Law & Order: SVU had two goals heading into its season 26 finale. One was to catch a criminal targeting female psychiatrists, and the other was to give proper closure to the two characters who will not be coming back for season 27. Unfortunately, SVU fell short when it came to the latter. What we got wasn't bad, it just failed to address the two very big elephants in the room.
Let's start with Joe Velasco (Octavio Pisano). The episode kicked off by revealing the detective has been promoted to detective second grade. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitway) made sure that Velasco enjoyed it, too, by inviting him out for drinks and then surprising him with a party. It's a sweet scene, and one that frames the character's exit as a positive, which isn't always the case in Law & Order.
The finale focused on Velasco's promotion
We also get an emotional scene at the end of the episode. Benson reflected on Velasco's time with SVU during his promotion ceremony, and we got a montage of moments from his time on the show. It's a nice way to communicate how important the character has been to fans, but it also fails to do much in the way set up his future. Benson's internal reflection was the closest we got to an onscreen confirmation that Velasco isn't coming back in season 27.
Maybe the writers wanted to avoid putting too fine a point on Velasco leaving. It could have been an artistic choice, or one made in the interest of keeping him around in the mind of fans, in the event he ever returns for a cameo. We can somewhat forgive this. What we have a harder time with, however, is the complete lack of attention paid to the other SVU character who left the show.
Silva was underserved in her final episode
Kate Silva (Juliana Aidén Martinez) got absolutely nothing to do in her last episode. The character was present for Velasco's promotion, and she did some peripheral info gathering to hep solve the mystery at the center of the episode, but that was it. No moment to reflect on her time with the SVU team, not even a hint or an expositional line suggesting that she may be looking to take her career elsewhere.
It's a genuine shame that Law & Order: SVU did not provide closure for Silva. The character has been a crucial team member over the last two seasons, and her exit was confirmed so far in advance (with Velasco's) that fans were expecting, at the very least, an acknowledgment.
Law & Order: SVU can salvage this narrative gaffes come season 27. We've seen shows explain the departures of characters after the fact with a line or two, and we can see this happening in the case of Silva. We just wish, given that the writers knew so far ahead of time, that they had done something a bit more impactful with the character while she was still onscreen.