‘Law & Order’ Officially Reaches the End of an Era Tonight in New Sneak Peek [Exclusive]

Published Oct 15, 2026, 4:15 PM EDT

A cinematic obsessive with the filmic palate of a starving raccoon, Rob London will watch pretty much anything once. With a mind like a steel trap, he's an endless fount of movie and TV trivia, borne from a misspent youth of watching monster movies on TV, perusing the sun-faded goods at the local video rental shop, and staining his fingers with ink from the Video Movie Guide. Areas of interest include science fiction, film noir, horror flicks, '70s disaster pictures, Bond movies, '90s action, giant robots, dinosaurs, super heroes, and the exuberantly schlocky output of Cannon Films. He also enjoys both Star Trek and Star Wars when they're good, and maybe even more when they're bad. As a Canadian, he also has a vested interest in Canadian movies and TV shows, especially the cheesier ones dubbed "Canuxploitation."

An expert on Marvel Comics, he has also written for the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, and is a member of the Marvel Research Team. He can frequently be found pontificating on comic-book continuity or bemoaning the misfortunes of the Toronto Maple Leafs on his Twitter account.

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Change is a constant for the police officers and attorneys of Law & Order. Since the series began in 1990, the cast has been turned over many times, and now, another change is in the wind. Reid Scott's Detective Vincent Riley will depart the series with tonight's new episode. Collider is proud to exclusively present a sneak peek from that episode, "Into the Mystic," which will premiere tonight at 10 p.m. ET on NBC and stream on Peacock tomorrow.

Riley joined the series in Season 23 in 2024, replacing Jeffrey Donovan's Frank Cosgrove as the series' senior detective. He came in with a checkered past — years earlier, he'd been suspended for six months for punching out a superior officer, and had also lapsed into alcoholism after his father's death. He suffered another black mark on his record during "Fate's Cruel Joke," a season 25 episode: while chasing after a suspect, his squad car hit a pedestrian who later succumbed to his injuries. The death was deemed accidental, but it still weighed on Riley's conscience.

And now, Riley is on his way out. In our sneak peek, he's becoming increasingly frantic as he searches for a mysterious person; we don't know who it is or why Riley needs them. But we do know that it will kick off a mystery that leads to his departure from the series, to be replaced by Rob Calvino (James Badge Dale, The Pacific). "Into the Mystic" will see Riley's partner, Theo Walker (David Ajala), forced off a murder case due to a conflict of interest, as is Executive ADA Nolan Price (Hugh Dancy), leaving Lieutenant Jessica Brady (Maura Tierney) and ADA Samantha Maroun (Odelya Halevi) to pick up the slack. Meanwhile, DA Nicholas Baxter (Tony Goldwyn) is left holding the bag when a prosecution witness suddenly changes their story.

Collider Exclusive · Villain Personality Quiz Which Criminal Mastermind Would Be Your Nemesis? Lecter · Joker · Moriarty · Chigurh

Four of the finest criminal minds ever put on screen. One of them would look at you and see something worth their time. Eight questions decide which one comes for you, why they picked you, and what they would want when they arrived.

🍷Lecter

🃏Joker

♟️Moriarty

🪙Chigurh

MEET YOUR NEMESIS →

01

What would a criminal mastermind notice about you first? Great villains choose their opponents carefully. Something about you got their attention.

AMy manners, and everything I am careful not to say. BThat I still believe people are basically decent. CThat I am clever, and quietly enjoy proving it. DThat I handle things myself, and always have.

NEXT QUESTION →

02

How do they make first contact? The introduction tells you everything about what is coming next.

AA polite letter. Beautiful handwriting. Quietly wrong. BSomething on fire, with a message left beside it. CA puzzle, left where only I would look. DNo contact. Just the aftermath, and a coin.

NEXT QUESTION →

03

What do you actually believe about right and wrong? Every nemesis is really an argument about the thing you believe most.

AThere are lines. Mine are private and absolute. BRules are the only thing keeping us from being animals. CMorality is a system, and systems can be solved. DThings happen. Most of it was never up to me.

