Elliot Stabler
Elliot Stabler Sr. is a fictional character, played by Christopher Meloni and one of the lead characters on the NBC police procedural series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Law & Order: Organized Crime.
Stabler was a lead for the first 12 seasons of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. As a result of Meloni's sudden departure from the cast at the end of the SVU twelfth season, Stabler abruptly retires from the police force off-screen during the SVU Season 13 premiere. In April 2020, it was announced that Meloni would reprise the role for a new SVU-spinoff series, where Stabler comes out of retirement to lead an NYPD organized crime task force. The series was later revealed to be titled Law & Order: Organized Crime.
Synopsis
Stabler was an NYPD detective 1st Grade with Manhattan's Special Victims Unit, which investigates sex crimes. He joined the NYPD in 1986 and was promoted to detective in 1989, In show continuity, Stabler became a detective with SVU in 1992. By 1998, Stabler held the prestigious rank of Detective First Grade and was assigned to mentor his new partner, Detective Olivia Benson, a police officer with six years of experience who was transferred to the SVU as a newly promoted detective. The first episode of Special Victims Unit takes place one year into Stabler and Benson's partnership.Stabler is dedicated to his job but often takes cases personally, thus affecting his judgment. Nonetheless, Stabler has a 97% case-closure rate as of 2007. His badge number is 6313. In 2002, Stabler stated that he makes $68,000 a year.
Stabler is Irish American and lives with his wife Kathy and five children. Stabler was born on October 20, 1966. He is devoted to his family and frequently mentions or thinks about them while working cases. He is also a practicing Catholic whose faith, sometimes, is tested by the cases on which he works.
Series creator Dick Wolf named SVUs two lead detectives after his son, Elliot, and his daughter, Olivia. Executive producer and head writer Neal Baer has explained that, in contrast to Benson – "the empathetic, passionate voice for these victims" – Stabler embodies "the rage we feel, the 'How can this happen?' feeling." Of their partnership, Baer assessed that: "They both represent the feelings that we feel simultaneously when we hear about these cases. That's why they work so well together."
Biography
''Law & Order: Special Victims Unit''
Stabler was born on October 20, 1966, and raised in Bayside, Queens. His father, Joseph Stabler Sr., was a policeman who lost his job and pension after refusing to testify against a corrupt fellow officer, and who eventually died of cancer. Stabler had a difficult relationship with his father, who was physically and emotionally abusive. His mother, Bernadette, has bipolar disorder and once nearly killed her son during a manic episode. As a result, Stabler has "erased his childhood"; he rarely talks about his father and maintains little contact with his mother. He has two brothers, Randall and Joseph Jr., and two sisters, Dee and Sharon.He attended Bayside High School, where he played on the football team.
Stabler was a Marine and served in Operation Desert Storm. During his time in the military, he was a hand-to-hand combat specialist. He has three tattoos, notably the Eagle, Globe, and Anchor tattoo on his forearm, and the crucifixion of Christ on his left bicep. One of his best friends died in the September 11 attacks. He has a B.A. from Queens College, which he obtained by going to night classes.
Stabler harbors a great deal of anger that is sometimes fueled by his job. He is often openly aggressive and intimidating toward suspects, which can either complicate the case further or lead to speedy confessions. When his wife Kathy leaves him in Season 6, Stabler's anger rises closer to the surface and, in a few episodes, threatens to boil over. One such instance occurs in a case involving serial killer Gordon Rickett, whom Stabler had investigated for raping and murdering a young girl 14 years earlier and had thrown through a plate glass window. During interrogation, Rickett tells Stabler that they harbor the same kind of rage, and that if it were not for his family and his job, Stabler would be just like him. When Benson and Stabler catch Rickett about to murder another young girl, Stabler appears ready to kill him in cold blood; it is only Benson's intervention that prevents him from doing so.
In SVU Season 7, he goes to see a police psychiatrist, Dr. Rebecca Hendrix, after using excessive force on an abusive parent. Stabler eventually opens up to Hendrix about his personal demons, and they become close until Hendrix is transferred. By Season 9, he and Kathy reconcile, and Stabler learns to better deal with his problems.
