Quick Answer: Christopher Meloni’s character Elliot Stabler had his final Law & Order: SVU appearance in the Season 12 finale, his character officially resigning off-camera in the Season 13 premiere. The departure shocked fans and rattled the show, breaking the dynamic between its two starring leads and forcing a replacement to be hired in his wake.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999 - ) is the longest-running entry in the Law & Order franchise. It is currently the longest-running scripted live-action U.S. primetime TV series and the fifth longest-running scripted U.S. primetime TV series on a major broadcast network. It also boasts stellar actor retention; Mariska Hargitay has portrayed Olivia Benson since the show’s inception, with Ice-T on board as Finn Tutuola since the second season, and the show has seen decade-plus performances from the likes of cast members Dann Florek, Richard Belzer, BD Wong and Tamara Tunie. But for many, what greatly contributed to the series’ charm for many years was the on-screen chemistry between Olivia Benson and her partner Elliot Stabler, portrayed by hunky blue-eyed powerhouse Christopher Meloni. The two were the heartbeat of the show for over 250 shared episodes. Following Meloni’s departure in 2011, the series took some time to find its footing while audiences were forced to grow accustomed to Stabler’s absence and new detectives in his place.

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Watching the endless reruns of the series on the USA network, one might feel like Stabler never left, yet there have been over 100 episodes produced without his character. So what exactly happened to Elliot Stabler? Why did this powerful and electrifying detective leave SVU? His sudden departure came without warning and left many fans with a lack of closure. Truth is, the closure isn’t coming. The unexciting reason Meloni left the show was the result of failed contract negotiations with the network. But for those wondering how and when Stabler disappeared from the cast, the showrunners decided to have it emerge on the back of an on-the-job shooting that simply hit Stabler as one crime too many.

Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni

The writers of SVU wrote off Meloni’s character in the first episode of Season 13, “Scorched Earth.” In the Season 12 finale, a lethal shootout took place in the squad room, during which Stabler shot and killed a young woman who had already managed to kill two others in the room. She died in his arms.

The kill was deemed a “good shooting,” or a justifiable kill in defense of himself and his peers, but the event was still Stabler’s sixth on-the-job shooting. As such, IAB wanted to open an investigation on his him. He’s placed on administrative leave barring a psychiatric profile, as IAB “wants to go over his entire jacket…if Elliot wants to keep his job, he’s gonna have to submit to a psych eval, anger management, a lot of hoops.”

For Stabler, these hoops aren’t worth what he would be coming back to. It took six straws to break his desire to do the job and he is not seen in person again following the Season 12 finale. The Season 13 premiere finds other cast members discussing a bruised Stabler, and his off-camera resignation follows as he is quoted as saying he’d rather “tell IAB to go to hell” than submit to their inquiries. It was an ill-fitting send-off to a character who had been seen in 272 episodes of SVU, two episodes of Law & Order (1990 - 2010) and who had such integral on-screen chemistry with the series’ star. The departure shocked fans and, for some, changed the cast in a way that modified the tone of the show forever.

Immediately after leaving SVU, Meloni had a five-episode guest stint on True Blood (2008 - 2014) and followed it by starring in a few short-lived TV sitcoms, as well as a few movies and other television guest appearances.

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