NEXT QUESTION →

04

What finally gets under your skin? Everybody has a pressure point. Finding yours is the whole plan.

ABeing seen clearly by somebody I cannot read. BWatching good people do something ugly. CLosing to someone who was simply better prepared. DHaving no move left that changes anything.

NEXT QUESTION →

05

They have made their move. How do you fight back? This is the part of the film where the audience finds out who you are.

ACarefully, and never where they expect to be touched. BLoudly. I would rather lose than play their game. CWith a better plan. I can out-think this. DDirectly, once, with whatever is closest to hand.

NEXT QUESTION →

06

What would they use against you? A good villain never brings a weapon you have not already handed them.

AMy privacy. I have kept far too much to myself. BMy conscience. I will not cross the line they want. CMy ego. I cannot resist a worthy opponent. DMy certainty that I can handle it alone.

NEXT QUESTION →

07

What do they actually want from you? The money is never the point. Something else always is.

ATo understand me better than anyone ever has. BTo prove I am no better than they are. CTo finally be beaten by someone worth the trouble. DNothing at all. I stepped into the wrong path.

NEXT QUESTION →

08

How does it end between the two of you? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides who comes for you.

AA conversation I will be replaying for years. BA choice forced on me that has no clean answer. COne final move, and the better mind wins. DA coin in the air, and nothing I can say.

REVEAL MY NEMESIS →

The Case File Is Complete Your Nemesis Is…

Four criminal masterminds. One of them was always going to be yours. Here is who comes for you, why they picked you out of everyone available, and what they want from the encounter.

Hannibal Lecter

Your nemesis does not want to beat you. He wants to know you completely, and he is patient enough to wait for it. The frightening part is how good the conversation is.

• Lecter is the most dangerous kind of opponent: the one who finds you interesting. He never raises his voice, because he has never needed to.
• You keep a great deal to yourself and you are careful about what you show. That reserve is exactly the door he would knock on.
• The films understood something other thrillers missed. The horror is not the violence. It is being perfectly understood by the wrong person.
• He would be unfailingly polite about all of it. That is the worst part.

The Joker

Your nemesis is not after money, territory or revenge. He is after a demonstration, and you are the person he has chosen to prove his point on.

• The Joker only picks opponents who believe in something. Your decency is not a defence against him. It is the entire reason he showed up.
• He has no plan you can predict and nothing you can take away, which removes every tool you would normally reach for.
• His whole argument is that you are one bad day away from being him, and you would spend the rest of your life proving him wrong.
• He would call it a magic trick. You would call it the worst night of your life.

Moriarty

Your nemesis respects you, which sounds flattering until you work out what it means. He chose you because nobody else was worth his time.

• Moriarty is the original criminal mastermind, the template every later one borrows from: a mind the equal of the hero's, pointed the wrong way.
• You enjoy being the cleverest person in the room. He is counting on exactly that, and he has already built the room.
• This is the rare nemesis who would be genuinely disappointed if you lost badly. He needs the game to be worth playing.
• It ends the way these things always end. Two people, one problem, and only one way down.

Anton Chigurh

Your nemesis has no personal interest in you whatsoever, and that is precisely what makes him unsurvivable. You are not a rival. You are a stop on the way.

• Chigurh does not negotiate, gloat or explain. He arrives, he asks one question, and the answer was decided long before you opened your mouth.
• You trust yourself to handle things. He is the one problem in the world that has no interest in how capable you are.
• No Country for Old Men rewrote the screen villain by removing the thing audiences quietly rely on: the sense that talking might work.
• Call it. He will wait.

↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ

What Else Is Happening in the 'Law & Order' Franchise This Fall?

While Law & Order is preparing for a departure, sister series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is preparing for a reunion. SVU stalwart Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) will be reunited with original partner Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) on an upcoming episode. Meloni starred on the series for its first 12 seasons, then returned to headline the spin-off series Law & Order: Organized Crime, which was recently cancelled after five seasons.

"Into the Mystic," the second episode of Season 26 of Law & Order, will premiere tonight at 10 p.m. ET on NBC. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.