Law & Order: SVU’s Carisi seems to be on a downward spiral.
Too many of the cases he’s working on remind him of how vulnerable his young daughters are, and worse, Rollins is out of town 95% of the time, so he’s handling it on his own.
Carisi’s family story is compelling, but can the police procedural pull it off while keeping Rollins off-screen?
Carisi’s Latest Storyline Explained
Things came to a head for Carisi on Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 4 during a case involving the brutal rape of two young teenage girls, one of whom died as a result.
His downward spiral began when he saw a creep leering at nine-year-old Jessie.
Confronting the guy wasn’t necessarily wrong, but telling Jessie to wait on the street corner while he got in the man’s face was risky in so many ways.
Someone else could have taken Jessie while he wasn’t looking, or the situation could have escalated because of the way he confronted the guy.
Yet it was satisfying for Carisi to tell the man off, especially when leering and catcalling are so prevalent on city streets.
Afterward, Carisi was twice as passionate while prosecuting a case that probably hit close to home, and his emotional reaction suggested something deeper going on.
Many fans have speculated that Carisi had a delayed reaction to the case on Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 2, which was a cold case in which a woman accused her powerful stepfather of molesting her starting when she was about Jessie’s age.
This very well could be the case, and if so, Rollins’s MIA status adds to and detracts from the situation.
Rollins’ New Job Keeps Her Away From Her Family, But Also Weakens This Story
Of course, Rollins’ absence is explained behind the scenes as Kelli Giddish not being a full-time cast member.
On-screen, there’s a semi-logical reason for her absence: her job with the Intelligence Unit takes her all over the world.
I can’t decide how I feel about that in relation to this story. Carisi seems cool with Rollins’ constant travel, yet Rollins’ absence means he’s dealing with parenting three children by himself.
That’s rough, especially with Carisi fearing for their safety because of what he’s seen on the job recently.
In a way, Rollins looks bad because of being out of town while this is going on.
Even if she can’t be in every episode, why can’t there be any one-sided phone calls to at least give fans the illusion that Rollins and Carisi actually talk to each other about their kids while she’s not home?
I loved Carisi’s conversation with Benson about raising pre-teen girls, but he should also be talking to Rollins, who is Jessie’s mother, and it feels strange that he didn’t.
I’m not saying Carisi shouldn’t talk to Benson in addition, but it doesn’t make sense for him not to contact Rollins soon after confronting a pedophile who was staring at Jessie.
That seems like the kind of thing you’d want to tell the other parent about right away, regardless of where in the world they happen to be at the time.
Rollins Doesn’t Have To Be On-Screen All The Time For The Relationship To Work
Long-distance relationships are common when one or both parents work out of town a lot, and the central premise of Law & Order: SVU’s Carisi being the one to raise the children most of the time is appealing.
There aren’t a lot of single dads or dads balancing work and family duties on TV — as far as we’ve come as a society in that regard, most television shows still feature traditional gender roles when it comes to parenting.
Look at how FBI: Most Wanted is handling Nina and Scola for an example of how to do it well.
Their storyline is even more challenging because the two are on different shows in the franchise, but they make it work. When one parent is out in the field, there might be calls from the other or references to their relationship.
What Law & Order: SVU’s Carisi storyline is doing, though, would be like if FBI had a story about Scola having a parenting issue with Dougie but never even mentioning Nina, not even in passing.
Pretty ridiculous, right? So why is Law & Order: SVU doing it?
The difference is that Scola and Nina are both major characters in every episode of their respective shows, even if they don’t have scenes together, making it easier to put references to their relationship and phone calls into the scripts.
Rollins’ absence is dictated by the limited screen time available for her character since she’s on recurring status.
Still, there are tricks the series could use to make it appear as if Rollins were there even when she’s not, such as the one-sided phone calls I mentioned before.
The Best Solution is for Law & Order: SVU’s Carisi And Rollins To Get Their Own Spinoff
Any Rollins/Carisi storyline on Law & Order: SVU is going to get lost in the shuffle, even if Rollins is fully part of it.
In the early days of SVU, there was always a side story about Stabler and his family that got equal time to the case of the week. However, Carisi and Rollins are not as central to the story as Stabler was in those days, so at best, they’d get a few scenes while 90% or more of the episode focused on the case.
The best solution seems to be for there to be a spinoff featuring Rollins and Carisi, their life together, and Rollins’ work for Intelligence.
The cases and personal storylines would intersect naturally on such a show, and they wouldn’t be competing for screen time with the rest of the cast.
What do you think, Law & Order: SVU fanatics?
Do Carisi and Rollins need their own spinoff? Does Rollin’s absence impact this story negatively?
Hit the comments with your thoughts!
Law & Order: SVU airs on NBC on Thursdays at 9/8c.
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