Warning: This post contains spoilers from Law & Order: SVU’s Season 23 finale. Proceed accordingly. Show Law & Order: SVU‘s Season 23 finale spent a lot of time hinting that Olivia Benson’s love life might be a more fecund field in the future, and it sowed two major seeds in the form of returned former assistant district attorney Rafael Barba and the absent — though no less a presence — Det. Elliot Stabler. At the top of the hour, Olivia’s therapy session with Dr. Lindstrom revealed that she was feeling unhappy, and he theorized that it might stem from having no closure regarding her anger with Barba over his role in the Wheatley case. Or maybe her feelings have something to do with her old partner? “I think that you and Elliot either need to see if there’s more there or move on,” Lindstrom told her. “This idealized relationship that’s hanging over you prevents you from true intimacy, Olivia, either with him or with anyone else.” How convenient, then, when a victim of domestic abuse needed a top-notch attorney, and Rollins was able to get Barba to take the case. (That really irked Carisi when he found out, but don’t worry: “Rollisi” recovered and even exchanged “I love you”s by the end of the hour.) Of course, Barba triumphed in the courtroom. But it was the scene between him and Olivia at Forlini’s at the end of the episode that really grabbed us. When she reiterates her disappointment about how Wheatley’s trial went down, Barba countered with: “What I don’t get: Why you feel more anger at me than you ever let yourself feel toward Stabler.” Shots fired!The pair said a lot of things to each other, but eventually Rafael told her that he understood why she defended Stabler, because “That’s what you do when you love somebody unconditionally.” And then the charged conversation ended like this: BENSON BARBA BENSON BARBA BENSON So yeah, we jumped at the chance to discuss it all with Raúl Esparza, who brought Barba back to the procedural for the second time this season. Read on for his thoughts on the finale. TVLINE | I’m never happier than when SVU
goes full “Let’s talk about our feelings.” So, as you can imagine, the finale made me very excited. TVLINE | Barba comes back into Benson’s orbit. Do you think he takes this case specifically for that purpose? Also, it follows on so completely with the episode that we did… the one where he was defending Wheatley, obviously, that whole story. TVLINE | Right. TVLINE | Do you think he regrets taking the Wheatley case, based on how it affected his friendship with Olivia? Or would he do it again if he had to? Benson is a character that forces you to empathize and care, as opposed to other iterations of Law & Order, where it’s really just about the intellectual interest in the case and what happens. Here, it’s like there are no easy answers, they’re always living in a gray area, and she’s the hook. But Stabler was the fury and the opposite position. And without him there, I think the show obviously needed some sort of grounding in the ensemble that was created. And I feel like Barba — not trying to replace Stabler in any way because it’s not the same point of view — but Barba worked really well, and he was in opposition to her. And so, sometimes I think it’s not so interesting when they’re the best of friends, because that’s not great television. [Laughs] TVLINE | It was interesting to me to hear Barba talk about Stabler from the perspective of someone who grew up around bullies, because that is not a perspective we get a lot in the SVUverse. TVLINE | This episode puts a more definitive more-than-friends framing on Benson and Barba’s relationship than we’ve seen before. When you got the script, did it surprise you to
see the things that they’re saying to each other here? TVLINE | I was thinking about the circumstances under which Barba originally left, and whether they were the kind of thing that changed him
fundamentally. Do you think that he would feel this way about her, or be in this situation with her, had he not had that experience? [Barba is] just one of those people who’s got no social graces. But over time, he became much more empathetic and much more attuned to things that I don’t think he was comfortable with originally in his life, and that’s because of the relationship with her. And so, yeah, as things evolved toward the end of the last season that he was there like, I absolutely believe that it changed him. TVLINE | The episode, and Olivia’s conversations with her therapist especially, very much sets up the possibility of something between Barba and Benson. Have you had any conversations about coming back in Season 24? Now it’s your turn. What did you think of the finale? Grade it, and the season on the whole, via the polls below. Then hit the comments with your thoughts! Is Law and Order SVU ending 2022?Fortunately for Law & Order fans, all three shows will return this fall, with Law & Order: SVU returning for Season 24 in fall 2022.
How many episodes of Law and Order SVU 2022 are there?Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (season 23). Is Law and Order SVU Renewed for season 22?Law & Order Season 22 premieres Thursday, September 22 at 8 p.m. ET on NBC. ORIGINAL STORY: After 12 years, NBC's classic legal drama Law & Order has officially returned to the network. Despite the series ending its 20-season run in 2010, Law & Order has remained a cultural phenomenon.
Is Law and Order Special Victims Unit ending?Law & Order: Special Victims Unit has been renewed for a 24th season which will debut on September 22, 2022. Stay tuned for further updates.
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