Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: The Unofficial Companion (12 page)

BOOK: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: The Unofficial Companion

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Christopher Meloni, Gail Barringer, and executive producer Amanda Green clown around on the set of season eight’s “Scheherazade.”

Script-wise, periodic wit certainly helps viewers digest unsettling sequences, as well as complex moral and legal issues.

In “Birthright,” a season six episode written by Jonathan Greene, when Detective Munch refers to a van ferrying suspected serial sex offenders as “their very own perpmobile,” it’s a small moment that goes a long way. Ditto for the line that Star Morrison (played by Marcia Gay Harden) is given for Dawn DeNoon’s “Informed” in season eight, as Stabler tosses a soda can in the trash: “You keep doing that and the eco-terrorists win.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

WILL THEY OR WON’T THEY?

A
persistent question on the minds of ardent
SVU
viewers brings a range of answers from those most closely associated with the characters: What’s with the personal feelings between police partners Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson?

Enticing clues have been introduced over the years, reaching a peak with several key developments during season eight. On “Infiltrated,” after being knocked unconscious she wakes up muttering his first name (“Elliot . . . Elliot . . .”). Meanwhile, separated from his wife, he’s messing around with Benson’s temporary replacement (played by Connie Nielsen) in “Underbelly” and “Cage.” By “Annihilated,” a glimpse of detective rear-end is a clue that Stabler may be trying to rekindle his marriage.

Flash forward to season nine and “Paternity,” in which Benson helps deliver the recently reunited Stablers’ newborn amidst a car-crash scene. Many fans were looking for signs in the postpartum hug between Stabler and Benson at the hospital.

Perhaps father knows best. Listen to Christopher Meloni, whose family-man Stabler never quite comes to terms with his feelings for perpetually single Benson: “I’m the man in her life. I’m the solid guy, maybe the shoulder to cry on,” he says. “It was very interesting, you know, when she delivers my wife’s baby. We’re rehearsing the scene, and I said, ‘Guys, I have to hug her. This is the only time this is going to happen, this is the only opportunity where I will initiate physical contact with this woman.’ . . . That to me was the crux. Why? What comes (out) is ‘Thank you.’ Not ‘I love you.’”

And Mariska Hargitay is fine with that. “(Stabler is) her rock, her protector. Olivia has never had anyone to protect her . . . He’s the one who makes her feel safe and loved. He puts his life on the line to keep her safe. . . . No other man measures up to him. But I absolutely do not think we should be together romantically. That would be a different show. It’s not this show.”

The guy whose job it is to keep a finger on the pulse of the fan base weighs in. “The writers keep it interesting with sexual tension,” surmises Mike Ciliento, who assists the show’s line producer and administers the
SVU
blog on NBC’s website. “When he hugged her after the car accident, the next day the blogs were flying. All that personal stuff is a way to take the weight off the show’s darkness. The (NBC) blog has opened my eyes to what the audience wants—they want Chris and Mariska to get together.”

And probably none more so than “livi_wells,” an excited
SVU
romantic who posted this (verbatim) plea on
fanpop.com
: “ELLIOT AND OLIVIA BELONG TOGETHER!!!!!!!!!!!!dont you think?i meen.......they make a very,very,very cute cuple!and it would be great for the show!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!and the way they look at each other in the show!!!!!!!but if they dont i will dieeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!”

Alas. Even with this spelling-challenged girl’s life in the balance, it’s highly unlikely Dick Wolf—who named the characters after two of his children, Elliot and Olivia—would budge. “
SVU
is a procedural crime series and not a soap opera,” he insists. “There is tremendous chemistry between the characters, but they are working partners, not sexual partners.”

But let some other experts speculate about where these two star-crossed detectives may be headed:

“Early on, we tried to figure out the nature of their relationship,” says former
SVU
writer Jeff Eckerle. “Were they antagonistic? Did they have animosities? Jealousies? We wanted to get away from their home lives to reveal character through their work. It was an unspoken idea that they were professionals. Let’s not turn this into a soap opera.”

Co-executive producer Amanda Green has a slightly different take: “I think that a partnership between two cops is about as intimate a relationship as you can get. . . . So what does that mean for men and women that work together in those situations every day? There’s something they share that they don’t share with others. In some ways Stabler has two wives.”

Peter Leto, an episode director, has much the same opinion. “She and Stabler are a married couple, of sorts,” he says.

But supervising producer Judith McCreary demurs. “I’ve written a backstory for Benson and Stabler that hasn’t really been shared much with the others,” she points out. “They have been intimate and will always be intimate. That’s how I play them. That’s how I like them.”

Cops, she adds, spend more time with their partners than with their families. “The adrenaline’s pumping. It’s a recipe. On
SVU
, I wanted this to be the subtext, the undercurrent, not just ordinary sexual tension. Mariska and Chris laugh at me when I tell them about this. Their characters love each other.”

And there may a psychological
ménage à trois
, in McCreary’s view. “Stabler’s wife is resigned she will never really have him to herself. . . . To me, his family’s immaterial. His wife’s a bit player. He’s miserable without Benson. I always see them as incredibly intimate in every single way.”

Not so fast. According to Michele Fazekas, an
SVU
writer in seasons three through seven, “their work is more important than their feelings for each other. In some scenes, she’s more vulnerable. In another, it’s him. They do get jealous about each other. That’s fun to play with. Just a hint of a romantic dynamic. The actors like to play with that as well.”

Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni

Her writing partner, Tara Butters, has the same belief: “I’ve always believed their love was genuine. They’d die for each other and that superseded the sexual stuff.”

Co-executive producer Dawn DeNoon is among the contingent that thinks the duo will never engage in hanky-panky. “I remember being shocked when Neal Baer allowed (the Stablers) to separate,” she says. “I do see that, as much as he loves Benson, she’s the one who’s still looking for the love of her life; he’s found it. . . . Dick would never allow that. It goes back to the
Moonlighting
(ABC, 1985- 89) curse. As soon as you get them together, the show’s over.”

Former
SVU
scribe Patrick Harbinson: “It’s sublimated love, no question at all. They’ve never had sex and never will. The series would be over. But it’s a good way to end it when the time comes. . . . Connie Nielsen gave the show an excuse to look at Stabler and Benson in love, but through a surrogate.”

Executive producer Ted Kotcheff: “If Benson and Stabler had sex, they realize their police partnership would be over. When he and Connie Nielsen kissed, we were deluged with angry mail: ‘How could you allow Stabler to betray Benson?’ Will they ever get together? It’s impossible. We’ve shown him to be a devout Catholic. But we’ve gone through so many boyfriends with her and not one of them worked out. So maybe that’s what interferes with her being involved for long with other men.”

As season ten was about to start, showrunner Neal Baer could predict the future. “They do not have sex but they will be in a compromising position,” he says.

During an episode titled “Wildlife,” Stabler goes undercover for a sting. He’s in a motel room being watched by thugs who warn him not to have contact with anyone else, but Benson comes there to talk with him about something. When the criminals burst in to confront him, she comes out of the bathroom in panties and a bra, pretending to be a prostitute. “We like a little touch (of sexuality) every so often,” Baer notes.

Season ten cast, from l.-r.: Tamara Tunie (Dr. Melinda Warner), Richard Belzer (Sgt. Det. John Munch), Ice-T (Det. Odafin Tutuola), Mariska Hargitay (Det. Olivia Benson), Christopher Meloni (Det. Elliot Stabler), Dann Florek (Capt. Don Cragen), Michaela McManus (ADA Kim Greylek), B.D. Wong (Dr. George Huang)