Law & Order: SVU season 26 episode 9 recap — Carisi struggles with a shocking mystery

In Law & Order: SVU season 26 episode 9, "First Light," Carisi (Peter Scanavino) is back on the job after surviving the harrowing robbery at the bodega. Unfortunately for him, SVU catches a case where it’s not immediately certain who's the victim. Things take an interesting turn when SVU learns there may be a shocking puppeteer behind it all.

Olivia (Mariska Hargitay) not only has the tough job of weeding through all of the evidence, but she also has to help Carisi make sure he doesn’t fumble the case. So is justice served?

Here’s what happened in Law & Order: SVU season 26 episode 9.

Who wrote the five-letter word?

Katherine Vernon (Amy Landecker) leaves for work when her husband Harris (Leland Orser) offers to give her a ride. As the pair walk outside, they’re horrified to see the word “whore” sprayed painted on the garage door.

Across town, Carisi returns to the bodega where the robbery occurred, trying for normalcy. However, he quickly leaves when he notices all the changes around the store, including self-serve coffee and a bulletproof window surrounding the new cashier.

Back with Katherine, at work, her assistant hands her an envelope from an anonymous sender. She opens it to find a flash drive labeled “whore.” Coincidentally, Harris receives a similar flash drive at home. They both play their drives: footage of a man walking into their home and having sex with Katherine. She immediately calls her husband, saying she has no idea who the man is and how this happened.

In the SVU squad room, Carisi shares with Olivia that Deonte (Keith Machekanyanga), the young assailant in the robbery, got a new lawyer and is changing his plea to not guilty. Deonte wants a plea deal for less prison time, which infuriates the prosecutor. Olivia is sympathetic, but before they get to really talk, Katherine and Harris show up to report a rape.

Olivia and Curry (Aimé Donna Kelly) speak with Katherine alone and watch the video. The detectives note the strange man just walked into their home and didn't appear to coerce Katherine into having sex. She knows what it looks like, but she's adamant she doesn’t recall cheating on her husband. Curry leaves to get TARU to analyze the footage. Alone, Katherine tells Olivia she takes sleeping medication. The SVU captain notes on some sleeping meds it’s possible to talk, walk and even have sex without being aware of it.

Carisi and Fin (Ice-T) speak with Harris, who doesn’t believe he was home during the incident because even though he and his wife sleep in different rooms, he’s a light sleeper and would have woken up hearing the noise.

SVU goes to the Vernon home to see the paint job for themselves. Bruno (Kevin Kane) and Silva (Juliana Aidén Martinez) eventually find a can of spray paint believed to have been used, while Silva notices the neighbor’s house across the street has a ring cam. The footage shows the license plate of the car the tagger used. The vandal turns out to be Annette Gallagher (Kirsten Scoles), who is married to the mystery man in the video, Tommy Gallagher (Alex Morf).

Is Katherine living with the enemy?

Carisi and Curry speak with Annette and Tommy separately. Annette is quick to tell Curry she spray-painted “whore” because she learned Katherine slept with her husband thanks to a private investigator. Tommy admits to sleeping with Katherine, but says it was consensual. He goes on to say he met Katherine on an online forum for married people who don’t have sex with their spouses anymore. She told him she had a Sleeping Beauty fantasy, which is why he just walked into the Vernon home that night.

In the squad room, Carisi, Curry and Olivia are about to go over the messages volunteered by Tommy, when Amanda (Kelli Giddish) shows up to help. Carisi asked her to use her contacts to see if it was actually Katherine who was messaging Tommy. Amanda just needs a writing sample from Katherine.

Curry and Fin later go to TARU and learn the messages Tommy received came from the same IP address. Not from Katherine’s personal computer though, but from the Vernons' shared home computer. Furthermore, the messages were sent between 10 am and 3 pm only on Mondays and Wednesdays. Katherine’s assistant confirms Katherine is at work during those hours, but Harris, a college professor, is usually not at the university during those hours.

Olivia and Curry speak with Katherine and notice she has all her sleeping aids on the table. Katherine was preparing to throw them away, but the duo asks to take them and have them tested. The conversation pivots as Olivia shows Katherine messages from the forum and asks if she wrote them. Katherine denies it. Olivia shares her suspicion that Harris was pretending to be her and messaging other men, including Tommy.

Katherine becomes outraged and kicks SVU out of her house. Outside, Olivia asks Curry to search the forum, suspecting this can’t be the first time Harris has done this to Katherine. Unfortunately, after the rest of the team combs through all the messages Harris sent to other people pretending to be Katherine, none of the other men admitted to taking Harris’ bait and sleeping with her.

Attention then turns to Harris’ college as Olivia, Carisi and Amanda think there’s a chance Harris recruited men for his wife there. Velasco (Octavio Pisano) and Silva go to the college and meet with a young professor. Silva records him saying he had a sexual encounter with Katherine but it was Harris who brought the idea to him. Olivia subsequently plays the recording for Katherine, who doesn’t recall sleeping with the professor. Both Harris and Tommy are arrested for rape.

Can Carisi get a guilty verdict?

During the trial, a doctor testifies that Katherine’s sleeping meds were tampered with, as the capsules had twice the prescribed dosage. The medical expert suggests at those dosages Katherine likely didn’t have cognitive abilities. While that benefits the prosecution, the defense does a good job painting Katherine as someone who was trolling on these sites and is only feigning ignorance because she was exposed. The trial isn’t going well for Carisi, and after Katherine is ripped to shreds on the stand by the defense, he zones out, recalling the robbery. When Carisi comes to, he shockingly rests the case.

When the court adjourns, Olivia goes to Carisi as he’s wrapping a call with DA Baxter, who heard about Carisi’s disappointing performance and asked if he needed to be pulled from the case. Carisi then vents about the hard time he’s been having since the robbery. Olivia encourages him to wake up and return to form; she's aware he's struggling but their case is in trouble.

The next day, Carisi meets with Annette, who is angry about what Harris did to his wife. She wants to see him behind bars, so Carisi implores her to help him convince Tommy to take a deal and testify against Harris. She shares that a few days before the trial, Harris met with Tommy and advised them to stick together if they wanted to be found not guilty, even offering to pay off Tommy’s mortgage.

Carisi and Olivia go to Harris and his attorney with this information, and Harris reluctantly agrees to a plea deal, 15 years behind bars. Tommy will serve seven. The episode closes with Carisi and Amanda having dinner with their family at a pizza restaurant.

New episodes of Law and Order: SVU air on Thursdays on NBC and become available the next day on Peacock.