Spoilers ahead for the winter premiere of Law & Order: SVU Season 27 in the 2026 TV schedule, called "Corrosive" and available streaming with a Peacock subscription and/or Hulu subscription.
Law & Order: SVU Season 27 returned after the Winter Olympics break with an episode that was originally pulled from airing on NBC. A former FBI actor was cast as a replacement guest star, and it only took a few minutes of watching it for me to be very glad that the episode didn't have to shelved for good. "Corrosive" opened with a sweet callback to John Munch, played by the late Richard Belzer for nearly 250 episodes across the Law & Order franchise.
I loved to see it as a longtime SVU fan, but it did leave me wishing that Ice-T was present as Fin for the story.
A Shout Out To John Munch
The moment came before everything went sideways in the episode, so the mood was light without any – to quote the opening narration – "sexually based offenses" that are "considered especially heinous" – to dampen the mood. The three women of SVU Season 27 were passing an uneventful evening with a game of UNO: Show Em No Mercy in Benson's office.
Curry got into the true spirit of the game by dropping a Draw 4 Wild on Rollins, who already had a hand full of cards. Benson was on Curry's side by pointing out that it's "a brutal world out there," which is almost inevitably true when it comes to the game of UNO. She was less on Curry's side when her fellow captain dropped an ill-advised comment: "An absolutely silent night in here."
Rollins immediately protested that Curry had just "jinxed" them, but Curry responded by saying that she's "not superstitious." So, Benson shared some SVU lore involving the one and only John Munch. With a hand to her heart and teary eyes, she said:
You’ll see. So, in ‘03, we almost made it through an entire shift without a peep. And then John Munch had to open his mouth and prove to all of us that there was no such thing as a jinx. A call came in ten seconds later.
Curry and Rollins seemed to appreciate the story, and I have to imagine that some of the emotion in Benson's delivery was due to Mariska Hargitay missing her longtime friend... until Curry went and optimistically suggested that "maybe tonight's the night," prompting Rollins to declare that she "just double-jinxed it."
An officer did walk in almost immediately to draw their attention to a video that had been sent into the tip line, setting off an investigation that would get pretty ugly. It was a brief mention in the grand scheme of the episode, and less of a tribute than when Benson, Fin, and Carisi raised a glass to Munch in the Season 25 premiere, but really a lovely surprise to start out the episode. There's just one way it would have been lovelier.
Why I Wish Ice-T Had Been There
For me, the classic era of Law & Order: SVU started in Season 2 with the arrival of Ice-T as Detective Odafin Tutola to join Mariska Hargitay as Detective Olivia Benson, Christopher Meloni as Detective Elliot Stabler, Dann Florek as Captain Cragen, and of course Richard Belzner as Detective John Munch. Fin and Munch were partners for most of the era before Meloni left in Season 12.
While they never quite became as renowned in pop culture as Benson and Stabler (who have had fans rooting for them for nearly three decades now), they were a pretty dynamic duo, and some of their best one-liners were directed at each other. Fin was even the one to provide an update on Munch back in Season 24, telling then-newcomer Bruno:
I had a partner years ago, an old homicide detective. He had the same exact defense mechanism… He retired. I guess he just ran out of gas. Last I heard, he moved back to Baltimore. Met a divorced female rabbi. And he bought back his old cop bar. It’s 1:30 a.m. He’s probably cracking a joke to some barfly. That skinny bastard had a punchline for every second of the day.
Just like if Fin had mentioned a cute story about Stabler in a scene without Benson, I would have enjoyed it for what it was while still being a little bit bummed that his longtime partner wasn't there to contribute. It would have been nice to have Fin there for the story, since he had already been with the unit for several years in '04.
Plus, I would have liked to see how bloodthirsty his UNO strategy is. The man loves his video games, but what about card games? Admittedly, I've missed having Ice-T throughout Season 27 even without Munch being mentioned after his episode count was reduced due to budget.
Well, at least SVU is available streaming on Peacock and Hulu so that fans can revisit any and all episodes of Fin and Munch that they so desire! Tune in to NBC on Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET for the latest from the long-running show as the wait begins for renewal news.
