Law & Order: SVU Hits 600th Episode as Stabler Reopens 1998 Case
Law & Order: SVU reached its 600th episode with Christopher Meloni's Elliot Stabler returning to the squad. The episode, titled Obedience, reopens a 1998 nun murder case and tests the old partnership with Mariska Hargitay's Olivia Benson. Showrunner Michele Fazekas explains the milestone. Spoilers ahead.
Law & Order: SVU has reached its 600th episode, and it marks the occasion by sending Christopher Meloni's Elliot Stabler back to the Special Victims Unit to reopen a 1998 murder case. The episode is titled "Obedience." Spoilers follow.
Only two scripted primetime shows have ever reached the number: The Simpsons and Gunsmoke have more episodes. The cast and crew marked the occasion with a cake on set during filming and a dinner afterward, then went back to work.
A case from Benson's early days
Jury consultant Gwen Sharpe (J. Smith-Cameron) persuades Captain Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) to look again at an old case. A man has been in prison since 1998 for the rape and murder of a young nun. Gwen believes he is innocent.
Benson tracks Stabler down at a boxing gym. He has been on bereavement leave for 18 months after his brother died. He first refuses to touch the case and tells her, "We're not friends," then tries to take it back.
Benson answers: "You're the one that always said we right wrongs. You need to remember who you are." Stabler joins the squad anyway.
His reluctance has a cause. He failed to follow a couple of leads that could have pointed to the real culprit, a now-retired priest who led mass at the convent where the victim lived. He also kept Benson out of the original interrogation. She went along with it then because she was new to the squad.
When Stabler asks why she wants to dig the case up, she retorts, "Why aren't you?" Detective Fin (Ice-T) tells a skeptical colleague that "some partnerships don't end. Even when they do."
The pair travel upstate to question people who knew the victim. Guest stars include Laura Innes, who plays a former nun, and Kathleen Chalfant. They also try to track down the priest.
What the showrunner says
Showrunner Michele Fazekas wrote the episode, and Brenna Malloy directed it. Fazekas, who worked on the show in seasons three through seven, said she wanted "an old school Benson and Stabler episode" that also looks at who the two have become. She pitched it as a road trip, with the pair stuck in a car and hashing things out.
She said she had ideas for the milestone early in the season, starting with the question of whether Meloni could return. Meloni's availability had to line up first.
Fazekas kept the anniversary in perspective. "That's just doing television," she said. "It's our 600th episode, but it's also just an episode within 21 episodes [this season]."
The 600th is the sixth episode of season 28. Fifteen more are still to come.
