10 Things Law & Order: Organized Crime Revealed About the Stabler Family

Since he first appeared in the Law & Order franchise in 1999, Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) has been known for having a big family. In Law & Order: Special Victims Unit‘s Season 1, Episode 2, “A Single Life,” audiences meet Stabler’s wife, Kathy (Isabel Gillies), and his four children — Maureen, Kathleen, and twins Richard, or “Dickie,” and Elizabeth, or “Lizzie.” Later, in Season 9, Episode 9, “Paternity,” Kathy gives birth to their fifth child, who they name Elliot Jr. and call “Eli.” Throughout his time on SVU, Stabler’s family played an important role in how he operated as a detective, even if the audience didn’t get to spend much time with them.

With Stabler being the central character in Law & Order: Organized Crime, the show capitalized on the opportunity to dive further into Stabler’s family. The show’s success over the first four seasons has come in part from the personal stories that it has been able to focus on by designing the show around cases that last multiple episodes. While the show spends time with each of the main characters, it is Stabler’s family that takes center stage.

Elliot Stabler Is a Grandfather

The Stabler Children

Fans of SVU watched Elliot Stabler’s children grow up in the 12 seasons he was on the show and were thrilled to see them as adults on Organized Crime — even if their first appearance was because of the murder of Stabler’s wife, Kathy. In the first season, viewers watched as Eli learned how to deal with the loss of his mother and Kathleen went to Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) for help staging an intervention when Elliot’s undiagnosed PTSD began to worry her, but it wasn’t until Season 2 that audiences got to really see Elliot enjoying time with his family.

In Season 2, Episode 9, “The Christmas Episode,” after a tumultuous holiday season, Elliot hosts his family at the new apartment where he lives with his mother, Bernie (Ellen Burstyn), and his youngest, Eli. While Stabler and his family were celebrating the holiday, audiences were introduced to Kieran (Colin Keane) and Seamus (Henry Gross), Stabler’s two grandchildren from his oldest, Maureen (Autumn Mirassou). And while Kieran and Seamus are his first two grandchildren, they definitely won’t be his last.

Ellen Burstyn is the Stabler Matriarch

• Ellen Burstyn’s career began in 1958 with the TV series Kraft Theater. She is best known for her roles in The Last Picture Show (1971), The Exorcist (1973), and Requiem for a Dream (2000).

If there is one thing that Organized Crime has made sure its audience knows, it is that Elliot Stabler loves his Mama. When Bernie Stabler was first introduced in SVU‘s Season 10, Episode 3, “Swing,” Elliot hadn’t seen her in several years and was only there to see if she would tell a judge that she had bipolar disorder in order to help Elliot’s daughter, Kathleen, who was exhibiting symptoms of the same disorder and was in trouble with the law. Ultimately, it took a visit from Olivia for Bernie to have a conversation with Kathleen about their shared mental health issues.

One of the smartest things the creators of Organized Crime did when launching the show was to create space for Bernie Stabler in Elliot’s life. While Elliot and his family, especially Eli and Kathleen, initially spent much of their time with Bernie dealing with her bipolar disorder, the most recent season saw Elliot and one of his brothers figuring out how to handle the progression of Bernie’s dementia. Stabler’s growth as a character, including a better relationship with his mother, means that fans get to see a whole new side of their favorite detective.

Learning the Truth About His Father Shook Elliot

• The Combat Cross is the second-highest award an NYPD officer can receive. It is awarded to officers who “successfully and intelligently perform an act of extraordinary heroism while engaged in personal combat with an armed adversary under circumstances of imminent personal hazard to life.”

In an early season of SVU, Elliot revealed that part of the reason he joined the NYPD was to follow in the footsteps of his father, Joseph Stabler. Even though his father was abusive, particularly to Bernie, there was still part of Elliot that idolized Joe and wanted to be a good cop like him. When Elliot started with the NYPD, Joe finally expressed that he was proud of him by gifting him the combat cross he had received for taking a bullet for his partner.

