC.)