'Law & Order: SVU' season 18 spoilers, plot news: Mariska Hargitay directs show's monumental 400th episode

For the second straight week, "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" season 18 will not be airing a new episode and NBC has yet to announce when the hit police procedural will be back for another installment.

Benson (Mariska Hargitay) in a "Law & Order: SVU" season 18 promo still. NBC

This ongoing hiatus is due to the specials that NBC has lined up for Thanksgiving in which they blocked out some spots, as reported by Carter Matt. On top of that, a back-to-back "Chicago P.D." event that will be serving as a primer to the much-awaited debut of Dick Wolf's newest TV venture, "Chicago Justice" is also in the pipeline of the network.

Despite this, the cast and crew of the Mariska Hargitay-led show have been busy preparing for a slew of new content including their 400th episode which the actress is tipped to direct. The Golden Globe winner who plays Olivia Benson in the show has been updating her social media during the process of filming the incredible milestone for the longest police procedural still airing on TV right now. While shooting has already been done, Hargitay's latest post informs fans that she has moved to editing the episode that she helmed.

The last fans saw Benson and her team was while tackling a particularly sensitive case involving an assaulted transgender. The episode was originally called "Bad Rap" until being belatedly changed to "Broken Rhymes." While "SVU" is known for taking on controversial stories and giving it some flavor, the timeliness of this specific episode was just perfect.

Even the execution of the seemingly swift crime happening in a bathroom seemed to parallel reality where discrimination is still very prevalent. With the involvement of a musician and his record label president in the narrative, the episode was also able to convey the stigma that transgenders are still experiencing in this modern age. Even some of the statements from the bystanders and witnesses that the detectives talked to were downright worrisome as it is a mirror of what real-life looks like.

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