In Season 2, while undercover with The Brotherhood, a gang of corrupt NYPD cops led by Frank Donnelly (Denis Leary), Stabler learns the truth about his father’s combat cross. Joe Stabler and his partner, Gus Hanson (Paul O’Brien), framed a young man they wanted off the streets, and Joe shot himself in order to do it. Elliot’s feelings about his father only get more complicated when he is awarded his own combat cross for the work he did while undercover with The Brotherhood in Season 2, Episode 22, “Friend or Foe.”

The Stabler Siblings Make an Appearance

• Stabler’s family was originally mentioned in SVU‘s Season 5, Episode 13, “Hate.”

Stabler didn’t just have his own big Catholic family, he came from one. Elliot grew up with five siblings, and audiences finally learned more about them in Season 4 of Organized Crime. When Bernie, who is still living with Elliot at the time, demands to see “Randall” in Season 4, Episode 1, “Memory Lane,” two of Elliot’s brothers are thrust back into his life.

Randall (Dean Norris) flies up from Florida to see Bernie, and he reveals to Elliot that Joe, Jr. (Michael Trotter) or Joey, the baby of the family, has been discharged from the Army and is back living in New York. Their sisters, Dee and Sharon, haven’t yet appeared on Organized Crime, and there remains a fourth brother who has yet to be discussed.

Randall Stabler Tried to Protect Elliot

• Dean Norris is best known for his role as Hank Schrader in Breaking Bad.

With Randall in town during Season 4, Elliot found himself able to trust someone else with Bernie’s care for the first time in several years. He also began learning things about their father and his childhood that he never expected. Randall’s family secrets began tumbling out in Season 4, Episode 4, “The Last Supper,” when Elliot hosted a dinner for his mother, his brothers, and his children.

Over the next several episodes, Randall reveals that he had been keeping several secrets from Elliot and Joey in order to protect them. He hid that he moved to Florida after a fight with Bernie and, over the next several episodes, told Elliot about several instances of abuse that he’d kept hidden. Elliot knew his father was occasionally abusive towards him and their mother, but Randall’s secrets began to change his perspective on who his brother was.

The Suspension of Joe Stabler

• Elliot began learning about who his father really was in Season 2, Episode 17, “Can’t Knock the Hustle.” Other Season 2 episodes where Joe Stabler’s career was investigated include:
  • • Season 2, Episode 18, “Change The Game”
    • Season 2, Episode 19, “Dead Presidents”
    • Season 2, Episode 20, “Lost One”
    • Season 2, Episode 22, “Friend or Foe”

   

One of the most jarring reveals for Elliot from Randall and Bernie was that Joe’s career didn’t end the way he had been told. All his life, Elliot believed his father had been suspended and lost his pension due to refusing to testify against fellow cops. While that facade began to crumble after Elliot learned more about his father in Season 2, Randall and Bernie brought it crashing to the ground.

During “The Last Supper,” Bernie insisted on apologizing to Randall about making him leave home, information that was also news to Elliot, who had believed that Randall left for Florida and never came back completely of his own volition. Instead, Randall shared that their father’s career ended because he had turned their father in for misconduct. Tired of Joe beating Bernie every night, Randall called Internal Affairs, effectively ending Joe’s time with the NYPD. Bernie threw Randall out for his actions and refused his help when he tried to send for her and Elliot so that they could get away from Joe.

Joe Stabler’s Death Was Kept a Secret

• Joe Stabler died by suicide and is not the only member of the NYPD to do so. SVU spent an entire episode on the epidemic of police suicide — Season 21, Episode 12, “The Longest Night of Rain,” when Benson’s former flame, Ed Tucker (Robert John Burke), retires.

When Elliot left the family dinner in “The Last Supper,” just after learning about the real reason his father’s NYPD career ended, he was headed for his team, who was under siege at the home of witnesses they were protecting. By the end of the night, Elliot himself was suspended for injuring the son of their witness after he pulled a gun on the team and shot Elliot’s partner, Ayanna Bell.

