I Rewatched Law And Order: SVU's Gang Attack On Olivia Benson, And One Thing Still Makes No Sense From That Storyline
Law & Order: SVU may not be back in primetime with new episodes just yet, but NBC is still delivering the "DUN DUN" with reruns. The repeats inspired me to revisit one of the most unforgettable episodes of Season 24: "Jumped In," the winter premiere that kicked off the gang arc for Benson after she was brutally attacked in front of Noah. It was the episode that introduced Bruno and Churlish, showed the immediate aftermath of Rollins' departure, teamed Benson up with Duarte, and kicked off a rare SVU ongoing arc. It also made zero sense in a very specific way involving Elliot Stabler when it first aired early this year, and still makes no sense today after revisiting it.
Why can I take issue with an Elliot Stabler situation when Christopher Meloni wasn't even in "Jumped In," and barely in the gang arc at all? Well, let's start at the beginning... although not quite as far back as The Letter.
What Happened In "Jumped In" And The Gang Arc
As SVU fans may remember, "Jumped In" revealed that Olivia's actions in putting some BX9 gang members behind bars came back to haunt her. She was attacked outside her building and could have been killed if she hadn't gotten a shot off at one of the offenders. The good captain was then on a mission to get Oscar Papa after he ordered the hit, but catching him would be no easy task. It was the first of a three-episode arc that involved Benson teaming up with Duarte in the Bronx, and I was flashing back to the whole three-parter in my rewatch via Peacock Premium subscription. It just reminded me all over again about why I started to speculate that SVU and Organized Crime weren't on the same page early this year.
Because where in Dick Wolf's TV universe was Elliot Stabler while this whole disaster was unfolding?! While SVU never explicitly said that Benson was expecting him in "Jumped In," I can't be the only one who thought then and still thinks now that there was more to her disappointment in being greeted by McGrath and Duarte than just that they were... well, McGrath and Duarte.
Mariska Hargitay's performance made me think that Benson was hoping to see Stabler. On first watch back in January, I'd cut off-screen Stabler a break at first, since it was possible that nobody had thought to tell him that his former partner had been attacked by gang members. After all, a lot was happening, and he's not known for keeping cool when she's at risk.
But I just can't overlook the fact that when Kate Dixon crossed over to SVU from Law & Order to pitch in as an ASL translator, she told Benson that she'd heard what happened. And if Kate Dixon heard the news from her position on the L&O show with the weakest connections to the other two, how could Elliot Stabler not have heard? It's not like nobody at the NYPD knows that they were partners for a long time; Benson has been called out on it. Even if Benson or Fin didn't call him, I can't justify how Stabler wouldn't have known. He wasn't even deep undercover at that point like he was in previous seasons!
Is It A Plot Hole Or A Nitpick?
Okay, yes, I knew while watching "Jumped In" this time that SVU was slowly but surely building to the big near-miss kiss for Benson and Stabler at the end of the arc. The moment that infuriated Benson/Stabler shippers happened after Stabler eventually turned up and asked her why she hadn't called him, which meant that SVU was establishing that he simply didn't find out until she rang him up to go retrieve Noah. I know the canon answer to the question of where Elliot Stabler was during Olivia Benson's traumatic ordeal.
But it still makes as little sense to me in October of 2023 as it did in January of 2023. Seriously, how could he not have found out, if Kate Dixon did?! An NYPD captain being attacked outside of her home would be huge news, and surely someone who knew even a tiny bit about their history would have told him. It wasn't a secret. Even if it was feasible that Stabler wasn't privy to the same grapevine as Benson since she outranks him, Bell would have heard and certainly told him.
Plus, SVU wouldn't even need Christopher Meloni on set to establish that Elliot knew about the attack and was concerned. That's what one-sided phone calls and texts are for on TV! Regardless of the canonical answer that he was just in the dark, I still think it's a plot hole that he didn't know and not just nitpicking.
Does The Gang Arc Still Work?
Am I being a little melodramatic about this, especially considering that Benson and Stabler ended the 2022-2023 season on much better terms than they'd been on since before he ghosted her for a decade? Sure, and being mad at Elliot Stabler has never stopped me from watching and enjoying both SVU and Organized Crime. But rewatching "Jumped In" and being reminded of the arc just made me realize that I'm never not going to see it as a plot hole that Stabler didn't know about the attack.
That said, I really did enjoy this arc. I warmed up to Duarte as a foil for Benson, especially after actor Maurice Compte's comments about the characters' dynamic. Unfortunately, Duarte was brutally killed off not too long after I warmed up to him in a scene that I'm still surprised could air in the 9 p.m. ET hour on network television, but such is the risk to any guest star in the Law & Order universe. On the whole, I'm glad that I rewatched the episode and will probably queue up the next ones in the not-too-distant future. And honestly, my biggest takeaway other than still thinking Stabler being MIA makes no sense is probably just that I miss SVU.
Fortunately, the end of the WGA writers strike means that the writers rooms can reopen for the Law & Order franchise. Filming can't begin until the end of the SAG-AFTRA actors strike, but I think we can start to hope that maybe SVU could come back with an episode or two before the end of the year. For now, fans can always revisit past seasons streaming with a Peacock Premium subscription and/or Hulu subscription.
