‘Law & Order: SVU’: Elliot Stabler Finally Explains Why He Never Said Goodbye to Olivia Benson

In what was a reunion for the ages, a lot was going on in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Thursday night with Christopher Meloni playing Elliot Stabler for the first time in 10 years. This meant Stabler had some explaining to do when he finally reunited with Mariska Hargitay‘s Olivia Benson. One of the long-running mysteries of SVU for the past decade was why Stabler never said goodbye to Benson. That was finally answered in last night’s episode, “Return of the Prodigal Son,” which you can watch on Hulu with a free trial.

The episode centered on the bombing of a car Stabler and his wife Kathy (Isabel Gillies) rented when they returned to New York. Kathy was in the car when the bomb went off, and she later died of her injuries. It is her death that inspires Stabler to take a new job with the NYPD that keeps him in the Big Apple. For the past decade, Stabler was abroad, first working on private security and then joining a terrorism task force. For the past four years, he lived in Rome as an international liaison for the NYPD. The SVU team found that Stabler was the original target and it all may have been connected to the men Stabler was in New York to testify against.

Amid all this, Stabler and Benson hashed out some of the unresolved personal issues between them. Stabler apologized for both leaving and not telling Benson about his decision. “You walked away,” Benson told him, revealing that Cragan was the one to tell her about Stabler’s decision. “You were the single most important person in my life, and you just… disappeared,” Benson said. “I know,” Stabler said. “I was afraid… If I heard your voice, I wouldn’t be able to leave.”

Benson’s boss, Deputy Chief Garland (Demore Barnes) needed an explanation on why Stabler left. This forced Benson to recount the last moments of the Season 12 finale. Stabler retired suddenly after he shot and killed a 16-year-old girl who brought a gun to the squad room. She also confirmed that she never spoke with Stabler after he left the force.

The SVU episode ended when the NYPD Intelligence took over the case from the SVU team, leading right into the first Organized Crime episode. In the beginning, Benson met with Stabler to hand over the files at a park, where Stabler met Noah. Stabler began talking about Rome as if he expected the relationship between himself and Benson to thaw suddenly, but Benson made it clear that she couldn’t do that. Stabler then gave her a note he wrote to her, which he said she could open later.

The real-world explanation for Meloni leaving SVU was reportedly a contract dispute when Season 12 ended. When Season 13 began, Meloni was nowhere to be found and his exit was simply explained through dialogue. SVU will be back next Thursday at 9 p.m. ET, with a new Organized Crime episode following at 10 p.m. ET. Although Stabler will be busy on his own show, Stabler is expected to appear on more SVU episodes.