Spoilers ahead for Episode 19 of Law & Order: SVU Season 24, called "Bend the Law."
The case of the week for Law & Order: SVU with “Bend the Law” was delicate in a different way than usual, with the husband of Trial Division Chief Lorraine Maxwell (Betty Buckley) arrested on some pretty heinous charges for Benson (Mariska Hargitay) to investigate. All hands in Special Victims were not on deck, as she’d sent Velasco (Octavio Pisano) and Churlish (Jasmine Batchelor) to Maine to track down his killer childhood friend. In the process, Benson dropped a comment that may have been a window into how she feels looking back at her partnership with Stabler (Christopher Meloni), and I’m so ready for the crossover with Organized Crime now.
How Benson May Have Referenced Her Partnership With Stabler
Velasco hasn’t exactly been devoting all of his waking hours to trying to track down Chilly (Joseph Castillo-Midyett), so Benson recruited Carisi (Peter Scanavino) to issue some subpoenas, leading to money transfers from a location in Maine. To Velasco's dismay, she told him that he was driving up there… and taking Churlish with him. He immediately asked if he could take Muncy (Molly Burnett) instead, to which Benson said “No” and explained:
Because the only thing worse than a partner with no loyalty is a partner with blind loyalty.
Fortunately, Velasco never knew her before she was a captain, so he could not have called Olivia “Do As I Say, Not As I Did For 12 Years” Benson out on her too-close partnership with Stabler that could be the bane of Captain Cragen’s (Dann Florek) existence back in the day. Sure, they never covered for each other on something quite as major as what Velasco was hiding and Muncy probably would have helped with… but can we honestly say with 100% certainty that they wouldn’t have tried to handle it themselves without involving Cragen?
If anybody in the Law & Order universe knows something about devotion between partners that approaches “blind loyalty,” it would be Benson and Stabler. That’s why they were so interesting to watch together for twelve seasons… and why they were such a headache for Cragen whenever they had each other’s back more than they should have.
What It Could Mean For The Organized Crime Crossover
Law & Order: SVU and Law & Order: Organized Crime are on the verge of what could be the biggest multi-part event in the L&O universe since the three-parter that opened the 2022-2023 TV season (which Hugh Dancy addressed as a possible answer to a question about next fall). Kelli Giddish is set to return to both SVU and OC as Amanda Rollins by the end of the spring, and Mariska Hargitay previewed her on-screen reunion with Chris Meloni via some fun images.
Unless Hargitay or Meloni makes a cameo on the other’s show sometime between now and the crossover, the SVU/OC event should be their first on-screen interaction since their near-kiss that frustrated some fans even though the actors nailed the complicated scene. If Benson’s comment in “Bend the Law” is even slightly a clue into her feelings about their partnership back in the day, then it suggests that she doesn’t see it in the most positive light now that she’s in Cragen’s position.
Meanwhile, Stabler is still a detective, and the weight of leadership on Organized Crime rests on Sergeant Bell’s (Danielle Moné Truitt) shoulders. He’s also been easier to read about wanting to reconnect with his former partner, given that she didn’t ghost him for a decade. Does Stabler see their partnership in hindsight differently than she does?
Honestly, I have no idea and could be reading too much into Benson's remark, but I’d love to find out. I’m on the record as enjoying the ups and downs of their dynamic without needing it to become romantic, and a proper crossover vs. Chris Meloni popping into SVU for a cameo surely means that they’ll have to have a real conversation at some point, right? I’m certainly hoping so, and would be perfectly happy if they found a way to a normal friendship again… and wouldn’t be mad if Stabler took another step to make amends for how he wronged her.
For now, though, there are still episodes left before Season 24 of SVU and Season 3 of Organized Crime wrap for the spring. Both shows (as well as Law & Order and the three One Chicago series) were recently renewed for the 2023-2024 TV season, and it seems safe to say that Mariska Hargitay and Chris Meloni will still have dominant roles next season even if other characters will get less screentime.
Keep tuning in to NBC on Thursdays for new episodes of Law & Order at 8 p.m. ET, SVU at 9 p.m. ET, and Organized Crime at 10 p.m. ET, and revisit old episodes streaming with a Peacock Premium subscription.
