Yahoo Lifestyle Law & Order: SVU’s Peter Scanavino Says Carisi Is Wondering ‘Can I Come Back From This?’ After That Brutal Day in the Bodega
Never underestimate the combined powers of a Liv Benson talking-to and a New York slice.
In Law & Order:SVU‘s winter premiere, we see how the trauma of being held hostage at the bodega in the fall finale still has Carisi in its nasty grasp. At the end of that episode, Rollins worried that her husband wasn’t as OK as he professed, and Benson — no stranger to traumatic fallout herself — agreed. In this week’s hour, Carisi experiences flashbacks to his very scary day while trying a case involving a deeply disturbed husband and the horrible things he did to his wife. (Trust us, you don’t need the details.)
More from TVLine
Some gentle-yet-firm words from Liv, as well as the rest of the squad affording the beat-down assistant district attorney some grace, helped him on his way to recognize and deal with his anger. And at the end of the hour, he and Rollins took the kids to a pizza shop for a family dinner that also fed his soul.
I talked with Peter Scanavino about whether we still need to be super worried about Carisi’s well-being — after all, Deonte’s trial still looms! — or just, like, regular-level worried. Read on for his thoughts.
TVLINE | You normally play Carisi as pretty laid-back and easygoing. Talk to me about the shift in how you had to handle yourself, as him, in this episode.
It’s interesting, because that the whole premise was that Carisi was having a lack of feeling, that he was detached.But what undergirds that is a sadness, or an anxiety, or something else. So it’s not necessarily that he didn’t have feelings. It was more that he just wasn’t able to experience joy. The things that had given his life meaning before that had kind of disappeared. He was just walking through the world, going through the motions. Specifically for somebody like Carisi, it’s that they’re a passionate person, and to be deprived of that passion? This is almost the worst-case scenario for him.
You know, you wanna do something that’s compelling on screen, not just ‘I feel nothing, I am a robot.’ That’s boring. [Laughs] Hopefully I found the right note to hit.
TVLINE | We learn during this episode that Deonte is changing his plea, which makes it seem like the case will be an ongoing stressor in the background for Carisi.
This is definitely unresolved, and I think that’s part of the the anxiety — not “anxiety,” but maybe “anger” is more appropriate — with Carisi because, from his point of view, regardless as to whether or not Deonte was under the influence of Boyd, he still sees Deonte facilitating a rape and a murder.
TVLINE | There’s a moment where he’s like, ‘I couldn’t even enjoy watching my kids opening their presents at Christmas.” Rollins is definitely around in the episode, but we don’t see a lot of Carisi’s home life this week — how much do you think his trauma has been seeping into how he is with her and the kids?
If you’ve ever been with somebody that you’re close with and that you love, but they’re just going through a hard time and maybe a little resistant to open up about it, I think that’s how Carisi is processing this. So like I said before, the things that I think would definitely be joyful for him — I can only imagine Carisi before, on Christmas morning, he’s probably dressed up like Santa Claus — but now he’s sitting there and he’s just numb. It’s not hitting. He’s probably sitting there, expecting to feel it, ‘cause that’s how it always is, and it’s just not coming. And then he starts asking questions: ‘What’s wrong with me?’ and ‘Can I come back from this?’
And that gets complicated in that episode, because it’s not about him. It’s about the victim… How is [Carisi] able to do what he needs to do while struggling with his trauma, and not make it about him? That’s the kind of struggle that he’s going through in this episode.
TVLINE | SVU has often shown its characters in therapy. I know you’ve said before that Carisi maybe isn’t going to jump to talk to a stranger about the things that are going on in his head, and the squad — and Benson — sort of serve that purpose in this episode. But is there going to be any follow up on that with a therapist on screen?
No. And, you know, again therapy is one way of processing things. I think a lot of what therapy is is kind of a release and an acknowledgment that you don’t have control. I think there’s many different ways in which a person can do that. So I’m not quite sure how Carisi is processing it, but I think he is dealing with it after this episode, brick by brick.
TVLINE | I’m a New Yorker, so I think therapy is the answer to everything.
[Laughs] Yeah.
TVLINE | My last question to you is absolutely the most important: Has Carisi found a new bodega near work?
Yeah. [Laughs] I’d say yes. It takes him a while.
Best of TVLine
Sign up for TVLine's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