When Elliot tells Randall that he was suspended, Randall tells him not to do something stupid like Joe did. Elliot doesn’t know what he means, and it takes several more episodes for him to learn, but in Season 4, Episode 8, “Sins of Our Fathers,” he finally learns the truth from Bernie. After his suspension over misconduct, Joe Stabler was found in his car with the engine running. Elliot had been told his father had died of cancer.

Joe Stabler, Jr. Idolized Elliot

• Michael Trotter also appeared on Law & Order: SVU in Season 24, Episode 17, “Lime Chaser,” as Teddy Muncy, the brother of Detective Grace Muncy (Molly Burnett).

When Elliot finished high school, his oldest child, Maureen, had already been born. In order to care for his new bride and their daughter, Elliot joined the Marines and served in Operation Desert Storm before joining the NYPD. The only other member of the family to join the military was Elliot’s younger brother, Joey, who joined the Army right out of high school.

When Joey shows up at dinner in “The Last Supper,” Elliot has some questions for him. Elliot wants to know why Joey was discharged from the military and what Joey tells him initially is a lie. Joey shares a story with Elliot about finding trinkets overseas and being charged with stealing cultural artifacts, but audiences later learn that there was another reason for Joey’s departure from the military. Joey also reveals to Elliot that he only joined the military because he wanted to be like his big brother.

Joe, Jr.’s Addiction Overlapped With Elliot’s Case

• Michael Trotter has another connection to the Law & Order franchise outside his appearances on Organized Crime and SVU. In 2021, Trotter married Jamie Gray Hyder, who spent two seasons on SVU as Katriona “Kat” Tamin, an officer who joined the special victims unit and worked her way to detective in Seasons 21 and 22.

Though Joey seemed sincere when telling Elliot that he had been discharged from the military for stealing cultural artifacts, Elliot was immediately suspicious that Joey was lying. When Elliot was cleaning up after his family dinner, he found what he assumed to be heroin in his garbage can, buried underneath other garbage. Though he called his son, Eli, who had been caught stealing pills from Bernie in Season 2, making it seem like he might be concerned that it was Eli, he also sent the heroin out for testing to see where it came from. That choice changed everything.

In Season 4, Episode 12, “Goodnight,” audiences finally learn why Joey was really discharged from the military in a flashback to Kabul in 2020. While playing pool with some officers, Joey, who is already a heroin addict at that point, steps in when a gun is pulled on Julian Emery (Tom Payne). He ends up arrested by military police, and it is Emery who bails him out, offering him a job and more heroin. Emery, also known as Redcoat, is the head of a drug corporation that Elliot and his team are investigating in Season 4 of Organized Crime. Eventually, after Randall helps Elliot put Joey through detox, Elliot brings Joey on to help with their investigation, though the cliffhanger at the end of Season 4, Episode 13, “Stabler’s Lament,” left audiences wondering whose side Joey is really on.

Elliot Stabler 2.0

• When Elliot has to chase down a suspect in SVU‘s Season 9, Episode 9, “Paternity,” Olivia offers to take Kathy to a doctor’s appointment. On the way there, they are hit by a drunk driver, and Olivia ends up helping Kathy give birth in the back of an ambulance on the way to the hospital.

After Elliot’s youngest son is born, his wife wants to name him Elliot, Jr., to which Olivia Benson says, “Just what the world needs, another Elliot Stabler.” Though Olivia’s comment was a well-intended joke, her statement ended up becoming somewhat of a prophecy. Eli spent Seasons 3 and 4 in Colorado for college but returned to New York at the end of Season 4 with his girlfriend, Becky (Kiaya Scott), and an announcement.

They try to keep it a secret at first, but neither Eli nor Becky are very good at hiding it — Becky is pregnant, which is why they’ve come to New York. In addition, Eli makes a second announcement at another family dinner in Season 4, Episode 13, “Stabler’s Lament.” Eli, in order to provide for his new family, will be dropping out of college and joining the NYPD. Elliot is unsure that he wants his namesake to follow in his footsteps, especially given that Eli was often frustrated by Elliot’s absence in order to do his job. With Season 5 on the horizon, only time will tell how much Eli is really like his father.