Chris Meloni Reveals Which Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 Scene He Had To Cut Mariska Hargitay Out Of (And Why) — Watch
Warning: This post contains spoilers for Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5, Episode 2. Proceed accordingly.
When originally conceived, the second episode of Law & Order: Organized Crime's new season had a bit more Capt. Olivia Benson than did the one you watched Thursday on Peacock.
The hour, written by series star and executive producer Chris Meloni, featured a reunion with his former Law & Order: SVU co-star Mariska Hargitay. Hargitay's Benson showed up after Meloni's Det. Elliot Stabler was in a brutal accident while investigating a sex-trafficking ring. She later wound up working with the Organized Crime Control Bureau to investigate a serial killer who seemed to be preying on sex workers along a busy trucking route. (Read a full recap here.)
When Meloni stopped by our New York City offices for a TVLine Spotlight conversation in front of fans Wednesday, he revealed that Benson had more scenes in an earlier draft of the episode.
"This is how this went down," he explains in the video above. "They said, 'Hey, they want Mariska on your show for an episode.' Great. So I go, 'I want to write it, because I feel as though I'll do a great job.' 'OK, great. You got it.'"
After Meloni penned the script, he says, production figured out exactly how long it would take to get Hargitay's scenes in the can. "They break it down and they go, 'We'll need her for five days,'" he recalls. "SVU comes back to us and says, 'You got three.'"
Meloni mimes crossing out big swaths of story. "So I go back to the drawing board, going, 'She's out of that!'" he says, laughing.
Where, exactly, would we have seen more Benson? Near the end of the episode, when Stabler and Det. Slootmaekers are undercover as they search for a rapist the swap meet, "it was going to be me and Benson on the hunt," Meloni says.
He added that it's unclear when Hargitay will next show up on Organized Crime.
"It's just, you know, girlfriend has a day job," Meloni jokes.
Press PLAY on the video above (or check out the full conversation here) to watch Meloni talk about having to change up his script, then hit the comments with your thoughts!