‘Law & Order: SVU’ Episode 600 Keeps Fans Waiting on Benson & Stabler

Law & Order: SVU has reached a milestone that few shows have or ever will: 600 episodes. It’s easy to see why: Compelling, ripped-from-the-headlines cases, a stellar squad and supporting cast that have survived changes over the years but are led by the ever-impressive Mariska Hargitay as Captain Olivia Benson, and twists and turns that keep us tuning in each week.

What has also been a part of the show’s fabric since the beginning and remains to this day, after about a decade off, is the will they/won’t they of Benson and her former partner, Detective Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni), who’s back for the milestone. This episode just adds to the list of moments that have us, frankly, thinking that something needs to happen before one of them dies (it’s a dangerous job!). Warning: Spoilers for Law & Order: SVU Episode 600 ahead!

The latest reunion happens after Gwen (J. Smith-Cameron) alerts Benson to a man who’s been sending her letters insisting he’s innocent after being incarcerated since 1998 for the brutal rape and murder of a nun. It was one of Benson’s first cases at SVU, and Stabler wasn’t returning the jury consultant’s calls. And so Benson tracks him down to a boxing gym. He’s been off the grid and knows he owes her a few calls since they haven’t seen each other since Captain Donald Cragen’s (Dann Florek) funeral. He’s been on bereavement leave for 18 months (his brother died in Organized Crime‘s penultimate episode). When she brings up the case, however, he says he’s not wasting his time on it. When she says she wants to be there for him and be his friend, though he makes it difficult sometimes, he shocks her with, “We’re not friends.” He tries to take it back, but she leaves him with, “You’re the one that always said we right wrongs. You need to remember who you are.”

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Stabler, of course, changes his mind and joins the rest of the squad. He knows Curry (Aime Donna Kelly) was IA, and she knows all about him, which “I wouldn’t” take as a compliment, she tells him. (She’d know.) Benson was not part of the interrogation of Green, and when Gwen asks if that’s how they always did things, Stabler said he kept her out of it. But now it’s time for Benson to talk to Green, and while she’s planning to make the trip to the prison herself, Stabler joins her. “With respect, he’s not your partner anymore,” Curry remarks. “It doesn’t matter. Some partnerships don’t end. Even when they do,” Fin (Ice-T) points out.

When she calls his snoring “special,” in the car, he tells her she “sounds just like Kathy.” His mom is getting worse, sometimes there, most times not, he admits, and she was never the same after his brother. He doesn’t get why she’s captain, behind a desk, instead of out in the real world, but she points out he hasn’t exactly been doing the real work the last 18 months.

Their conversation with Green leaves them with information they overlooked in the past, including that he didn’t see any signs of forced entry — meaning it was someone at the convent — and he heard the victim arguing with someone a few nights before her murder. This won’t make things right, Stabler knows, but now the squad is on the path to the truth, with Curry and Griffin (Corey Cott) talking to the Mother Superior at the convent at the time (she claims she didn’t see or hear anything) and Benson and Stabler tracking down a former nun who’d lived there, Sandra (Laura Innes, who delivers a powerful performance in too little screen time, and an ER reunion for Hargitay).

She tells them about a priest, Father Anthony, who raped nuns — not the victim; he knew better than to, but she knew what was going on and reported it to the Mother Superior. Benson promises to get all of them justice.

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Benson and Stabler stop at a hotel for the night on their way back to the city, and for those hoping for a “there’s only one bed” situation, well, these two don’t even want to be in the same hotel as each other by the end of their conversation about the case. They never spoke to Father Anthony, and even so, Stabler says he never would’ve believed he was responsible because he’s a priest. “I’m Catholic, and my faith, I just think it blinded me. I made a mistake,” he explains.

Benson says her mistake was letting him shut her out and interrogate Green on his own. She thinks Stabler hadn’t wanted her there because she’d told him Green wasn’t right for it, but he claims not to remember that. She should’ve followed her instinct but thought he knew better. She hasn’t been holding onto this for 30 years but instead letting it go, and she suggests that’s the biggest difference between them.

“Maybe you’re right, Elliot. Maybe we’re not friends. Maybe we can’t be,” she says and walks out.

Father Anthony does turn out to be the rapist and killer, and they do get him, despite attempts to hide at a “treatment center” for priests like him. What’s more: The nun was pregnant with his child when he killed her. Green will be released as soon as the paperwork is processed, Carisi (Peter Scanavino) assures Benson.

As the captain packs up to head home to her son, Stabler admits that the case made him miss it there. She tells him she’s not hiring, but he also wouldn’t want to ruin the vibe she has going with her “great crew.” The NYPD does want him to go back to OCCB, but he’s not going to. Instead, he’s going to visit Maureen and the kids in Arizona, which he thinks could be a nice place to spend time in the winter. So, is he retiring? No, he may not know what he wants to do yet, but he’s not done.

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When she suggests that he see the Grand Canyon on his way, he asks her to join him — and he’s serious. She can’t, she says. She has Noah. Bring him, he tells her. They hug, an intimate moment, then he leans his forehead against hers and kisses the top of her head. “Goodbye, Cap,” he says before leaving her, emotional as she watches him go. Then, she looks at her squad and smiles.

This episode makes it clear that Benson is exactly where she belongs. But it also makes it clear that SVU can’t just keep playing with Benson and Stabler. The problem? Christopher Meloni is not a series regular, and after all this time, the two can’t just get together to have their relationship completely off-screen. So what do they do? It’s something we’ve been saying for years, but a decision has to be made one way or the other because the back-and-forth, slow burn of a romance stops being enjoyable after a certain point — and the one with Benson and Stabler reached that a long time ago. We’ve long passed, if not now, when?

What did you think of the milestone episode? What do you think of the latest Benson and Stabler not-yet-a-step-forward? Let us know in the comments section below.

Law & Order: SVU, Thursdays, 9/8c, NBC