Law & Order SVU Season 25 Episode 7 Review: Maria Recinos Returns, Threatening Benson’s Fragile Mental Health

Uh oh. Benson has a new obsession.

On Law & Order: SVU Season 25 Episode 7, her desperation to reconnect with a former victim she once saved threatened to consume her. However, she managed to direct an investigation into a disturbing series of murders effectively.

Benson’s empathy for the woman who was dismembering pedophiles, in combination with her deep-seated need to re-establish a relationship with Maria, suggests that all her years at SVU have taken an emotional toll.

Benson only recently found missing teenager Maddie Flynn, becoming so obsessed with that case that I was shocked Maddie wasn’t the victim she wanted to reconnect with.

While she finally put Maddie’s case behind her, she quickly developed a new obsession, discussing Maria’s case in therapy and spending every spare moment staring at an article about rescuing her 20 years ago. That wasn’t any more healthy than her hyperfocus on Maddie’s abduction!

Who Was Maria Recinos?

SVU did an excellent job using flashbacks from 2005 to give an overview. As the clips explained, on Law & Order: SVU Season 7 Episode 3, Benson was called in to answer a 911 call from a terrified child named Maria, who claimed she’d been kidnapped.

This story is probably important to Benson now because it was another example of no one but her being willing to stand up for the victim.

Everyone else in the squad room was convinced the caller was pranking Benson, and Munch even went as far as using a voice generator device to make a fake call with a similar voice.

Benson’s memories of Maria might have been triggered by no one believing she was right about Maddie being on that train on Law & Order: SVU Season 25 Episode 5.

Why Did Maria Resurface Now?

Maria’s reappearance as a newly graduated cop is probably part of the 25th-anniversary celebration. Her original appearance is one of SVU’s most iconic episodes, so it’s natural the series would want to catch up with her during this milestone year.

Storywise, Benson’s desire to visit her made a nice set of bookends for the hour, but will there be more to the story than that?

Fin: How you doing?Benson: Good.Fin: Well, that’s a lie cause you’re drinking boxed wine.

Maria’s a cop now, so she and Benson may cross paths again later in the season. I hope that’s the case! It would be fascinating for Benson to deal with her as a fellow cop rather than a former victim.

That storyline seems more fitting for Blue Bloods, but it could still work on Law & Order: SVU, especially given Benson’s mental health struggles.

Fin’s Assessment of Why Benson Was Obsessed Seemed Off-Base

I was surprised that Fin suggested that Benson was scared that Maria had grown up to fall far short of Benson’s hopes for her. That seemed silly — since Maria is a cop now, it’s more likely that her previous interaction with Benson inspired her to choose this career.

I thought he would draw a line between Benson’s troubled childhood and what she said about Tori. Although Benson didn’t know her father, she knew he raped her mother, and her traumatic childhood left her vulnerable to being manipulated by a predator when she was sixteen.

Benson has always been driven by a desire to make the world a better place for other survivors, but it seems to have morphed into over-identifying with victims, which is a mental health issue people in her line of work have to deal with.

Thank goodness she’s in therapy, though I can’t help shaking the feeling she’s headed for a breakdown anyway.

How Benson’s Issues Impacted the Case

On the surface, Benson seemed to be doing her job well. She still worked the case, even visiting a mechanic’s shop and searching the underside of a car herself.

Her interactions with the rookie CSU agent, who was more interested in classic cars than in thoroughly searching the one that belonged to the victim, were strange, but I chalked that up to annoyance with the guy getting distracted.

Benson: What about the ex-wife?Fin: I don’t think she’s gonna be too heartbroken.Benson: I just want to make sure she’s not a suspect before I console her.

Despite getting called away from the graduation ceremony and her obsession with that article from 20 years ago, Benson was as sharp as ever as the investigation began, questioning whether the ex-wife could have killed the victim and correctly labeling the murder a crime of rage.

Those furtive glances at the article were concerning but not overly distracting, even if they were a symptom of a deeper issue.

The case was one of the more disturbing ones, reminding me of Law & Order: SVU Season 1 Episode 1. When Olivia Benson was a rookie herself, she had trouble empathizing with a victim who had stolen another man’s identity and was hiding from the police.

This situation was the opposite — she over empathized with the perp — but it was a similar problem. In both cases, Benson’s personal feelings threatened to get in the way of solving the case effectively. (Plus, both cases were pretty gruesome!)

Interestingly, Benson was able to separate her personal feelings from the job she had to do until she realized the killer was a young woman whom her father had abused. That strongly suggests that I’m right about Benson’s past trauma getting triggered by Tori’s story.

Was Justice Served?

The disturbing story also touched on questions of vigilante justice and destructive responses to trauma.

While Benson over-empathized with Tori, Carisi was clear that Tori’s violent behavior had consequences.

Carisi: This is a tragic story, but your client still murdered three people. I can talk to the DA, but Tori, you’re going away for a long time.Tori: What’s gonna happen to Nina now that there’s no one to protect her?

He was right that Tori’s previous trauma or the things her victims had done to kids didn’t excuse her choice to kill and dismember the three men, but Benson was right that the entire thing could have deeply traumatized Nina.

It wasn’t unusual for Benson to go the extra mile to protect Nina, but it was concerning, given how triggered she seemed throughout the hour.

At least she found the girl’s grandmother, and presumably, the woman isn’t another abuser. (For Benson’s sake and Nina’s, let’s hope not! I do not want a story about Benson’s guilt if she discovers Nina’s new guardian is abusing her after all the effort she put into preventing that.)

Fin and Curry Need to Call a Truce Already

Benson’s struggles were counter-balanced by this ongoing irritating subplot of Fin disliking Curry. I got the sense that these scenes were supposed to be comic relief, but they came off as obnoxious.

Fin has always been one of my favorite characters, and I’m thrilled he’s finally getting more screen time. However, I’d rather he do things that don’t irritate me. The rivalry between him and Curry is getting old and needs to stop.

What do you think, Law & Order: SVU fanatics? Is Benson headed for a breakdown? Is Fin getting on your last nerve?

Hit the big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know.

Law & Order: SVU’s historic 25th season airs on NBC on Thursdays at 9/8c. New episodes drop on Peacock the day after they air.

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Jack Ori is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. His debut young adult novel, Reinventing Hannah, is available on Amazon. Follow him on X.