Law & Order: SVU's Benson And Stabler Revisit An Old Case, Older Wounds In 600th Episode — Read Recap

Don't let that "love you" from last season fool you: Capt. Olivia Benson (played by Mariska Hargitay) and Det. Elliot Stabler (Chris Meloni) are in rougher shape than we've seen in quite some time as the landmark 600th episode of "Law & Order: SVU" gets underway, and revisiting an old case from early in their partnership certainly doesn't help smooth things over.

Even if you're not into the "EO" of it all, the hour is a meaty one: The partners (and Liv's squad) reinvestigate the murder of a young nun and wind up uncovering a deeper, darker story of misplaced guilt and ruined lives. And there are a couple of excellent guest spots in the offing, as well.

Read on for the highlights of "Obedience."

Gwen (J. Smith-Cameron) corners Olivia outside of work and asks for her thoughts on an old case. As the pair walk the Highline, Gwen explains that she's been getting letters for years about a man who was incarcerated in 1998, but he maintains he's not guilty. Now that she's finally taken a look at the claim, she has questions. Liv agrees to help if she can, and that's when Gwen drops her bomb: It's the murder of Claire Sobel, a nun; at the mention of the name, Benson's face hardens. "Are you kidding me right now?" she asks, immediately defensive.

The facts, as they stand, are these: Claire was a holy sister who was stabbed to death at her convent in Harlem. The case was one of Liv's first with the Special Victims Unit. ("I was VERY new," she says.) The man found guilty is being held at Attica. Gwen asks Benson to go through the case with her "one last time," mentioning in passing that "your old partner, he hasn't returned my calls."

Benson finds Stabler skipping rope at his boxing gym. (Given what we'll soon learn about the current state of their relationship, I like to think that she located him by swinging by his usual haunts until she found the one he was at. "Church? Nope. Tank-style undershirt shop? Nope. Wildly dangerous and unnecessary undercover op? Nope.") He's happy to see her; she's less enthused. "We got the Claire Sobel case wrong," she says, and he immediately knows which one she's referring to. "Sister Benedicta?" he asks. "And here I thought you were dropping by because you missed me."

Liv says she does miss him, "but you don't call me back. I can't force you to talk to me."

Everyone strapped in? Because yep, we're about to take another twirl on this rollercoaster. (Or, as I write, verbatim, in my notes: OH MY GOD, ARE WE REALLY DOING THIS AGAIN?!) And that first drop, she's a steep one. "I haven't seen you since Cragen's funeral," Benson notes. As you'll recall, that event happened in the Season 27 premiere, and it sure seems like these two haven't had a meaningful conversation — or, really, any conversations? — since that time. He mumbles something about being on bereavement leave following Joe Jr.'s death, then seems surprised when she notes that his brother's passing happened 18 months before.

Anyway, he tells her to knock herself out by reopening the case, but "I'll pass." She's irked, and she lets him know. "I want to be there for you, and I want to be your friend, but I've got to tell you: You make it really, really difficult sometimes," she says. "Liv, we're not friends," he says quickly, which UNDERSTANDABLY doesn't make anything better. "Good luck, Elliot," she replies, and he has to grab her arm to stop her from stomping outta there.

He backtracks, explaining he didn't mean it in a bad way, but she's done for now. She advises him not to isolate himself LIKE HE ALWAYS DOES (emphasis mine), then lays waste to him without even donning some boxing gloves: "You're the one who always said we right wrongs. I think you need to remember who you are."

It works! Elliot shows up at the precinct the next day as the squad is pitching in to help their captain dissect the case once more. During the hellos, Stabler makes an uncalled-for comment about how Curry (Aimé Donna Kelly) used to be on the "rat squad," or the department's Internal Affairs Bureau. "I know all about you, Det. Stabler," she replies coolly. "I'll take that as a compliment," he says. "I wouldn't," she shoots back. (Side note: Love her.)

Gwen, Olivia, and Elliot sit down to hash out the facts of the case. Charles, the man found guilty of the crime, always maintained that he found Claire and tried to pull the knife out of her, which is why his fingerprints were on the murder weapon. Stabler refuses to entertain the thought that they missed something the first time around, but Gwen calmly points out that Charles never has changed his story, he had a bad attorney, and the bite evidence that sealed the deal is now considered junk science that would never fly today. Also: Stabler interrogated Charles alone ("I kept her out of fit," he says, referring to Benson), so there's no objective record of his questioning.

Afterward, Liv tells her former partner that she's going to take a personal day and head up to Attica to talk with Charles. Stabler can't understand why she's going. She can't understand why he won't. It only takes a minute or two before he's changed his mind. "We'll take your car," he informs her.

Curry offers to keep Benson company, instead, pointing out (in a highly unimpressed fashion that I find amusing) that Stabler is no longer Liv's partner. Odafin Tutuola Life Lesson coming in hot in 3...2... "That doesn't matter," Fin says. "Some partnerships don't end, even when they do."

"Even when they probably should," I whisper, then immediately hate that I've nearly given up hope for these two.

I feel like now is a good time to point out that I have often — publicly, with vigor, and on this very site — proclaimed my desire to see Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler in a romantic relationship. I know not everyone books passage on this particular 'ship, but I have always really liked the idea of two people who know each other so well — and who now have no impediment to pursuing a romance — seeing if maybe it's their time.

