'Law & Order: Organized Crime': Stabler Reveals the Truth Behind the Letter to Benson

By Daniel S. Levine

At the start of the second hour of Law & Order: Organized Crime Thursday night, Det. Elliot Stabler finally revealed the truth behind the letter he gave Capt. Olivia Benson when he returned to New York from Rome last season. (Spoilers follow!) The contents of the letter remained a complete mystery until now, and it's still possible there could be some unanswered questions because Stabler's revelations came while he was on drugs. He showed up at Benson's door after a night of partying with the Albanian gang he is investigating undercover.

At first, Benson (Mariska Hargitay) wanted Stabler (Christopher Meloni) to focus because she knew he was clearly under the influence of a drug. She told him he needed to get to a hospital, but he wanted her to let him into her apartment. Stabler said he felt he needed to go to her to talk about what happened between them personally, not about what happened in Thursday's episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Benson insisted now was not the time to have that discussion until he suddenly said he didn't write the letter!

Benson was shocked. Stabler, still slurring his words, said his wife Kathy Stabler wrote the letter, even though Stabler previously told Benson he did. Stabler insisted Kathy dictated the letter. It was her idea. In the letter, Stabler wrote (or at least, Benson thought Stabler wrote) that what they were to each other was "never real" and they only got in each others' way of being who and where they needed to be. This was all Kathy's idea, Stabler said.

There was still one part of the letter that Stabler wrote. "In a parallel universe..." Benson began. "It will always be you and I. I wrote that," Stabler said. "I slipped it in there before sealing the envelope." Stabler then keeled over and Benson rushed to catch him. He put his hand on her head. There was then a cut to Stabler shirtless in bed the next morning. He woke up in Sgt. Ayanna Bell's (Danielle Moné Truitt) home, and was frustrated when he realized that.

Scroll on to see how the shocking revelations played among SVU fans. Law & Order: SVU airs Thursdays on NBC at 8 p.m. ET, with Organized Crime following. 

'All of the hype for the letter...'

"All of the hype for the letter just for his a— not even to be the writer of it," one viewer wrote.

'Kinda messed up...'

"Kinda messed up that Benson would have NEVER put Stabler's marriage or family in jeopardy and Stabler abandoned everything and everyone he ever knew and yet Kathy still felt the need to hurt Benson and pull that nonsense with the letter," one fan wrote. Many were frustrated with Kathy being behind the letter, while others wondered why Stabler still gave the letter to Liv after Kathy was killed.

'I need more on this'

"So I'm gonna need a letter scene where stabler is coherent. To find out if he knew what Kathy wrote etc," a skeptical viewer tweeted.

'Some powerful acting'

"Imagine the whiplash Liv was going thru she read that letter gaslighting her, then Elliot tells her he loves her, then he wants her to leave him alone, then he's her wedding date, then he ghosts her, then he shows up at her apt drugged and says it was always them?" one concerned fan wondered.

'Let them kiss already'

"All the hype just for that?!!! You've gotta be kidding me! For gods sake just let them kiss already lol," one fan wrote.

'My man!'

"The problem is, because of the drugs, he doesn't remember telling her he wrote that. The ball is in Liv's court now," one fan noted.

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