Last night, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit reached a hugely important milestone, one that is not common to many other TV series. The police procedural created by Dick Wolf, on the air since 1999, aired in the United States its 600th episode. A moment rich in significance, crowned by the return to the precinct of Elliot Stabler, played by Christopher Meloni. The detective teamed up with his long-time partner, captain Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), for a case that, almost 30 years earlier, they had handled poorly.
Investigating once again the murder of a young nun, Benson and Stabler had the opportunity to confront issues that had remained unresolved for years. An intense and sometimes painful exchange, in which both found themselves facing not only what they have become, but also the people they were once. In an interview with TVLine, the showrunner Michele Fazekas described this moment as “cathartic,” underscoring how much their dialogues reflect the depth of a bond built over decades of shared history.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, the state of the Benson and Stabler relationship
Over the years we have seen Benson and Stabler forge a deep and complex bond, traversing separations, misunderstandings, personal changes and feelings never fully cooled. A relationship that, despite time and the different paths they took, has never lost its intensity, evolving alongside the two characters and the awareness of what they mean to each other, yet without ever crossing — not even this time — the line that would make them, in effect, a couple. “I’ve said it before: I truly believe they love each other, and I think their bond goes far beyond a sexual relationship. They hold each other deeply in their hearts. The only thing is that he isn’t ready yet,” Fazekas said. “He needs to sort himself out. Moreover, she already knows what his answer would be to that question. He asks it, and the very act of asking is what he wanted to bring to the surface. He doesn’t expect a ‘yes’, but he wants her to know that this is exactly what he desires.” And she added: “This is precisely what I wanted to show in this episode: as much as I wanted to craft a classic Benson and Stabler-centric episode, our protagonist is the captain. And her story here shows how much she has evolved compared to 28 or 29 years ago. Stabler, on the other hand, still has work to do, and he is aware of it.”
The showrunner explained that from the very beginning she had a precise idea for episode 600: to put Benson and Stabler in a car, drive them long distances, take them to a motel, and finally let them confront and discuss all the unresolved issues between them. She explained that initially she did not yet know exactly which topics they would address, but she was drawn to the idea of creating precisely that kind of scenario. “I think this has been a cathartic episode for them, in which they could express things that had been simmering for a long time; if they hadn’t said them, it wouldn’t have felt real. It wouldn’t have been authentic. I love when two people who clearly care for each other are able to confront and discuss their problems in this way. It’s something that has to happen.”
One of the most significant moments of Benson and Stabler’s confrontation occurred when she, quite coldly, told him, “We are not friends.” It happened when the two reconnected after having had no contact for 18 months, with Stabler never answering her calls, a behavior that left Benson feeling hurt. When she asked him to help with the case and he initially refused, she said: “I want to be there for you and I want to be your friend, but I must tell you that sometimes you make things really, really difficult.” Those words led to that sharp reply. Fazekas explained that “when you love someone and you know them really well, you know exactly how to hurt them. You know exactly what to say and you tell that person things you would never say to a casual acquaintance or to any friend. So, as cruel as it is, I think it demonstrates the depth of their relationship.”
Later, in the motel, Benson confronted the thirty-year-old resentment telling her colleague: “Perhaps you are right, Elliot. Perhaps we are not friends. Perhaps we can’t be.” It is a painful moment because, for the first time, even Olivia seems to question the possibility of maintaining that relationship on the old terms. That line does not prove the absence of a bond, but how emotionally exposed the two are to each other. But if Benson is no longer the young detective who tried to impress her partner or her superior, instead a woman who is self-aware, of her own identity and of what she wants, Stabler, conversely, has still a personal journey to complete. He is aware of it, and perhaps we will have to wait for that to happen before hoping for something more.
Comments