In the Season 12 finale, Stabler is forced to shoot Jenna Fox, a young woman who opened fire in the Special Victims squad room on the men who raped and murdered her mother, killing them and recurring character Sister Peg. Jenna dies in his arms. After the shootout, Stabler is placed on administrative leave by the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau. Although he is eventually cleared, this shooting is the sixth such incident in his NYPD career. His superior, Captain Donald Cragen, comments that if Stabler wants to keep his job, he will have to undergo a psychological evaluation, take an anger management class, and submit to an internal review of his entire personnel file. Benson is confident that Stabler will "tell them to go to hell", and he proves her right by retiring from the force off-screen during the SVU Season 13 premiere.
Stabler appears in the Season 22 episode "Return of the Prodigal Son", having been absent from the series for 10 years. It is revealed that, after quitting SVU, Stabler worked in private security before he got a job as the NYPD's liaison in Rome, going after terrorists and organized crime. He comes back to New York to attend a ceremony honoring Benson, whom he has not seen or spoken to since leaving SVU. Stabler is targeted by mobsters who plant a bomb in his rental car, but it ends up killing Kathy instead. Stabler is devastated, but determined to bring her killers to justice, and joins the NYPD's new Organized Crime Control Bureau.
''Law & Order: Organized Crime''
Season 1
In the Organized Crime Task Force, Stabler is partnered with Sergeant Ayanna Bell. He comes to suspect that gangster Richard Wheatley ordered the bombing because Stabler was investigating him and his father, mob boss Manfredi Sinatra. Stabler, Bell, Detective Diego Morales, Detective Freddie Washburn, and technician Jet Slootmaekers zero in on Wheatley's criminal empire, which is smuggling COVID-19 vaccine.It is implied in Organized Crime that Stabler suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the bombing and Kathy's death. Benson tells him to get help, but he angrily rejects her advice, telling her to "back off". Benson later joins Stabler's children in staging an intervention for him, but he rebuffs them and storms out. Later on, however, he reaches out to Wheatley's ex-wife Angela because she understands his pain, as her oldest son, Rafiq, had been murdered a year earlier. Stabler and Angela nearly sleep together until Stabler pulls back, realizing that he is crossing professional lines and that he is not ready for a new relationship. They agree to keep the relationship professional, and are on good terms – until Stabler comes to suspect that Angela ordered the bombing, which was meant for Kathy, not him.
Angela later tells him that Kathy's murder was revenge for her son's death, which her ex-husband told her occurred during a police raid Stabler had ordered. Stabler replies that he had nothing to do with Rafiq's death, and that it was in fact Wheatley, then Rafiq's stepfather, who had him killed after catching him stealing from his drug ring. Angela then promises to help Stabler put Wheatley in prison. He ultimately arrests Wheatley, who makes a deal with federal officials to provide information on his Mafia connections in return for a reduced sentence.
Season 2
Stabler is assigned to infiltrate the Kosta Organization, an Albanian crime family; posing as ex-con Eddie Wagner, he becomes bodyguard to Reggie Bogdani, a soldier for Don Jon Kosta. His first assignment is to help Bogdani and his uncle, Kosta's underboss Albi Briscu, burn down a bar in which they have murdered the owner, who owed them money, in order to make his death look like an accident. That night, while celebrating with his new "employers", Stabler is drugged. He goes to Benson's apartment in a panic, and she sends him to Bell's house to sleep it off.Stabler finds out that Briscu is closeted, and murdered his male lover to keep from being outed. Briscu threatens to kill Stabler to keep him quiet, but Stabler assures Briscu that his secret is safe with him. In gratitude, Briscu vouches for Stabler when he gets into a confrontation with Kosta's nephew. Briscu's wife Flutura is attracted to Stabler, who plays along in order to get closer into the Kosta Organization. After Stabler covertly helps Bell and Benson rescue a young girl that the Kosta Organization is trafficking, however, Flutura becomes suspicious that someone in the family is a traitor. After Bogdani botches a hit on gubernatorial candidate Teddy Garcia and kills Garcia's wife Diana, Stabler and Bell arrest him and get him to inform on the Kosta Organization, bringing the entire operation down.
