The brand new season of Regulation & Order: Organized Crime is the primary under Breaking Bad alum John Shiban as showrunner, and the early episodes up to now have delved additional into Elliot Stabler’s household historical past than each season of OC and SVU that got here earlier than, which… says loads, contemplating how lengthy Christopher Meloni has been within the Regulation & Order universe! As any individual who watched him in his SVU run lengthy earlier than OC was even a rumor, I’ve been having fun with seeing extra of the Stabler household, but in addition questioning if OC is rewriting a little bit of the character’s historical past in gentle of simply how a lot we’re studying this season.
So, to fulfill that curiosity, I revisited the 2 episodes of SVU that I believe shed probably the most gentle on Stabler’s household past Kathy and the children, to see what the present truly advised us about his dad and mom. First, although, let’s take a look at the newest from OC!
What Organized Crime Instructed Us About Stabler’s Household In Season 4
Earlier seasons of OC pressured Stabler to have a look at his dad’s time within the NYPD in another way, and the 2024 TV schedule has been delivering peeks into his household previous with some further screentime for Bernie (Ellen Burstyn) in addition to the arrivals of older brother Randall (Dean Norris) and youthful brother Joe Jr. (Michael Trotter). Bernie’s continued reminiscence issues resulted in hints about her husband’s impropriety, after which “The Final Supper” on February 8 turned every little thing the other way up at a household dinner.
Bernie determined that it was time to disclose that Randall hadn’t left dwelling willingly all these years in the past, however she had kicked him out after he had known as Inner Affairs and ratted his dad out. Randall picked up the story and revealed that Joe Stabler Sr. had been beating Bernie nightly, in spots the place the bruises wouldn’t present. It was an unpleasant scene that ended with Randall on the ground and Elliot’s grandkids being ushered out of the home, however an essential scene.
Later, after the dinner broke up and tempers had cooled between the 2 Stabler oldest brothers, Randall revealed that he’d gone to their sisters in Florida after being kicked out, but in addition purchased bus tickets for his or her mother if she wished to depart their father.
So, as of the tip of “The Final Supper,” Joe Sr. has been established as bodily and emotionally abusive past what Elliot knew as a child, since Bernie had hidden it from him. Nonetheless, the wonderful scene between the Stablers and all the brand new household particulars nagged at me a bit as a longtime SVU followers, and there have been two episodes that I went again to have a look at to examine if OC was rewriting historical past: “Ripped” from Season 7 and “Swing” from Season 10.
Regulation & Order: SVU Season 7, Episode 4 – “Ripped”
“Ripped” aired on NBC again in 2005 and was one among a number of SVU episodes that confirmed what can occur when Stabler takes a case too personally. It was additionally the uncommon episode that noticed Stabler opening as much as assist, looking for steerage from a therapist performed by Mary Stuart Masterson. (The episode additionally featured future The Vampire Diaries star Paul Wesley.)
Talking with Dr. Hendrix, Stabler recounted a time in his childhood when his dad helped him make a Civil Warfare diorama for a mission. On the floor, there didn’t appear to be a lot to the story past a father serving to his son together with his homework, however the physician did slightly little bit of digging to get Stabler to elaborate. He lastly defined that he acquired an F on the mission, saying:
I didn’t hand it in… I moved one of many timber, and my father noticed it as I used to be leaving for college. He took it out of my arms, and he threw it on the bottom and he stomped on it… He took off his belt and he beat me with it as a result of I cried, and solely pansies cry. He stated I used to be weak and known as me a failure. Known as me that loads.
It was clear in “Ripped” that his father calling him a failure and weak continued to have an effect on him nicely into his maturity, and Dr. Hendrix commented that it “takes much more balls to speak about your issues than beat the hell out of a ghost.” In fact, the episode that aired in 2005 was hardly the debut of a kinder, gentler Stabler with the self-awareness to cease taking circumstances personally, but it surely shed some gentle on his previous.
I had truly remembered the incident between Elliot and his dad over the diorama, however rewatching the scene with my Peacock Premium subscription after watching “The Final Supper” made it hit slightly tougher this time. Nothing concerning the OC episode rewrote what the character confessed again in Season 7; if something, it established the precedent for Joe Sr. being set off by little issues.
Regulation & Order: SVU Season 10, Episode 3 – “Swing”
“Swing” debuted on NBC again in 2008, and it was the primary episode that featured Bernie Stabler, with Ellen Burstyn incomes the Emmy for Excellent Visitor Actress in a Drama for her efficiency. The case of the week concerned Kathleen Stabler, who broke right into a home because of beforehand undiagnosed psychological well being points. The case prompted Stabler to go to his estranged mom, who had been residing with bipolar dysfunction for so long as he might keep in mind.
He didn’t make a lot progress in convincing his mother to talk to Kathleen, and he or she flat-out tried to disclaim what her son described as “temper swings” and “loopy concepts,” even when he cited particular examples. Together with his concentrate on Kathleen, he did not actually notice when Bernie stated that her Macy’s card was the one sort of bank card his father would let her have, or her rationalization of why she’d go to mattress for a month each time Joe Sr. introduced her again. She stated:
As a result of I used to be upset! As a result of he was all the time attempting to crush my goals!… You are identical to your father. All buttoned up. No creativeness, no spirit. If something is just a bit out of the abnormal, it scares you to loss of life, does not it? Something that does not match into your neat little bins, you simply cannot take it.
That not solely is not contradicted by Organized Crime Season 4, however is extra heartbreaking trying again now! There have been loads of feedback about Joe Jr.’s failures as a husband and father in “Swing,” coming from Bernie, Elliot, and even Benson from what she’d heard. The main target was extra on Bernie than Joe about why Elliot had “erased his childhood,” and it shed extra gentle on Stabler’s previous than I remembered.
Do I believe that all the backstory that has been revealed in Organized Crime was already deliberate again when SVU debuted Bernie and hinted about Stabler’s childhood? Undoubtedly not, however I do not suppose OC has contradicted something that was revealed in Christopher Meloni’s earlier collection. I am truly stunned by how nicely the 2 exhibits match in the case of his historical past, contemplating greater than 15 years handed between SVU Season 10 and OC Season 4!
Plus, I respect that Organized Crime lastly shed some extra gentle on the Stabler sisters. Not loads, however we do know now that they’re named Sharon and Dee and lived in Florida at one level. Solely time will inform if OC has extra to say concerning the sisters, but it surely appears secure to say that Season 4 isn’t completed with the household drama. Elliot and Randall aren’t shopping for Joe Jr.’s story about his dishonorable discharge from the military, and Randall dropped a touch about one thing silly that their father had executed. He didn’t elaborate when his brother pressed him for particulars, saying “that’s a saga for one more night time.” One other Thursday night time, maybe?
New episodes of Regulation & Order: Organized Crime air on Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET on NBC, following Regulation & Order: SVU at 9 p.m. and Regulation & Order at 8 p.m. OC and SVU have kept some nice continuity in 2024, whereas L&O stays largely separate because it prepares to say goodbye to Sam Waterston as Jack McCoy. If you wish to revisit the “Swing” and “Ripped” episodes of SVU to see Stabler’s backstory for your self, you could find them streaming by way of Hulu subscription and/or Peacock subscription.
