‘Law & Order: SVU’ season 17 spoilers: A case weighs on Sgt. Dodds

Andy Karl has just begun his story on “Law & Order: SVU” as Sgt. Dodds, one of the latest people working at the SVU. Even though there are many positions within the NYPD that are particularly harrowing, we still have a feeling that this one may be somewhere near the top of the list when it comes to difficulty. Some of the cases Benson and company take on are trying, difficult, and gruesome, and it’s a surprise that we don’t see them take a greater emotional toll than they do. Then again, some characters like Benson and Fin have been doing this for so long that they have to build a little bit of an emotional wall to ensure that they can keep doing the job.

On the upcoming November 11 episode of the show entitled “Melancholy Pursuit,” you will get a chance to see a specific picture of how the job is starting to impact Sgt. Dodds in a significant way. The synopsis below is short (at least by NBC standards), but it does tell you everything that you need to know:

“The hunt for a missing teenage girl takes an emotional toll on Sgt. Dodds (Andy Karl), and DNA evidence becomes a crucial lead in finding the girl’s abductor.”

It is always sad to see familiar faces on “SVU” go (see Danny Pino at the end of this past season), but one of the advantages to it is that you do get situations like this, where you get to explore what being on the SVU is like through a fresh set of eyes. Hopefully, seeing Dodds break down will be another reminder as to how tough it can be to handle what happens to some of these victims.

(Photo: NBC.)