Meanwhile, in a crossover between SVU and Organized Crime, Wheatley's trial begins. Wheatley's lawyer, Rafael Barba, who was once the Assistant District Attorney for SVU, accuses Stabler of framing Wheatley for Kathy's murder. Stabler feigns out-of-control anger on the witness stand in order to be cited for contempt of court and thrown out of the courtroom so he can be alone with Wheatley. He baits Wheatley by insinuating that he slept with Angela; as intended, this tactic provokes Wheatley to testify in his own defense, during which he loses his temper and threatens prosecuting ADA Dominick "Sonny" Carisi, Jr. in open court. Much to Stabler's surprise, however, the jury comes back deadlocked, resulting in a mistrial. The District Attorney's office ultimately decides not to pursue a retrial, meaning that he will not be punished legally for ordering Kathy's murder.
After Wheatley and cyberterrorist Sebastian McClane hack into the New York Stock Exchange and steal millions, Stabler and his team go after them, but Stabler jeopardizes the investigation by beating Wheatley up upon discovering that he used the date of Kathy's death as the password to his encrypted files. Stabler then pretends to go on a romantic date with Angela knowing full well that Wheatley is spying on them; as intended, this sends Wheatley into a jealous rage. Meanwhile, Bell threatens to take Stabler off the task force, but he manages to persuade her and their superiors to give him two more days to prove Wheatley's guilt, offering to resign from the NYPD if he fails.
Soon afterward, Wheatley strong-arms McClane into crippling the city's power grid, causing rolling blackouts. After double-crossing McClane and leaving him to die, Wheatley demands Richie's release from prison, a private jet to take him and Angela out of the city, and Stabler admitting to "framing" him for Kathy's murder on livestream. The NYPD release Richie to Wheatley's custody, but Wheatley stuns them by killing his own son. He then reveals that he has kidnapped Bernadette, and will kill her unless Stabler makes his "confession". Stabler refuses to absolve Wheatley of Kathy's murder, however, and manages to rescue his mother.
After Slootmaekers restores the city's power grid with McClane's help, Stabler calls Angela, who is on the run with Wheatley. He tells her that Wheatley murdered Richie, which provokes her to deliberately crash her car into the ocean, with her and Wheatley inside. Angela's body is found in the crash, but Wheatley has disappeared.
The next day, Bell tells Stabler that he is being brought before a disciplinary committee, and is in danger of losing his job and pension. That night, fellow undercover NYPD detective and family friend Frank Donnelly comes to his aid, having been alerted to Stabler's problems by Benson. Soon afterward, however, Stabler learns from an undercover informant that Donnelly is the leader of the Brotherhood, a ring of corrupt cops working for the Marcy Street Killers, an organized crime syndicate operated by crime boss Preston Webb.
Stabler ingratiates himself with Donnelly by helping him take money off a dead drug dealer, even pretending to take a bribe. With help from Bell and Slootmaekers, he soon learns that the drug dealer he and Donnelly robbed worked for Webb. After Stabler saves Donnelly from Webb's hitmen, he becomes Donnelly's second-in-command. They become close, with Donnelly even naming his newborn son after Stabler. Eventually, Donnelly decides to step down from the Brotherhood and names Stabler as his successor. When assassin Natalie Dumont tries to kill Stabler on orders from Webb's wife Cassandra, he arrests her and makes a deal with her to inform on the Marcy Killers in return for a lighter prison sentence. This allows Bell to arrest the entire gang, along with Cassandra, who has murdered her husband.
Meanwhile, Stabler uncovers evidence suggesting that his late father faked the shooting that led to him being awarded the NYPD's Combat Cross medal and framed an innocent man. He later confirms this by recovering a bullet from the tree he and his father used for target practice and having Slootmaekers analyze it, proving that it matches the bullet shot into the elder Stabler's leg, which came from his old partner Gus Hanson's gun. Stabler confronts Hanson, who gets back at him by telling Donnelly that Stabler is working undercover to bring down the Brotherhood. Donnelly in turn sets Stabler up to be killed during a fake robbery, but Stabler manages to escape and track down Donnelly, who commits suicide by stepping in front of a moving train. Stabler is then awarded the Combat Cross, but he still apologizes to the father of the man that his father framed.