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| “ | I think sex should be one of the best parts of life, not the worst. | „ |
| ~ Stabler on why he protects victims of sex crimes |
| “ | All bravery is, is doing what you gotta do despite being scared to death. | „ |
| ~ Stabler's advice to a new detective |
Detective Elliot "El" Stabler is one of the deuteragonists (alongside Odafin Tutuola and John Munch) of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and the main protagonist of Law & Order: Organized Crime.
He is portrayed by Christopher Meloni, who also portrayed Colonel Nathan Hardy in Man of Steel, and voiced James Gordon in the adult animated TV series Harley Quinn.
Early life[]
Stabler was born on October 20, 1966. He came from an Irish American Catholic family with three brothers and two sisters and went to Catholic school Sisters of Mercy School. He was a devout Catholic whose faith sometimes complicates the cases he works on.
His father, Joseph Stabler, was also a police officer for the NYPD. He lost his job and his pension when he refused to testify about fellow police officers.
Stabler had a difficult relationship with his parents; his father physically and emotionally abused him, while his mother Bernadette Stabler suffered from bipolar disorder and once nearly killed him during a manic phase. As a result, he has "erased his childhood" and maintains little contact with his mother.
After he left the Marines, Stabler attended Queens College where he earned his B.A.
He served in the United States Marine Corps and has a USMC tattoo of an eagle, globe, and anchor on his forearm. He also did a tour in OP Desert Storm.
In SVU[]
Stabler is partnered with Detective Olivia Benson. They have an extremely close, brother and sister-like relationship, and have more than once chosen each other over their duty to their jobs. They are briefly separated when Benson goes on an undercover assignment, and Stabler is partnered with Detective Dani Beck, with whom he shares a unconsummated sexual attraction. Beck ultimately transfers out of SVU when she decides she cannot live with seeing children being abused, and Benson becomes Stabler's partner again.
Stabler is married to his high school sweetheart, Kathy, with whom he has five children. His job nearly costs him his family when Kathy leaves him, having grown tired of his anger and emotional distance, both occupational hazards of dealing with horrendous crimes every day. They are estranged for two years and nearly get a divorce, but ultimately reconcile after Kathy gets pregnant with their fifth child.
Of his children, he has the most trouble with his daughter Kathleen, who acts out against her parents in ways such as stealing Stabler's credit card, having sex with multiple boys from her high school, and getting into a drunk driving accident. Stabler eventually learns that Kathleen's behavior is the result of undiagnosed bipolar disorder, which she inherited from her grandmother, and helps her get counseling.
In the 12th season finale, "Smoked", Stabler is forced to shoot and kill a teenaged girl after she opens fire on her mother's murderers in the middle of the SVU squad room, inadvertently killing a nun in the process. As this is his sixth career "good shooting", the NYPD tries to force him to undergo counseling, anger management, and other administrative "hoops" in order to keep his job. However, Benson believed that Stabler will instead tell them "to go to hell", something she was correct on because the traumatized Stabler would retire.
He returns in spin-off series Law & Order: Organized Crime, in which it is revealed that he returned to the NYPD not long after enjoying a six-year retirement. Stabler became a detective liaison to battle Organized Crime after the death of his wife. He reunites with his former partner, Olivia Benson, and apologizes for leaving the squad without saying goodbye. He also appears in the twenty-second season of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in the episode "Return of the Prodigal Son".
Personality[]
Stabler often mentions his family, particularly his children, sometimes as a way to gain trust with the victims. He is protective of his children and becomes defensive if a suspect asks about his family. Stabler once revealed that he helped deliver all of his children to that point, and he sees aspects of them in every child molestation victim. As a result, he has an intense hatred of pedophiles, once admitting to a police psychiatrist that he sometimes fantasizes about killing them; he almost loses his job as a result. In many instances, he viciously attacked many pedophiles only to be stopped or regain his wits but his actions often left the perp or his partners shocked. He also hated child murderers for killing young people, nearly losing all control on certain perps and once became completely stunned to hearing a perp trying to justify his actions.
Stabler finds it particularly disturbing when he sees aspects of himself in a child abuser; in one instance, an abusive parent reminds him of a time he lost his temper and slapped his then-toddler daughter Maureen. While he restrained himself from hurting her further, he was frightened by his loss of control.
As a result of his turbulent upbringing and the horrors he sees at his job, Stabler harbors a great deal of anger that sometimes explodes. He has physically harmed suspects to elicit confessions, sometimes getting dangerously close to excessive force; in one case, he forces a serial killer who suffers from emphysema to reveal the location of his victims' bodies by cutting off his oxygen supply.
