But knowing how people are, those kind of things don’t generally resolve that easily. TVLINE | After the incident with Eli and the pills, which Liv was around for, things seemed to have smoothed over a bit.
But that doesn’t mean there wasn’t a discussion about it. Well, let’s say it’s always been our intention, as the beard pretty much symbolized his undercover persona and his hiding from himself. TVLINE | Was there ever any discussion about Chris keeping the beard, or was that always going to go in the end? We all acknowledge that he was hiding a bit and you can’t really hide from yourself, so he’s going to have to face himself. And it’s going to be fraught, as it’s bound to be, given what Stabler has been through, given that he’s lived in a violent and borderless world and also that he’s suppressed his own identity for so long. It begins in the next episodes, once that case is over. Well, firstly, his reentry of course doesn’t come at the end of these eight episodes. TVLINE | What will Stabler’s re-entry into normal life be like, post-Eddie Ashes?
Read on for Chaiken’s thoughts on what’s ahead and her report from a recent convocation regarding the romantic (?) future of Chris Meloni’s Stabler and Mariska Hargitay’s Law & Order: SVU captain, Benson.
First up: Season 1 villain Richard Wheatley (played by Dylan McDermott), whose trial approaches. And now that Stabler’s vacation-of-a-sort from his real life is over, showrunner Ilene Chaiken says, there’s plenty that will demand his attention.