‘Law & Order: SVU’ Is Giving Rollins Blasts From Her Past in Season 23

Donal Logue as Murphy in Law & Order SVU
Michael Parmelee / ©NBC / Courtesy Everett Collection

Will we see a jealous Sonny Carisi (Peter Scanavino) in Law & Order: SVU Season 23? It sounds like it could happen.

Donal Logue and Ari’el Stachel, whose characters have been involved with and a potential love interest for, respectively, Detective Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish) are returning in an upcoming episode (set for January 2022), TVLine reports. Logue played Lieutenant Declan Murphy (the father of one of Rollins’ kids) in Seasons 15, 16, and 17, while Stachel’s transit cop, Sergeant Khaldun, worked with Rollins in Seasons 21 and 22.

So what brings these men back into Rollins’ orbit? “Murphy will have just wrapped up his most recent undercover assignment and will come to Capt. Benson [Mariska Hargitay] and the Special Victims Unit for help on a high priority case involving a series of seemingly coordinated hate crimes around New York City,” according to the report.

Both men were in Rollins’ life before she and Carisi (finally) kissed in the Season 22 finale and got together. They won’t be the first blast from her romantic past this season, either. Danny Pino (who played Detective Nick Amaro in Seasons 13 to 16) appeared in the 500th episode. But what will Murphy and Khaldun — assuming they find out about the relationship — think of Rollins and Carisi being together?

Logue and Stachel aren’t the only SVU returns still to come. Raúl Esparza returns as Rafael Barba in the December 9 crossover with Organized Crime in which he and Carisi will once again face off in court. This time, Barba’s defending Richard Wheatley (Dylan McDermott), who’s on trial for the murder of Detective Elliot Stabler’s (Christopher Meloni) wife. That’ll probably be more dramatic than that January episode, if we’re being honest.

Law & Order: SVU, Thursdays, 9/8c, NBC