Is Fin Leaving Squad After ‘SVU’ Premiere Attack? Ice T Addresses Character’s Future

Meredith Jacobs September 26, 2025, 12:43 pm

Ice T as Sgt. Odafin 'Fin' Tutuola — 'Law & Order: SVU' Season 27 Premiere 'In the Wind' — Virginia Sherwood/NBC

The Law & Order: SVU cast has changed many times over the course of its 27 seasons (and counting). But there have been two staples from almost the very beginning: Mariska Hargitay has starred as Olivia Benson (going from detective to captain) since the first episode, and Ice T has played Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (now a sergeant) since Season 2. Is that about to change? Not according to Ice T himself.

Despite Fin being attacked and hospitalized in the SVU Season 27 premiere (which aired on Thursday, September 25), Ice T stressed on social media that he’s still very much part of the show. “SVU fans wanna know how I got Fd up on last nights Episode….? It was in the Script.. Lol Don’t worry you already know ‘I’ll be back,'” he wrote on Twitter. That’s certainly a relief! (We wouldn’t be surprised if he’s absent for an episode or two while Fin recovers, however.)

Fin thought he was interrupting an attack in progress, only to be the one injured and for his gun to be stolen. While he told Detectives Terry Bruno (Kevin Kane) and Joe Velasco (Octavio Pisano), who ultimately tracked it down, he did try to keep it from Benson — to protect her, as he insisted when she called him out on it after Sergeant Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish) clued her in. But it seemed he had lost some of her trust, and their earlier conversation about retirement — “It’s crossed my mind. I don’t want to do this forever,” he’d said — came up.

Virginia Sherwood/NBC

“I know that we’re closer to the end than the beginning. I feel that I still have more to do, but we all need to decide how we want to go out. If you are willing to throw away all the years that we have worked together, all the trust that we have built, then maybe you should retire,” Benson told Fin.

While what happened did have Fin wondering if it was “a message for me to get out while I still can,” he promised Benson he’s not going anywhere. “I’m not throwing anything away,” he said. “And I’m not ready to retire until I earn your trust back.”

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Still, Fin is going to be out recovering, and while he is, the new chief of detectives, Kathryn Tynan (Noma Dumezweni) revealed to Benson that she’s bringing in someone new, someone she’s known since he was a kid, to her squad — and she refused to let the captain say no. Hurry back, Fin!

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