Law & Order Vet Camryn Manheim Loved 'Finally' Playing A Suspect On Murder In A Small Town — Will We See Her Again?

Law & Order vet Camryn Manheim has traded in her badge for a mob-wife aesthetic on Murder in a Small Town — and this time, she's the one being accused of a heinous crime!

In Thursday's episode of the Fox procedural, Manheim guest-starred as Jocelyn, the no-nonsense matriarch of a local family with a longstanding vendetta against her son's future in-laws. Both families collided for the wedding weekend, causing tensions to come to a head. But what should've been a happy occasion turned into tragedy when the father-in-law-to-be was found murdered the night before the big day, and all eyes pointed to Jocelyn.

While Manheim looked right at home throughout the hour in her cheetah print coat playing Jocelyn, aka that "witch of a mother," she was navigating new terrain. The Emmy-winning actress is no stranger to the crime procedural, but she typically sits on the law enforcement side of things. (She starred as lawyer Ellenor Frutt on The Practice, Lt. Kate Dixon on Law & Order and Lt. Cosgrove in Stumptown.) So how did it feel to return to network TV in a familiar genre but in a whole new capacity?

"I just think it's fun that I finally get to play a character in a procedural where I get to say what I really think as opposed to having to always be appropriate," Manheim said. "It was fun to get to play on the other side of it."

She added: "I usually have to be very composed when, you know, you're in a position of being a civil servant or a position of power and you have to obey every rule, and the thing I loved about Jocelyn is she doesn't obey any rule. This family is just a bunch of total idiots and [she] has no qualm talking about exactly how she feels about that."

Manheim said her return to the procedural "felt like home," and credited her real-life friend Marcia Gay Harden, who joined Season 2 as Mayor Christie Holman, for getting her the guest spot.

"It's because they invited Marcia to do the series that our mutually shared manager thought, 'Oh, maybe Camryn can play this part.'"

The two didn't have a chance to shoot any scenes together, leaving Manheim's time in the fictional town of Gibsons a bit bittersweet. "Whenever you accept one episode of the show, you are realizing you're probably not coming back," Manheim shared.

But Manheim understands the art of the procedural — there are no rules! She said Jocelyn could get a second life if Murder in a Small Town decided to do it "Law & Order style," recalling how she played three different Law & Order characters before becoming a series regular as Lt. Dixon.

"I think we should start a campaign now: A small town just forgets that I played Jocelyn and brings me back as an adversary to Marcia!"

Did you enjoy seeing Manheim on the other side of an interrogation? Hit the comments with all of your Murder in a Small Town Episode 2 reactions!