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. For example, Stabler successfully reaches out to a 15-year old girl who had regressed to a childlike state after being sexually assaulted by her father.
Organized Crime Control Bureau[]
In 2021, after spending ten years working and living in Rome, Stabler returned to New York where Kathy died of her injuries after being caught in a car bomb meant for Elliot. Elliot was reunited with SVU as they investigated the case, but they were ultimately taken off of it. Benson provided Stabler with all of the information and evidence she had on the case and Stabler, who had come back for her awards ceremony, provided his old partner with the speech he had planned to give. Stabler successfully fought to be allowed to join the new Organized Crime taskforce that was being formed and survived another attempted assassination.
Stabler teamed up with his new commanding officer, Sergeant Ayanna Bell, to investigate Richard Wheatley for the illegal distribution of COVID-19 vaccines as well as Kathy's murder. Stabler becomes close with Wheatley's ex-wife, Professor Angela Wheatley, whom was later revealed to have played a role in Kathy's murder and he ended up arresting her. Angela told Stabler that she believed that he was responsible for the death of her son, Rafiq. When Stabler revealed that Wheatley was behind his death, Angela helped Stabler and Bell arrest Wheatley. Eventually, Stabler and Bell managed to arrest Wheatley for his crimes.
After capturing Wheatley, Stabler went undercover as Eddie 'Ashes' Wagner to infiltrate the Kosta Organization. Stabler was partnered up with Reggie Bogdani, who was the nephew of the underboss, Albi Briscu. Eventually, Stabler managed to earn Albi's trust after finding out that he was bisexual and keeping it a secret. Stabler then maintains his cover when he becomes involved with Albi's wife, Flutura Briscu, in order to get information out of her. Stabler also becomes close to a waitress at the nearby diner, Rita Lasku, who he ends up rescuing from Jon Kosta's sex trafficking ring. However, after Reggie got arrested for assassinating Teddy Garcia's wife, Stabler tried to flip Reggie by revealing his identity to him and using his mother, Agnes Bogdani, as bait. Eventually, Stabler managed to arrest Kosta, Flutura and Albi as well as almost get assassinated by Agnes in the courtroom.
After the events of Wheatley's trial for Kathy's murder, Eli went missing and Stabler teamed up with Benson to find him. After Eli gets framed for murder, Stabler manages to get him out of prison. After Wheatley gets released from prison, Stabler and Bell investigate McClane's escape from prison and team up with Wheatley, who becomes an informant for the FBI. Stabler then becomes convinced that Wheatley is involved in McClane's escape. Stabler's vendetta towards Wheatley leads Wheatley to stalk Bernadette using his accomplice, Miles Darman. After Wheatley went AWOL and ended up kidnapping McClane, Stabler goes undercover in order to bust him and ends up discovering that Wheatley is holding himself inside a power plant. Wheatley then demands that Stabler pays for all that he did to him and ended up kidnapping Bernadette and murdering Richie. Stabler then rescued Bernadette from Wheatley and chased Angela and Wheatley. After Stabler mentioned to Angela that Wheatley killed Richie, Angela drove the car off a cliff with Wheatley inside.
After the events of Wheatley and Angela's death, Stabler gets suspended for his actions on the Wheatley case. However, Stabler reunites with Detective Frank Donnelly and discovers that he runs a gang outside the NYPD called The Brotherhood. Stabler then goes undercover in order to bust him whilst Bell investigates the Marcy Corporation. Stabler continues to maintain loyalty to Donnelly in order to bust him and ends up arresting Officer Jessie Santos in order to flip him against Donnelly. In the mean time, Stabler also found out that his own father was corrupt and staged a shooting with his partner, Detective Gus Hanson, causing him to reunite with his former commanding officer, Cragen. After Hanson tips off Donnelly about Stabler, Donnelly orders Officer Scott Parnell and Ron Bolton to assassinate Stabler. Stabler manages to escape and fake his death before going after Donnelly. Eventually, Donnelly committed suicide in front of Stabler and Stabler was awarded the Combat Cross for his work in taking down the Brotherhood.
In the aftermath of The Brotherhood case, Stabler recruited Detective Jamie Whelan and Bobby Reyes to the squad and teamed up with Whelan to investigate the murder of Henry Cole. Stabler was convinced that Teddy Silas was involved and made a deal with Teddy's wife, Pearl Serrano, in order to take down Teddy and his father, Robert Silas. After Stabler testified against The Brotherhood, Stabler became frowned upon by fellow members of the NYPD and the public but teamed up with Rollins to investigate a rape case in which the suspects are police officers.
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