Bensler fans were gifted another sliver of hope that Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson may one day be more than friends — or at least reunite onscreen sometime soon.
In Season 4, Episode 5 of Law & Order: Organized Crime, Stabler (Christopher Meloni) received a voicemail from Benson (Mariska Hargitay), expressing concern after hearing about his recent work issues.
In the prior episode, Captain Nazanin Shah told Stabler to turn in his gun and shield, informing him he was suspended after throwing a teen to the floor who fired his gun at Stabler’s squad, hitting Sergeant Ayanna Bell (Danielle Moné Truitt). The suspension will continue as internal affairs investigates the incident.
What did Benson say to Stabler in her voicemail in Season 4, Episode 5 of Organized Crime?
Stabler is shown in his kitchen early on in Episode 5, looking out the window and holding a cup of coffee as his phone rings and he lets it go to voicemail. “Elliott, it’s me,” Benson began. “I heard what happened. Actually, I’ll wait for you to tell me what happened. Call me back. I’m here.”
Stabler heard Benson leaving the message, but didn’t pick up the phone. Instead, he put on his jacket and headed outside, later returning with a bag of groceries.
As it turned out, suspension couldn’t hold Stabler back from protecting and serving. Season 4, Episode 5 saw him privately investigating the case of a missing woman, Rita Lasku, a trafficking victim who Stabler and Benson had helped once before in Season 2.
This latest episode wasn’t the first time Rita’s name came up in Season 4. In the Organized Crime season premiere, Stabler left a heart-felt message on Benson’s machine after receiving a voicemail from Rita asking him to call her.
“Hey, Liv, it’s me. I just got back,” he said at the time, referring to his return from an undercover case. “Um, I got a message from someone, an old case of ours, and I don’t know, maybe I just wanted to hear your voice. Call me. Bye.”
Benson and Stabler have a long history together since their partnership in the NYPD’s Special Victims Unit. The pair even almost kissed on Season 24, Episode 12 of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
“Elliot, I want to,” Benson told Stabler in the episode. “I want to, but I can’t.” She added that she wasn’t “ready for this.”
What happened to Rita Lasku?
Rita’s first appearance was in Season 2 of Law & Order: Organized Crime, when the Albanian waitress was a victim of human trafficking. Both Benson and Stabler assisted in rescuing the woman.
Her character returned on camera in Season 4, Episode 5 when she’s seen chatting with a friend and attending a party. Stabler later received a text from an unknown number, which belonged to Rita’s friend, Heidi, who reached out for assistance in finding her. Heidi told Stabler that Rita had recently gone to a luxury house party on Long Island as an escort. Stabler finds a video recording on a old digital camera of Rita at the party.
The detective headed to Long Island to investigate and was confronted by local police, who found out that Stabler’s suspended.
“Find anything interesting?”, Stabler asked the officer.
“Just an arrogant city cop who thinks he owns every place he walks into,” the cop responded.
Stabler stayed on the case though, discovering that another girl named Christine also went missing after the same house party that Rita made video recordings at. After talking with the girl’s family, her little brother retrieved a hidden burner phone he saw his sister hide before she vanished.
Stabler gave the burner phone number and Rita’s video recording to Dr. Kyle Vargas (Tate Ellington), who has been assisting the OCCB with technological police work.
Soon after, Vargas, along with Detectives Reyes (Rick Gonzalez), Bashir (Abubakr Ali), and Jet (Ainsley Seiger) showed up to Stabler’s Long Island hotel room to assist in the secret investigation.
While analyzing video of a bound and gagged Rita that was sent to the burner phone, Jet found a frame that identified Rita’s location as an old war bunker on the coastline.
Stabler took off for the bunker, warning the rest of his squad not to follow.
At the bunker, Stabler came face to face with a masked assailant, who had Christine bound to a chair. That person fled, leaving Christine behind.
When Stabler asked where Rita was, Christine pointed to a shovel. Next to the bunker, Stabler found a shallow grave holding Rita’s remains.
Authorities eventually arrived and three more bodies were found buried along the coast by the end of the episode.
“We got ourselves a serial killer,” Reyes told Stabler.
In a phone call, Stabler’s boss, Bell, told him, “This isn’t on you,” referring to Rita’s death, making it clear it wasn’t his case.
“She was, and she still is,” Stabler replied.
To find out what happens next with the case, along with Stabler and Benson, watch Law & Order: Organized Crime on Thursdays at 10/9c on NBC or stream episodes the next day on Peacock.