Eliott Stabler is back on the job.
Christopher Meloni shared a video of the start of production for Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 2 and how his character is ready to get back to work on some dark new cases.
The return of Eliott Stabler on Law and Order
For over a decade, alongside Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Stabler was the heart of the Special Victims Unit.
While quite intense on the job, Stabler was dedicated to doing what it took to bust a crook and even skirt a few rules to get the job done. He also balanced a tough family life which included issues with his marriage and his daughter Maureen acting up.
In 2011, right after Season 12 of the series, Meloni shocked fans by announcing he was leaving the show. It appeared he and NBC couldn’t agree on a new contract and Meloni departed.
As it happened, the Season 12 finale had featured Stabler forced to shoot a teenage girl out to avenge her mother’s murder. In the Season 13 premiere, Benson was told Stabler had been unable to handle his act to quit the force.
That was the end of it until spring of 2020 when it was announced Stabler would be returning in a new spin-off.
Originally, the setup was to occur in the last episodes of SVU’s 21st season, but the shutdowns due to the coronavirus pandemic cut that short.
The return finally happened in a crossover on April 1, 2021, when Stabler’s wife, Kathy, was mortally wounded in an attack. This led Stabler to join a newly organized crime unit targeting corrupt pharmaceutical CEO Richard Wheatley (Dylan McDermott).
Stabler grew close to Whealtey’s ex-wife Angela (Tamara Taylor) only to learn she was the one behind Kathy’s murder. Angela had believed Stabler was the one who shot her son in a raid gone bad and wanted him to feel her pain.
The season ended with Stabler discovering a fellow cop was a mole for Wheatley trying to kill Angela.
On his Instagram page, Meloni shared the first images of him on set where, keeping with current guidelines, most everyone is masked.
With the caption “first day of school,” Meloni showed the cast and crew reuniting with shots of castmates Ainsley Seiger, Ben Chase and showrunner, Ilene Chaiken.
What’s next for Season 2 of Law and Order: Organized Crime?
Details are scarce on what to expect for Season 2. It’s expected to answer whether or not Angela lived and whether she can help with the case against Richard.
While the man is currently in jail, he still has plenty of connections and if Angela dies, so does a major part of the case against him.
It’s possible the series may balance the Wheatley story with a new criminal investigation while Stabler still tries to seek justice for his wife’s murder.
There’s also likely further crossover with SVU as Benson and Stabler are still working out their famously complex relationship. While Stabler spent the first season of Organized Crime in mourning for his wife, he may be able to pull out of the darkness to get back to busting crooks.
Organized Crime and SVU will be part of the NBC Thursday night lineup. However, it won’t be the expected “Law & Order block” as NBC made the surprising decision not to go forward with the planned For the Defense spin-off.
While it’ll be a while before further footage is revealed, his video shows Stabler and his Organized Crime unit are ready to ramp up the action in Season 2.
Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 2 premieres on September 23 at 10/9c on NBC.