Elliot Stabler: Difference between revisions

Template:LawandOrderCharacter Detective Elliot Stabler is a fictional character on the TV crime drama series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit portrayed by Christopher Meloni.

Character overview

Stabler is a police officer with Manhattan's 16th Precinct, also known as the Special Victims Unit, which investigates sex crimes. He is dedicated to his job, but this dedication can occasionally turn into obsession, as he often takes cases personally, affecting his judgement. He lives in Glen Oaks, Queens with his family. His ex-wife is named Kathy (played by Isabel Gillies); they have three daughters (Maureen, Kathleen and Elizabeth) and one son (Dickie). Stabler is a devout Catholic.

Character history

Stabler came from an Irish-American family with three brothers and two sisters. His father was also a policeman who lost his pension shortly before his retirement. Stabler had a difficult relationship with his father, who was physically abusive at times. Stabler served in the U.S. Marines and has an USMC tattoo of an eagle, globe and anchor on his forearm. There is some confusion over his years of service, however. In the season 5 episode "Shaken", Stabler says that his eldest daughter Maureen was a toddler when he returned. As she was approximately fifteen in the 1999-2000 season, this would mean he had been discharged by 1987 or 1988. In the season 6 episode "Goliath", however, one of his colleagues mentions his service in the Gulf War, meaning he was not discharged until at least 1990. He attended Queens College where he earned his BA. He became a police officer mostly to follow in his father's footsteps and to help support his new family, but soon grew to like the job.

Family

Stabler often mentions his family, particularly his children, sometimes as a way to gain trust with the victims. He is very protective of his children, and becomes defensive if a suspect asks about his family. In the episode "Tragedy" Stabler revealed that he helped deliver all of his children, and he sees aspects of them in every child molestation victim. As a result, he has an intense hatred for pedophiles, admitting that he sometimes fantasizes about killing them, almost losing his job as a result. Stabler finds it particularly disturbing when he sees aspects of himself in a child abuser, as in the episode "Shaken" when an abusive parent reminded him of a time he lost his temper and slapped his then-infant daughter Maureen. While he restrained himself from hurting her further, he was frightened by his loss of control.

Stabler often connects with child victims on a fatherly basis, and has been very willing to use physical force to apprehend a suspect that he believes to have harmed a child. In turn, many victims tend to respond to him very warmly. In the episode "Resilence", Stabler successfully reaches out to a 14-year old girl who regresses to child-like state after being attacked by her father.

It was revealed in Season 6 that Stabler and his wife had separated, and that Kathy had moved in with her mother. Though she had sole custody of their children they frequently visit their father, once surprising him at work on his birthday. In the season 7 episode "Raw" it was revealed that Kathy had sent him divorce papers; in a later episode Stabler realized during a case involving a divorcing couple that "when love twists into hate, there's nothing you won't do," and silently returned the signed papers to his wife.

Partners

Stabler's longest-lasting partner was Olivia Benson and while Stabler and Benson were good friends they were never romantically involved. Their relationship is not without friction, as the two sometimes argue over the cases they work on; Benson is quicker to side with the victims while Stabler is more impartial. This became obvious in the season 3 episode "Ridicule", where three women were charged with raping a male stripper; Benson and Alexandra Cabot (Stephanie March) are quick to come to the man's aid, while Stabler took a cynical view of his claim from the start.

While Benson and Stabler were separated at times during the show. She was briefly reasigned to Computer Crimes in the season 7 episode "Fat", and replaced by a Queens SVU detective, Lucius Blaine. Benson returned to SVU in the next episode "Web". In the season 8 premiere "Informed", Benson teamed up with an FBI agent and eventually went undercover in Oregon to infiltrate an eco-terrorist group. Stabler was assigned temporary partner named Dani Beck, who remained until Benson returned full-time to SVU. After an altercation with a nearly mute homeless man, Benson re-entered Stabler's life as his handler. Upon their reunion, they both comment on how the other has changed since their original partnership. Beck had helped Stabler loosen up, while Benson had picked up a few health conscious habits from her stint infiltrating the eco-terrorists. At the end of the episode, they found out that they had the same blood type (A negative) and promised to donate their kidney to each other should the need arise.

While Stabler was still married, Kathy became jealous of Stabler's close relationship with Benson. Combined with his long hours on the job and away from home, Stabler's work at SVU placed considerable strain on their marriage, eventuallly culminating in their divorce.

Notable incidents during the series

Shootings

Stabler has twice had to use deadly force. During the season 4 episode "Risk", a corrupt police officer raised his weapon at Stabler in fear of being caught, forcing Stabler to shoot him. In the season 6 episode "Debt", Stabler shot a suspect who was threatening to shoot his hostage despite the suspect's willingness to work the situation out with Benson.

Stabler had a close call in the season 7 episode "Raw" when he was shot in the arm by a white supremacist during a trial. He made a full recovery. Stabler had another close call in the season 7 episode "Blast" when he was in the held hostage by a an armed suspect, later shot by medical examiner Warner. In the season 7 episode "Fault", Stabler was held at gunpoint for several minutes in a warehouse. Benson refused to shoot the suspect as doing so would have put Stabler's life in even more danger. At the conclusion of the episode, Benson asked to be reassigned due to their increasingly strained working and personal relationship. Internal Affiars IN the episode Depentdant Stabler was accused of killing a suspect but proven innocent when it was proven that the speilm that ruptured did so after the suspect was dead

Leaves of absence

In the season 6 episode "Charisma", Stabler was forced by Captain Donald Cragen to take sick time in lieu of being suspended, for refusing to seek counseling while working on a case where a cult leader had murdered multiple children. Benson instead worked the case with John Munch when Munch's partner also took a sick leave.

In the season 7 episode "Ripped", Stabler encountered a former partner whose son was the prime suspect in an assault case. Cragen ordered him home for the remainder of the day after Stabler advised the family of the victim not to file charges. After the arraignment, which Stabler attended, he witnessed his former partner assaulting his son in the bathroom. While defending the son, Stabler lost his temper and beat the father unconscious. He sought counseling from Dr. Rebecca Hendrix, a forensic psychiatrist and former police officer, who helped him to deal with his long-repressed feelings toward his father.

Trivia

• Stabler's badge number is 6313.

• Series creator Dick Wolf has a son named Elliot and a daughter named Olivia.

• Although he is not romantically involved with Olivia Benson on the television series, both Hargitay and Meloni have been asked on multiple occasions whether or not their characters would ever "get together"; they replied that it was more of a brother/sister relationship. Despite this, some fans have paired them up in fan fiction and art.

• While Detective Robert Goren from Law & Order: Criminal Intent has been compared to Columbo and Sherlock Holmes by fans of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Stabler is often compared to Baretta by Law & Order: Special Victims Unit fans.

• Meloni is one of four actors in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit that also appeared in HBO's Oz, the other three being Dean Winters, B.D. Wong, and J.K. Simmons (another Oz regular, Kathryn Erbe, has starred on CI since the show began in 2001). Meloni played a serial killer named Chris Keller.