Benson & Stabler Should Never Get Together

It’s been a quarter century, and as great as slow burns are, with this one, it’s time to leave the “what if?” in the past.

Law & Order: SVU and Organized Crime has had some serious misfires when it comes to this one with former partners Captain Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Detective Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni). At numerous times over the years, first when they were partners — including a time when he and his wife Kathy (Isabel Gillies) were separated — and since, it’s seemed like they were just one breath away from going there, only to take a step back and continue to draw it out. And both shows could have pulled the trigger. Elliot and Kathy could have never reunited. Benson and Stabler could have kissed. That letter (oh, that letter) could have been a bridge between his past and his present.

That missive first came up — it was something Stabler had supposedly written Benson in lieu of a speech at an awards ceremony — after Kathy’s death, which … came very much second to the former partners reuniting after 10 years. Even she couldn’t believe they hadn’t talked all that time and her husband hadn’t just been lying to her. But Kathy’s death just continued to demonstrate the inability of Law & Order to let her go (and let Stabler let her go); she’d go on to turn up as a “ghost” on Organized Crime, and on went his wedding ring once again. (At points before and after this moment? A near-kiss and a poignant gift exchange for Benson and Stabler. There’s drawing something out so the pay-off is worth it, and there’s lifting a foot to take a step and instead running a mile in the opposite direction. With these two, it always seems closer to the latter than the former.)

The letter, which had really been dictated by Kathy (let her rest in peace!), so what “he” wrote about how “what [they] were to each other was never real and that [they] got in the way of each other being who and where [they] needed to be,” along with him hoping that “if there was a man in [Benson’s] life … he’s the kind, faithful, devoted man [she] deserved” was all his wife. The part of the letter that was Stabler? “But in a parallel universe, it will always be you and I.” And it’s in that parallel universe, where hopefully it hasn’t been as messy and, at times, too awkward for two people with the maturity these two exhibit in other areas of their life that should stay. There’s legitimately being concerned about taking that next step — Benson has admitted that having the possibility of them, now that Kathy is dead, “paralyzing” — and there’s consistently putting roadblocks in place to extend the slow burn; with the way that’s been done, any fear falls under the latter.

Peter Kramer/NBC

That letter is a prime example of how terrible the build-up — with a slight improvement in the latest finales — has been since Organized Crime premiered. In addition to that, there was the extremely awkward “I love you” from Stabler to Benson when she and his kids held an intervention for him, as well as, despite what promos would have viewers think, a near-kiss after she entrusted him to bring her son Noah (Ryan Buggle) home after sending him away during a dangerous case. “I want to, but I can’t,” Benson said as she stopped them. “What if it doesn’t work out?” Furthermore, “I’m not ready for this,” she added. They’d later agree it wasn’t the right moment.

But the way that it’s been playing out, that “right moment” just doesn’t seem like it will ever come, not without a couple more, unnecessary steps back. As hard as it may be to imagine Law & Order: SVU ever ending at this point, it is going into its 25th season. Plus, the two characters are on different shows. How much time is there left to build to a relationship from where the finales left them — he was leaving for a new case — and actually show them together in the way that they and fans would deserve after all this time? It’s when the shows attempt to tease out the potential romance that the relationship suffers; other times, it’s so easy and clear to see why they’re so important to one another (Benson calls Stabler her “home” at one point) and need to be in each other’s lives.

Sure, a concern could be the often-mentioned Moonlighting curse, that putting together a will they/won’t they couple could ruin a show — with that show coming to Hulu on October 10, more people will be able to determine if that’s true there than in the past — but other procedurals have successfully done that and thrived as a result. NCIS: Los Angeles teased Kensi (Daniela Ruah) and Deeks (Eric Christian Olsen) for seasons, having them talk around what they meant to each other, before getting them together, having them get married, and eventually start a family. Blue Bloods skipped the dating part of Jamie (Will Estes) and Eddie’s (Vanessa Ray) relationship and had them surprise his family with news of their engagement; they’re still going strong. It can clearly be done. It’s just a question of can it? at this point when it comes to Benson and Stabler. Nothing so far suggests that would be easy at all.

Maybe the upcoming seasons of both — the writers’ room has opened for SVU, and Organized Crime is looking for a new showrunner — will change this. But as it is now, there might be too much ground to cover to do so properly.