And while I'm used to the Law & Order industrial complex repeatedly dashing my hopes (the kitchen), only to rebuild them ("Liv love laugh") and lull me into a false sense of this-is-going-somewhere (that "love you" at Cragen's wake), what's happening even at this early point in the 600th episode feels... off. I can absolutely believe that Stabler needs more therapy than the policeman's union has budget for and still isn't capable of communicating the basic facts of his current emotional well-being to one of his oldest friends. I also believe that Benson may have reached a point where she is just kinda sick of his nonsense. But to go directly from cooing at each other over the car door outside the wake to this weirdness feels like a whiplash that's extreme even for these two well-intentioned, yet incredibly frustrating, foolios.

Am I losing hope? I think I'm losing hope. At this point, us "EO" supporters out here will be lucky if Benson and Stabler can figure it out by the series finale.

OK, back to the case at hand.

During the six-hour drive from Manhattan, Elliot falls asleep in the passenger seat. When he wakes, Olivia teases him about his snoring. "You sound just like Kathy," he says, and Olivia sidesteps the dead-wife landmine by asking about his mom, Bernie, instead. "Getting worse," he says, adding that Joe's passing hit her very hard. "Sometimes she's there, most times she's not." Stabler changes the subject — God forbid they have a real conversation about real things — in the most annoying way possible, needling Benson about having an IAB officer on her team and why she chose to become a captain. "You let the other people go out and do the real work," he scoffs, and EXCUSE ME SIR BUT YOU CLEARLY DON'T WATCH THIS TELEVISION SHOW. Or, as Benson shoots back: "Is that what you've been doing the last 18 months? You've been doing the 'real work'?"

They continue to argue, and right after Benson says the police-partner equivalent of "I'll turn this car right around," Stabler decides to stand down... by remarking on the livestock they're passing. "I like cows," he says. "I didn't know that," she says, and the look on her face reflects something else I write in my notes: WHAT IS HAPPENING?

At Attica, Charles once more says that he didn't kill Claire, and notes that he heard her arguing with another woman the week of her death. "I told him," he says, indicating Stabler, and El is aghast when he realizes that he did, indeed, write "argument, women, two nights prior" in his notebook at the time... though he did nothing with that information.

The Mother Superior (Kathleen Chalfant) and another nun from the convent are still alive, though the latter has left the religious life. The former nun's name is Sandra ("ER" alum Laura Innes), and she guesses that Claire was arguing with Mother Superior about one of the convent's chaplain, Father Anthony. Turns out, he was an abuser who forced the young, naive women under his authority to do their penance via sexual acts "always presented as holy, sanctioned," Sandra says. But Claire was more worldly wise than her fellow sisters, and she made a ruckus about Father Anthony to Mother Superior. The head nun had the accusers write letters detailing their abuse, but nothing ever happened.

Because it's so late, Liv and El book a motel room and plan to drive back to the city the next morning. Sadly, the situation does not turn into the one-room-left oneshot of many a fanfic connoisseur's dreams. The exact opposite, in fact. As they're poring over files, Benson and Stabler realize that Father Anthony's name did come up in their investigation back in the day, but they didn't question him. "He just would've lied, and I would've believed him," Stabler says soberly, "because he was a damn priests and I'm Catholic."

But Olivia is mad about something else: that Elliot shut her out, and that she let him. She remembers thinking Charles wasn't right for the perp, and she retroactively accuses her former partner of boxing her out of the investigation so she wouldn't get in the way. He adamantly states that wasn't the case, but Liv is convinced.

"I have to live with the fact that I didn't do the right thing because I was new. That I didn't follow my instinct because I thought you knew better. Which is my fault," she says as their argument intensifies. When he asks if she's been holding onto it for three decades, she counters: "No. I've been letting it go for 30 years." Things are still heated between them — in the bad way — as she agrees that "maybe you're right, Elliot. Maybe we're not friends. Maybe we can't be" and leaves the room.

Meanwhile, Carisi and Hawkins subpoena the archdiocese's lawyer (Jim Gaffigan) to get the letters the young nuns wrote about Father Anthony back in the day. And then Stabler and Benson, newly returned from their road trip, confront Mother Superior with them. They guilt her into telling them where the priest, who is on sabbatical, is holed up. Oh, and there's another woman who "left" the order mysteriously in 1999, and that disappearance is connected to the slimy man of the cloth, as well.

Next thing we know, Benson's team is finding a woman buried under a floor in a church — and she was pregnant at the time of her death. It's enough for them to track down Father Anthony (William Sadler) at his "treatment center" — which looks like a summer camp — and bring him in for questioning. With the DNA testing that exists now, he's done for. And as soon as he's processed, Carisi informs the team, Charles will be set free.

Even though there's more work to do, Liv thanks everyone for their help and tells them to go home. Stabler follows her into her office, announcing that the department's Organized Crime Control Bureau has asked him back, but he's not going to return. Instead, he's going to drive out to Arizona and spend some time with Maureen and her kids, who have moved there. Both he and Liv assert that they're not retiring, and then he invites her along for the ride.

He's serious, but she scoffs. What about Noah? "Have him come with us," Stabler suggests. Then he pulls her to her feet from where she's sitting, hugs her, and holds her incredibly close. "Send me a post card," she says, unswayed. Then Stabler puts his hands on both sides of her face and kisses her forehead, then whispers, "Goodbye, captain" and leaves.

As he walks through the squad room, Liv looks out over her co-workers — who are dedicatedly working despite her urging them not to — and is teary.

Now it's your turn. What did you think of the episode? Sound off in the comments!