Law & Order: Organized Crime’s fifth season arrives in April, and viewers will soon get
to see their favorite one-time NYPD partners — Detective Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) and now-Captain Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) — together again in an upcoming episode written by Meloni himself.
And the episode just may touch upon the former partners’ steamy, long-running will they/won’t they dynamic that’s been building for years, Meloni revealed to Entertainment Weekly.
RELATED: Stabler’s Back in Action in Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5, Which Now Has a Premiere Date
In case you’ve forgotten. in one passionate scene on Season 24 of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Stabler leaned in for a kiss with Benson, but it didn’t work out exactly as viewers may have hoped it would, with Benson admitting, “I want to, but I can’t.” She added at the time, “What if if doesn’t work out?”
Here’s everything we know about the highly-anticipated reunion and whether Stabler and Benson will finally address that dramatic almost-kiss from SVU.
Will Olivia Benson appear on Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5?
Benson is set to appear in an upcoming Season 5 episode of Law & Order: Organized Crime. And if there’s one person that knows the complicated dynamic between Stabler and Benson better than anyone, it’s Meloni himself. Which is why it’s only fitting that Benson will be a central figure in the first-ever episode that Meloni has written for the franchise.
After getting some encouragement from Organized Crime Season 4 showrunner John Shiban, Meloni realized the upcoming Season 5 episode that Benson will guest on “was a good episode for me to write, because I thought I could lend insight into how Stabler and Benson engage each other,” the actor told EW.
Benson and Stabler were partners on Law & Order: SVU for more than a decade before Stabler left to fight crime overseas. Now back in New York City and having lost his wife in a car bomb explosion, Stabler’s launched his own crusade against organized crime, domestic terrorism and smuggling in Organized Crime, but his world has continued to periodically collide with Benson’s.
“I thought I could bring greater value, because I just know them,” Meloni added of writing the pair’s latest crossover episode.
For years on SVU, Benson and Stabler’s relationship was strictly professional, but after the death of Stabler’s wife Kathy (Isabel Gillies), the former NYPD partners have found themselves in uncharted territory in recent years — and many fans couldn’t be happier.
In one jaw-dropping moment in Season 24, Episode 12 of SVU, titled “Blood Out,” the building romantic tension between the pair nearly reached a fever pitch as they came close to a passionate kiss before Benson pulled away and confessed she was “not ready.”
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Benson admitted that she was afraid that moving to the next level in their relationship could ruin the close bond they already shared if it didn’t work out between them.
Since then, some fans of the franchise have been craving for more — and they just may get something to tide them over in the upcoming crossover episode of Organized Crime.
Will Benson and Stabler address their almost-kiss?
Meloni told EW that the upcoming Organized Crime crossover episode will touch on “the confused or gray nature of Benson and Stabler’s emotional connection.”
But he cautioned that it may not be the big moment fans have been waiting for.
“It’s touched on. I wouldn’t say teased upon, but touched,” he told EW. “It’s touched on.”
While patient fans have been waiting decades for this slow-burning love connection to play out, there’s good reason to be optimistic.
Last year, Hargitay told Variety that both actors are hoping to share more scenes together and are eager to see where their characters’ relationship could be heading.
“It’s time now for us,” she said. “This was a long time not being in each other’s universe.”
RELATED: Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5: Everything To Know
When Season 5 of Law & Order: Organized Crime premieres
Season 5 of Organized Crime kicks off Thursday, April 17, 2025 on Peacock and will have all the same pulse-pounding drama fans have come to know and love.
“Season 5 explores the dangerous worlds of cross-border smuggling, high-tech domestic terrorism and a crime family intent on repaying Stabler for the injury he did them in Rome,” an official synopsis of the show reads. “As his worlds collide, Stabler will put everything on the line to protect the vulnerable and fight for justice.”
Stabler will be joined in his fight against crime by Det. Bobby Reyes (Rick Gonzalez), Det. Jet Sllotmaekers (Ainsley Seiger), and Sgt. Ayanna Bell (Danielle Moné Truitt).
To catch up on all the past drama or to reacquaint yourself with Benson and Stabler’s complex relationship, stream past episodes of both SVU and Organized Crime now on Peacock.
