Mariska Hargitay Thinks Benson and Stabler Should Get Together in SVU's Last Episode — Respectfully? Nope.

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Mariska Hargitay knows Capt. Olivia Benson better than any of us ever can or will. She has played Law & Order: SVU's big-hearted, badassed sex-crimes cop since 1999. She has seen showrunners and scene partners come, go and come back again; she has stayed the course. From the character's layered gold necklaces to her sensible-yet-stylish boots, Hargitay is Benson, and she's earned the right to have her opinions about all things SVU treated as sacrosanct.
Except for one that she puts forth in a podcast interview released today. That nonsense is way off. (Sorry, queen!) Let's talk about it.
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Hargitay is Alex Cooper's guest on this week's episode of Call Her Daddy, an interview in which the Emmy-winner promotes her feature film directorial debut: My Mom Jayne, a documentary about Hargitay's late mother, actress Jayne Mansfield. Eventually, of course, the conversation comes around to cover Hargitay's tenure at her long-running NBC procedural. After Hargitay throws some flowers Chris Meloni's way ('We are just connected. We are so close… We are so comfortable with each other. We deeply trust each other. We know, like, whatever he needs, I will always be there for him, and that's mutual'), Cooper asks about the chance of Benson and Meloni's Det. Elliot Stabler ever getting together romantically on the show. And that's when Hargitay chooses violence.
'Maybe on the last episode,' she says. 'I think that's when they should be together.' She later adds that a Liv-El relationship should only happen 'if it's right. We'll see when we get there. We are soulmates, in a way. We are. And I think that, I mean, Chris has had a profound impact on my life, my artistry. I think we've had a big impact on each other. And so Olivia and Elliot are… but let's see where the story takes us, you know?' (Listen to the podcast here, or scroll to the bottom of this post to see the video.)
With all due respect to the woman who is the heart, soul and Gloria Steinem glasses of this operation, I'm going to make like Carisi here and object so hard that my vest pops one of its dapper buttons. Wait until SVU's series finale to get Benson and Stabler together?! Nope, nope, nope.
This is not about my being an 'EO' 'shipper — though I am one. The show itself, as well as Peacock's Meloni-led Law & Order: Organized Crime, has spent seasons flirting with the idea of Elliot and Olivia being a couple. Since Meloni returned to the franchise in 2021, we've seen plenty of episodes hinting at a mutual attraction. His letter! The aftermath of the diner shooting! Liv Love Laugh! Good God, that scene in Olivia's kitchen alone!
Second, even as a 'shipper, I was not on board with their hooking up immediately after Stabler returned to the Dick Wolfpack. It wouldn't have made sense in the story. Meloni's character was grieving the murder of his wife and making some very bad, wildly unhealthy decisions. Even as recently as the aforementioned moment up against Liv's fridge, Benson made it clear that her desire to kiss him was dwarfed by her fear about what would happen if things between them didn't work out. 'I want to, but I can't,' she said, physically swaying as though her blood sugar were crashing — woman, a sweet treat was RIGHT THERE!
Meloni brought up the scene during his TVLine Spotlight conversation earlier this year. After telling me that he had 'no idea' where his character and Hargitay's are headed, smoochily speaking, he talked about how the close moment hadn't achieved what he and Hargitay had intended.
'[We are] doing the best we can to make it honest, not make it bait. If we do bait, at least for me, I always do it with a wink,' he said at the time. 'I think it's good-natured, but maybe you guys are over that. And that's valid.'
I'd argue that it doesn't have to be bait, especially given how much the two characters have grown since we first met them. A blend of age, perspective and lots of therapy has sanded down their sharper edges and made them more vulnerable, both to the world and each other. Why not try to see if those edges now fit together nicely?
But I've sung that song before. My biggest current gripe concerns this folly of pushing a Stabler/Benson relationship to the show's ultimate end: When, then, are we to BASK? Why not give interested fans the enjoyment of watching the day-to-day of a life partnership decades in the making? I'm not saying devote entire episodes to their arguing over the electric bill or anything, but a little tenderness in between the shootouts and human trafficking busts wouldn't go amiss.
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Time is a precious commodity, and who knows how much longer we've got in the Law & Orderverse? (Probably decades. This show walked among the dinosaurs and will outlive us all.) Still, it's like Billy Crystal said at the end of When Harry Met Sally…: When you realize you want two beaten-down NYPD officers with serious emotional baggage to spend the rest of their lives with each other, you want to rest of their lives to start as soon as possible.
Oh, and before I go? GOD, men and women don't always HAVE to hook up in TV shows! People can be PLATONIC friends! Why are you so obsessed with this stupid point! Get a life! If those two become a couple, I'm never watching their shows/reading TVLine/going on the Internet ever again. (I don't agree with any of that, but I figured I'd do some of you a solid and give you a paragraph you can cut and paste into the comments below. I live to serve!)
What's your take on saving 'EO' until the end, if ever? Hit the comments and let us know!
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