Law & Order Boss Tees Up 'Brady On Fire' In Explosive SVU Crossover, Teases Walker-Centric Episode And 'Veep' Alum Guest Star In Back Half Of Season

Keep your new year's revelry brief: It's almost time to get back to work with New York's (fictional) finest. 

"Law & Order" Season 25 and "Law & Order: SVU" Season 27 both return to NBC on Thursday, Jan. 8, at 8/7c with a two-hour crossover event that doubles as both series' winter premiere. In the first hour, titled "Snowflakes," an injured woman goes missing from the hospital, and Brady happens to be a witness to the crime. After Brady partners with the Special Victims Unit, the official episode summary tells us, "an explosive discovery puts both squads in danger." 

In the second hour, titled "Purity," the hunt for a murder suspect "uncovers a crime with shocking legal and ethical implications," the synopsis reads, and a raid on a suspect's home puts Bruno and his team at risk. Also: "Carisi and Price team up in court when Brady's interrogation tactics undermine the case."

In advance of both series' return, I talked with "Law & Order" showrunner Rick Eid, who offered TVLine the lowdown on Benson and Brady's latest team-up. As a bonus, we got some scoop on an upcoming Walker-centric episode (check out the exclusive behind-the-scenes photo below) and a guest spot by an actor familiar to "Veep" fans. Read on to see what he had to say.

TVLINE | Tell me about what went into getting Lt. Jessica Brady and Capt. Olivia Benson together again for the upcoming crossover.
[Maura Tierney, who plays Brady, and Mariska Hargitay, who plays Benson] both like working together. So it was just like, let's get these two powerful women together, working together, seeing it from different perspectives. It's one of those things you talk about and then you go, "Oh let's try to break this story with that in mind." It kind of came together, and we ran with it.

TVLINE | There are lots of explosions in that trailer. You packed a lot of action into these two hours. Would you say there are more action sequences in this crossover than we normally see?
When you try to do these two-hour, movie-type things, there's a certain amount of energy and action and "event" to it, [that] you need to pull off. We try to make these crossovers events. They're obviously different than a typical episode of "Law & Order" or "Law & Order: SVU." We try to elevate the storytelling, elevate the production. I guess that's a long way of saying: Yes, there are a lot of explosions and action sequences. [Laughs]

TVLINE | The episode description leads us to believe that Brady's interrogation tactics will make trouble for Price and Carisi when we get into the courtroom part of the crossover.
[There's] the "Law & Order" model of "there's an investigation, and then you actually have to prove the crime." This is a nice example of that, of Brady trying to get the answers, get to the truth. She's obviously emotional, given what the episode starts with and what she witnesses. It's like Brady on fire. And she's a little more aggressive than she usually is in certain interrogation techniques and the way she approaches things. That comes back in the next hour on the legal side. Is the evidence procured through those techniques permissible? Price and Carisi are different types of prosecutors. So their relationship is always fun to watch on screen.

TVLINE | And we know that Price has had issues before with Brady's way of getting information.
Yeah. Price, for the most part, is all about the law and doing it the right way. Especially for a prosecutor. Go back all the way to the first episode in the reboot: He didn't use a confession that one of the detectives procured because he didn't like the way he did it. He thought it crossed a line. And that was a major tension between him and McCoy, Sam Waterston's character, in that very first episode of the reboot. So that's kinda where he comes from. He was a defense lawyer for a while, so he's very sensitive to the law and what's allowed and what's not allowed.

TVLINE | I haven't talked to you since David Ajala [shown here with "SVU" star Ice-T in an exclusive behind-the-scenes photo from the crossover] joined the cast as Det. Theo Walker. What can you tell me about what's ahead for him?
We're thrilled he's with us. [Walker] is an interesting character in that he was deep undercover for a while, and now he's trying to integrate himself into a New York precinct, working homicides with people that, for the most part, haven't been undercover or have never been undercover. So there's a transition there. The character is definitely more of an ask-for-forgiveness than permission kind of guy. Very private. It's taken a while for Riley to actually trust him. Like, "What's going on with this guy?" It's kind of a dance between them. We've got a bunch of episodes, we've got a really good episode coming up that we just filmed that really gets into his backstory where we as an audience and Riley as his partner get to really learn what he went through as an undercover cop and where he comes from. He meets his doppelganger in the course of an investigation and we really explore life as an undercover cop. That moves the relationship between Riley and Walker forward, where there's a bit more understanding and respect.

TVLINE | There's been a little bit of tension between Walker and Brady since he joined the squad. Will we see that addressed? Does that turn into anything, good or bad?
Nothing particularly bad. I think it's just that everybody's trying to figure this guy out. He's a bit of an enigma. And it's not really that he's trying to hide things and be mysterious, it's just that he keeps his own counsel... Ultimately, it's all going to work.

TVLINE | Got any big guest stars on the plan for the rest of the season?
Matt Walsh ("Veep"), who I love, who's known for more comedic stuff, is going to be a defense lawyer in Episode 14, which we'll begin filming in the new year. One of the great parts of "Law & Order" is we're so lucky that so many great actors live in New York and want to do the show.

Now it's your turn. Are you planning to tune in for the "Law & Order"/"Law & Order: SVU" winter premiere crossover? Let us know in the comments!