Law & Order: SVU Reveals A Deleted Barba and Carisi Court Scene

Rafael Barba as well as his portrayer, Raúl Esparza, made a welcomed return to the Law & Order: SVU fold last week, but there was more to the reprisal than viewers were able to see in the one-hour NBC episode.

An Extra Helping of Law & Order: SVU’s Barba

Warren Leight, the showrunner for the highly successful Law & Order offshoot, took to Twitter on Monday evening and posted a highly enjoyable scene featuring the former A.D.A. going toe to toe with his successor which, regrettably, had to be cut from the finished episode for timing purposes.

In a message posted with the provided clip, Leight wrote, “Wish we could have kept this in last week’s episode. But time didn’t allow. At least we can show it here, now. More Carisi/Barba voir dire:”

The deleted exchange sees a frustrated Carisi (Peter Scanavino) attempting to denote the difference between “an accident” and “an intentional act” first by dropping his pen in front of the jury and then via an analogy of him changing out a fused light bulb.

The little stunt, and Carisi’s attitude, tickles Barba, who shoots back at his opponent, “How many D.A.’s does it take to screw in a light bulb is a good question Mr. Carisi…Of course, we’re not talking about light bulbs. We’re talking about a human being.”

Sightless in a Savage Land, the title of the episode in question, featured the first substantial appearance of Barba, and his portrayer, since his exit from the D.A.’s office in 2019. A short cameo scene saw Barba catching up with Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) during a video call aired in 2020.

In this most recent episode, Barba took up the case of an accused murderer whose victim was the man responsible for the rape, impregnation, and near-death experience suffered by the defendant’s daughter.

Though the man was indeed guilty of the crime, Barba fought to ensure a not-guilty verdict – only to wind up seeing his client found guilty of manslaughter, a lesser included offense. Irony of ironies, that charge, and the three-year sentence that the jury found appropriate, had been the deal Carisi offered prior to the trial’s commencement!

Be sure to check out the deleted scene, in full, in the video below. Law & Order: SVU airs Thursday nights on NBC. Check your local listings for airtimes.