Law & Order: Special Victims Unit opened season 27 with a shocking character death, leading to many to wonder why. Was it all an excuse for some special cameos?
Caution: This article contains SPOILERS for the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit season 27 premiere.
Law & Order: SVU fans had been expecting some old faces to pop into the show for season 27. What we didn't expect was the reason behind it: a stunning send-off for a classic SVU character.
The premiere opened with Benson heading into a cop bar where a wake was forming. She ran into former FBI profiler George Haung (B.D. Wong) for a warm embrace. That was followed by a somewhat awkward reunion with former SVU cop and Benson’s ex-flame Brian Cassidy (David Winters).
It was finally revealed that this was the funeral for former SVU Captain Donald Cragen (Dann Florek). It wasn’t stated how he passed away, but everyone was moved by his loss, with a video playing from his retirement speech years before.
Benson was deeply affected by Cragen’s death, calling him “the best boss I ever had. Everything I know about being a captain, I learned from him.”
After Benson left the ceremony, she saw Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) in his car outside, fretting about whether or not to go in. The two former partners talked about old times before a warm embrace, and Stabler offhandedly said, “Love ya.” (Which Meloni revealed via TVLine was an ad-lib he threw in).
It was a good farewell for Cragen, but just why did SVU lose this former main character?
Why did Law & Order: SVU kill off Cragen?
The episode felt for all the world like the classic case of a TV show honoring an actor. However, Dann Florek is very much alive. It’s more baffling as the series didn’t do nearly as much to honor John Munch when actor Richard Belzer passed away in 2023.
While Cragen hadn’t made many appearances in the show’s later seasons, he was still considered a key character, always there to help the SVU team and willing to take the lumps with the higher-ups for their actions. Even in retirement, Cragen cast a long shadow over the SVU team, which Benson tried to live up to.
It does seem the death was made just to get a bunch of cameos from past characters like Haung and Cassidy, as well as push the seemingly never-ending slow burn of a possible Benson/Stabler romance. It also does play into Benson reflecting on her age and the classic worry of anyone getting older, of losing the people they care about.
At least Cragen was giving a good exit with a fine funeral attended by so many people he’d influenced and it was nice to see some old faces back, if only briefly. It may also be the producers' thinking that Florek won’t want to return for more cameos, so having Cragen pass on seems to be the best option.
It’s still an odd move for the show and hopefully Law & Order: SVU isn’t eerily predicting Florek’s passing sooner than later. It does open season 27 on a melancholy note and how Cragen’s passing marks the end of an era for SVU.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit season 27 airs Thursdays at 9/8c on NBC.
Get the latest Law and Order updates with Precinct TV.