Am I being dramatic when I say that the reunion of the century is happening on April 1st, 2021? Probably, but I don’t care.
Law and Order: SVU is hands down my favorite show of all time. Although for reasons I cannot understand, none of my friends feel the same, so because of that, I am going to pour all of my excitement into all of you who are reading this right now.
Olivia Benson, who is played by the extremely talented (like so talented I can’t wrap my head around it), Mariska Hargitay, and Elliot Stabler, who is played by the just-as talented Chris Meloni, will be back on screen together after 11 years. Meloni left SVU at the end of Season 12 after contract negotiations fell through, leaving Hargitay to continue the success of the series without her partner in crime (but I mean, she obviously did an incredible job, considering the show is now on its 22nd season).
Although Hargitay is absolutely exceptional as the leading lady on the show, I definitely miss the chemistry between the two partners and I am seriously counting down the days until April 1st. Back in March of 2020, we learned that Meloni was going to get his own L&O spinoff called Law and Order: Organized Crime in early 2021. The series is going to feature several crossovers with SVU so that Benson and Stabler can finally be back together, delighting fans all over the world. Now the time has finally come, and Meloni’s show is set to premiere Thursday, April 1st., immediately following his return on SVU an hour earlier.
Both Hargitay and Meloni have already teased photos of themselves on set together for the first time at SVU and OC, building anticipation for the long-awaited reunion of the characters.
Okay, but why is there so much anticipation for the return? I’ll tell you why. Olivia Benson is a strong, fearless boss woman who has never had much luck in her relationships. Elliot Stabler is one of the only constants that she has had in her life, of course, until he left. She even says to Elliot in the episode ‘Burned’ in Season 8, “..you’re the longest relationship I’ve ever had with a man.” This is one of many quotes throughout the series that gives fans a sense of the tension between the two characters that shows their unspoken desire to form more than a friendship.
They are partners in crime, but it’s obvious that they are so much more than that, even though we never got to outright witness an actual relationship between the two, probably because Stabler was married throughout most of the 12 seasons. So, the anticipation is seriously at an all-time high, because we need to find out where Elliot has been, if he has or hasn’t kept in touch with Olivia after all these years, and what their relationship is going to look like in the future.
To say I am excited is quite frankly an understatement, considering the fact that I have been waiting for this since I first became obsessed with the show back in 2014. Anyways, yay!