Mariska Hargitay Teases Reunion with Chris Meloni on "Law and Order: SVU"
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Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) and Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) are reuniting in season 22 of Law and Order: SVU.
Meloni exited the show in 2011, and is now getting his own Law and Order spinoff.
On her Instagram page, Hargitay has been teasing the reunion.
Ten seasons, and nearly ten years, after leaving the Law and Order universe, Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) is back for his own spin-off show, called Law and Order: Organized Crime.
Before Law and Order: Organized Crime airs, however, there will be a moment fans have long been waiting for: The reunion of Stabler and his longtime partner, Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) on Law and Order: SVU.
After months of filming delays, the reunion appears to be in sight. Hargitay posted a photo of her and Meloni on set of SVU with the caption, "It's happening..." with the hashtag #PFL (partners for life) and #OC (which stands for the spin-off show Organized Crime). She also posted photos of her and Meloni's directors' chairs.
In fact, Hargitay's Instagram has been the go-to spot for the latest information about the SVU-nion. Back in the summer of 2020, Hargitay confirmed the reunion in a selfie posted to Instagram. She and Meloni are beaming with their arms around each other; Hargitay clasps his hand over her shoulder. She captioned the celebratory post with a nod to the reunion: "It's on."
Naturally, the fans went wild. Stabler and Benson were partners-in-crime-fighting for years, until Stabler made a shockingly abrupt exit from the squad and the show at the end of season 12. A brief recap: In the SVU season 12 finale, Stabler fatally shoots the daughter of a murder victim, who had opened fire in the Special Victims squad room. Stabler is placed on administrative leave, and doesn't appear in season 13.
Given the circumstances of Stabler's exit, fans never officially got to say a proper goodbye to the SVU fixture. During the reunion, we'll learn what happened since Stabler, a father of five, moved on from the squad. Speaking to TV Insider, Meloni said the characters' reunion will be emotional.
"It's going to be heavily-laden with 10 years of stuff and a lot of emotion," Meloni said, before going on to speculate why the two characters still have such potency for fans. "I personally think that because there was so much gray in there and so much unsaid between these two people, it gave it such a profoundly larger life and thus has allowed it to withstand 10 years of being separated. It still lives and people are still curious about it, and it evolved over time. It was very complicated," he added.
Once production began in January 2021, Hargitay continued to post selfies with Meloni.
Meloni, too, joined in on building anticipation with a post of his own. "We are getting a little bit closer," he wrote.
We won't have to wait long to see the reunion, either. Showrunner Warren Leight confirmed that Stabler would appear in the season 22 premiere. "It's pretty clear that Elliot will be in the SVU season opener. I think that much I know. Whether we get to see his family as well remains to be seen," Leight said on the SVU podcast.
As for when the Benson/Stabler reunion will actually air? No premiere date has been set. But we've waited nearly a decade for Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson's on-screen reunion—we can wait a while longer.
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