Spoilers ahead for Episode 18 of Law & Order: SVU, called “Bubble Wrap.”
Law & Order: SVU brought in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and Doctor Who alum Michelle Gomez for the latest episode to play a murderously overbearing mother with a seriously twisted relationship with her son, and her character’s dynamic with Benson included an exchange that delivered what may have been a hint about the Special Victims captain’s future. With the finale presumably approaching soon, I have to wonder if it was a hint that will lead to something in the not-too-distant future.
Connie, played by Michelle Gomez, confronted Benson early in the episode when she was trying to find a way to get Manhattan’s SVU to stop the investigation into her and her son. After mentioning the gang case and Benson going all-out following the attack on her and Noah, Connie commented on the SVU scandal in the Bronx and said:
You are at the end of your career. You can’t afford to live like you’re slipping. You’re sacrificing my son to keep your reputation intact.
Now, this isn’t the first time that SVU has touched on the idea that Benson is getting to a point that she could retire from the job, and it would be hard to blame her character for getting out of the life of investigating especially heinous and vicious felonies after more than two decades. That said, Benson hasn’t shown interest in leaving her job, and she all but scoffed at Connie mentioning the end of her career. Just last week, she revealed what she wants from her unit.
Plus, Stabler over on Law & Order: Organized Crime is older than Benson and has been part of the NYPD for longer thanks to the reveal that he’d been working as a detective off-screen in Rome, and OC doesn’t regularly drop clues about him being at the end of his career. At the same time, I can’t ignore the fact that there was a mention of Benson’s future when only a limited number of episodes are left in Season 24, and as noted, I couldn’t blame her if she decided she was done.
Not only did her work in SVU lead to her being brutally attacked in front of her son and Noah’s life being threatened, but she lost Rollins from the unit and hasn’t been able to straighten out her feelings about Stabler, which seems to involve no small amount of stress for her. Plus, every episode seems to show that Fin is perfectly capable of stepping up as leader of Manhattan’s SVU. Ice-T has said that he doesn’t have any intention of leaving.
I’m definitely not saying that Benson is going to leave Special Victims or that Mariska Hargitay is leaving SVU, but I will say that I won’t be surprised if this is a plot point that will be revisited in or by the Season 24 finale. SVU (along with Law & Order and Organized Crime) hasn’t yet been renewed for the 2023-2024 TV season, so hopefully news on that front will come sooner rather than later.
For now, new episodes of Law & Order: SVU will continue airing on Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on NBC, in between Law & Order (which rarely explores a certain storyline that a star would like to see more of) at 8 p.m. and Organized Crime at 10 p.m. All three shows are also available streaming with a Peacock Premium subscription, if you want a Law & Order blast from the past.
