‘Law & Order: SVU’: Mariska Hargitay Makes Bold Admission About Olivia’s Feelings for Elliot

Law & Order: SVU star Mariska Hargitay recently made a bold admission about her character Olivia Benson’s feelings for Organized Crime’s Elliot Stabler, played by Christopher Meloni, and fans are going to want to hear this. During an appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show, Hargitay opened up about the romantic tension between the two old friends.”He is free, and I think he’s got eyes for me,” Hargitay said, referencing the death of Stabler’s wife in the first season of Law and Order: Organized Crime. “But Olivia Benson is hurt!”

Hargity continued, “I mean, he left me in a lurch for 10 years. She’s frightened.” The Emmy-winning actress then added, “The energy’s there. Olivia’s been in love with him for many a year.” Organized Crime is the newest Law & Order series, spinning out of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and featuring the return of Meloni as Elliot Stabler, a former SVU detective. In Season 1 of the new series, Stabler aimed to take down figures involved in large-scale crime, while also searching for his wife’s killer. In Season 2, Stabler and Benson have seemed to be dancing around the underlying attraction between them, and Meloni previously revealed that that there will be a “riot” when the letter Stabler wrote to Benson is finally revealed. 

TV Line reported that Meloni was speaking during a Q&A at New York’s 92nd Street Y in September, and when asked about the potentially plot-shattering correspondence, he replied, “The letter is addressed this season and I think [fans are] going to set [their] heads on fire when it happens.” He added, “I think there’s going to be a riot.” Meloni went on to address the letter further, sharing that only “parts” of the elusive message will be “doled out to the audience.” 

He elaborated, “You’re going to hear what’s in the letter. Maybe not the full and total [letter], but you’re going to get an earful.” The beloved actor also revealed that he did some script work this season, helping the writers with elements of “the Benson and Stabler” scenes. He explained that this was in order to add more “specificity” to his character, which he’s played for more than a decade, total. “I have an advantage,” he said, “because I know instinctively what Stabler would say.” New episodes of Organized Crime air Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET, following Specials Victims Unit, on NBC.