LAW & ORDER SVU and ORGANIZED CRIME Crossover: Stabler Reunites with Benson, But Suffers a Life-Changing Loss

[Warning: This post contains spoilers for the LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT and ORGANIZED CRIME crossover.]

After nearly a decade apart, LAW & ORDER SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT’s Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) finally reunited—but it was anything but smooth sailing.

The show wasted no time in putting the duo back together: while on the way to receive her NYPD honor, Olivia was diverted to a 10-13 call, where she discovered Kathy Stabler (Isabel Gillies) was gravely injured in a car bombing. As she was taken away by EMTs, Olivia and Elliot came face-to-face.

While Olivia got a bit of insight into Elliot’s life—he and Kathy moved to Italy with Eli, while he worked; he was the NYPD’s international liaison in Rome, while also doing work on the terrorism task force, as well as trying to prevent international sex trafficking—the priority was trying to find out what happened to Kathy.

Professionally, it was a mixed bag. Olivia let Elliot get involved in the investigation, and when baited by a suspect, she had to restrain him from letting his anger take over. (Though Olivia was originally allowed to work the case, SVU was pulled off it, eventually, too.)

And things got worse: Kathy, briefly, seemed to recover—including questioning whether Elliot and Olivia really didn’t talk for a decade—her spleen ruptured and it proved to be fatal.

“I just don’t get it,” a grief-stricken Elliot said. “We were happy.”

Also tense was Olivia, finally, getting to scratch the surface on Elliot abandoning her. After she told him he was the single-most important person in her life at the time, he admitted, “I was afraid if I heard your voice, I wouldn’t be able to leave.”

 

Benson and Stabler finally put it all on the table. #SVU pic.twitter.com/x95gd2ZtTe

— 𝐋𝐀𝐖 & 𝐎𝐑𝐃𝐄𝐑 (@lawandordertv) April 2, 2021

Later, however, he did give her a letter he planned to give her at the award ceremony. (As he noted, though they asked for him to speak, he’s big on doing that in public; instead, he wrote down some thoughts to share with her.) But what it said will remain a mystery for now—though she read it off-screen, when she came to talk to Elliot about it, he had to run off to track down a lead about Richard Wheatley (Dylan McDermott), ORGANIZED CRIME’s Big Bad.

What did you think of the reunion?

LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT, Thursdays, 9/8c, NBC

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