Will Christopher Meloni be in Law & Order: SVU Episode 500?
Law & Order: SVU Episode 500 will be a part of Season 23. Now that we know when the new season premieres, there’s one burning question on everyone’s mind: Will Christopher Meloni appear as Elliot Stabler for this huge milestone?
Mathematically speaking, 500 is an element of the Natural Numbers. For the non-nerdy among us, that just means it’s a counting number (1, 2, 3, 4, 5…etc.). But on the back end, 500 is defined as the successor of 499, which is defined as the successor of 498, and so on until you get all the way back to the number 1.
If you’ve come here to talk about what Meloni means to Law & Order: SVU and whether or not he should be in the series’ 500th episode, that little bit of background might have made your brain hurt. But it’s there for a reason, and that reason is simply this: Mathematically, factually, it is impossible to get to Episode 500 without first having aired Episodes 1-272.
To put it another way, Season 23 could not exist without being the successor of Season 22. Carry that recursively backward, and we literally would not be where we are without the so-called “SVU 1.0,” which was all about two people: Mariska Hargitay as Olivia Benson and—you guessed it!—Christopher Meloni as Elliot Stabler. I can’t believe I even have to point that out, but here we are. (And while we’re at it, since 2 is S(1), there’s no 2.0 without 1.0.)
Should Christopher Meloni be in Law & Order: SVU Episode 500
Let’s back away from the abstract thinking for a moment and discuss what Elliot Stabler means—has always meant—to Olivia Benson. As she said in “Return of the Prodigal Son,” El was the “single most important person” in Liv’s life (and he just…disappeared. But we’re not going there today, gang).
Think back to the shared orange juice, the promised kidneys, the stand-off with Gitano, and so much more. At what point was it at all acceptable to decide that 12 years of partnership were suddenly unimportant?
Where, in any second of Mariska Hargitay’s devastatingly emotional performance as an Olivia suddenly abandoned, should viewers have decided that trying to move on and pick up the pieces actually meant forgetting Stabler was ever Benson’s partner? And even if she did manage to let life go on, Captain Benson’s frozen shock the second Stabler came back into her life—not to mention every moment of slowly repaired connection that followed—should be a pretty clear indication that some bonds never truly go away.
But maybe don’t take my word for it. Perhaps listen to the who woman has carried Law & Order: SVU on her back for 22 seasons and counting, to the point where all that heavy lifting has—apparently—caused some back-to-back injuries.
Hargitay, who knows Olivia Benson better than anyone on the planet because she has been her for over 20 years, has never done anything other than talk about the importance of Elliot Stabler in Liv’s life. She has also been vocal about her own working relationship and close friendship with Meloni.
Take your pick of the many, many interviews over the years, but we’ll go ahead and look at something in the EO reunion era. Hargitay and Meloni got together to discuss the reunion on The Law & Order: SVU Podcast, there were tons of quotable moments, like Meloni saying bringing Bensler back together was “inevitable.”
Here’s a longer one from Mariska on whether or not Elliot’s return was a step toward happiness for Olivia:
"I mean, it’s so complex, the feelings…Because there are so many things happening at the same time. And so many feelings of everything that happens when you see somebody that you loved so much, that was your life. Who abandoned you. Who was married. That you loved..."
So, yeah. In short? Christopher Meloni, and by extension Elliot Stabler, should be in Law & Order: SVU Episode 500. How is this even controversial?
Will Chris Meloni appear as Stabler in Law & Order: SVU’s 500th episode?
This one’s a little bit more up in the air. A recent article seemed to be firmly on the side of “no, he won’t” because of what showrunner Warren Leight had to say on the subject back in June, 2021.
Here’s the direct quote from CinemaBlend:
"I would like at least part of the 500th to be [ours]…sometimes it’s nice to have it be your birthday party and not a group birthday party. It’s okay for people to come to the party, but it feels like 500 is an insane milestone. And so I would hope we have a moment to acknowledge it. Obviously, in the episode, we won’t say happy 500—but maybe I will look for a way to cheat that in."
First of all, this seems to be more of the same from someone who’s never really listened to his own star’s thoughts on how important Stabler has always been to Benson. When asked, in 2011, why the only scene that might have provided Olivia with some closure in the form of a package from Elliiot was cut, he explained:
"We’d already seen Olivia break down and be off her game. How long can your protagonist moon over a coworker?"
This remains a point of contention, even just about 10 years later. Elliot Stabler was never just a coworker to Olivia Benson. It’s impossible to explain their relationship here, but even if you weren’t someone who wanted Bensler to become a romantic partnership, failing to acknowledge the special dynamic is just that: Failing.
How could anyone think that Liv being hurt over losing all those years of opening herself up to that one person more than anyone else was just “mooning over a coworker” and dare to say it on Mariska Hargitay’s internet? Honestly, though.
But, back to the matter at hand: Leight’s comment doesn’t completely shut out the idea of Meloni as a “guest” at this 500th episode party. Gross minimizations of both Elliot Stabler’s role in Olivia Benson’s life and Chris Meloni’s importance to the very foundation of Law & Order: SVU aside, all hope is not lost. Yet.
I don’t know why anyone would be offered this great gift of having the opportunity to make the 500th episode do what neither 300 or 400 could do—give viewers, who have been invested in this partnership and this series, even the tiniest significant moment between Benson and Stabler—and turn it down. We’ll have to wait and see for something more definitive.
But for the record? We’re on the team of our Captain, the woman who had plans for the EO reunion all along and whose Instagram likes are…Well. Let’s just say whether you call it Bensler or EO, she’s got on some hidden, elite level accommodations on the ship.
What do you want to see happen in Law & Order: SVU Episode 500? Send us a comment!