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'Law & Order: SVU' Season 22: When will Episode 4 air? Fans excited to see Rafael Barba when show returns

What’s thrilling for the fans will be the return of Rafael Barba( Raul Esparza) who plays Assistant District Attorney and close friend of Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay).

In the episode ‘'Remember Me in Quarantine' -- the SVU interrogated a group of college roommates when one of them goes missing during Covid-19 lockdown.It also saw the return of fan-favorite guest characters like the astute and competent medical examiner Dr. Melinda Warner (Tamara Tunie). The episode depicted a brutal murder of a 20-year-old exchange student whose friends said that she just packed up her stuff one day and left without informing anyone. When interrogated by the NYPD it was revealed that she stayed in the room and maintained super social distancing due to the pandemic before she left. It is revealed she was in very strict quarantine before she was hoping to go back to Italy from where she belongs originally. Now Italy, as we all know, was one of the worst hit in the pandemic which is why Maria could not go back and missed her father.

The episode had people telling Captain Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) that “this year, people have lost their minds". This amplified how the pandemic severely affected people’s lives.The show ended revealing how Maria was murdered for violating quarantine and not maintaining social distancing as she gets involved in a threesome with Lexi and Shawn, flouting all pandemic rules (a la Amanda Knox). This enraged Perry, who had feelings for her, and ultimately sees it as a betrayal. In the end he brutally kills her. Meanwhile, the entire show depicted the NYPD detectives led by Caption Olivia Benson probing the case and asking suspects Lexi, Shawn, Perry and Brad about the murder while standing in close proximity to them that too without masks in many scenes. For this the NYPD was slammed.

Now that the show has explicitly shown Covid-19 in many of its twists and turns and has caused a furor on the Internet with fans pointing out that the NYPD, who itself preaches social distancing and wearing of masks in a pandemic, did not do so in the show; it will be worth watching how the show fares in profiling Covid-19. 

Another fact that is exciting fans is the return of Rafael Barba (Raul Esparza). He is an Assistant District Attorney who is transferred from the Brooklyn District Attorney's office to Manhattan. During his run at the SVU, Barba becomes a close friend of Captain Benson, and they help each other on cases. It will be worth a watch to see how the show portrays Barba’s character.

Excited fans took to Twitter to write, “Like I don’t want to rush through my favorite time of year but @RaulEEsparza is back January 7... 2021 is already kicking some a*s!!” Another concurred, “Cannot wait tell my mom that barba i'll back in January @nbcsvu THANK YOU #SVU.” 

DuThe previous episodes the show has profiled in police brutality, questioned the racism in the justice department, addressed domestic abuse and saw Fin(Ice-T) facing a lawsuit jeopardising his stay in the show. 
 
Law and Order: SVU season 22, episode 4 releases on January 7th at 9/8c.