Law & Order: SVU season 18 finale spoilers: The nature of timely case

Law & Order: SVU season 18 will be airing its finale on Wednesday night, and it’s a powerful, timely case that does throw recent headlines into the forefront of the story. While not necessarily inspired by a single person, the specter of Donald Trump’s travel ban is going to loom large throughout the episode. Over the course of the hour, you will see a case that is a possible hate crime; unfortunately, it’s also one that will cause major problems for the SVU team because a key witness in the case finds themselves deported. How do you solve a case when you cannot bring anyone forward to tell their side of the story?

This episode is going to be a big one for both Benson and Barba as they try to piece together a case despite these challenging circumstances. In setting the story up further, Raul Esparza (who’s had a pretty fantastic year on the show) said the following to The Hollywood Reporter:

“Barba and Benson both end up really tested because she can’t hang onto the witness legally and she can’t make the case, and Barba starts wondering whether or not they can provide alternative facts, so to speak … It’s all about truth-telling and their version of the truth and why they tell it; what justice are you serving by inventing something even though you might be omitting something or lying a little bit but the end result is going to be the best for everybody.”

Basically, one of the questions you should be wondering is whether or not Barba will have to skirt the law in order to serve justice, something that is unfortunately must happen every now and then when you have a system that does become broken at the seams. This is going to be an emotional two hours that will stick with you — after all, this is something that SVU is known for with its finales. Just remember for a moment how season 17 ended with some of the situation that unfolded leading up to the death of Mike Dodds.

The hardest thing to process of all may just be the fact that after this episode, season 19 won’t be on the air for roughly four more months. There’s a long summer ahead, folks!

What do you want to see on the Law & Order: SVU season 18 finale? Share in the comments!

(Photo: NBC.)