WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 22, Episode 9, "Return of the Prodigal Son."
After being absent from the Law & Order franchise for 10 years, Christopher Meloni returned to reprise his role as Detective Elliot Stabler as the lead of a new series, Law & Order: Organized Crime. The latest entry in the franchise follows Stabler as part of a new task force for the NYPD that aims to take down powerful crime syndicates. Organized Crime is a spin-off of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, another series focusing on a different task force that investigates sex crimes. Stabler was one of the lead detectives alongside Mariska Hargitay's Olivia Benson.
Stabler was written out of Special Victims Unit after the Season 12 finale, when a shootout at the S.V.U. offices forced him to shoot the daughter of a rape victim who attempted to kill those responsible for the crime against her mom. Not wanting to submit to an internal review and psychological evaluation in order to keep his job, Stabler resigned offscreen in the Season 13 premiere, leaving Benson and the rest of the team without a proper goodbye. Since his departure, Stabler's whereabouts were never disclosed until he returned in Season 22's "Return of the Prodigal Son," which saw Stabler and Benson reunite for the first time in a decade as part of a crossover event for Organized Crime.
After quitting the Special Victims Unit, Stabler worked for private security overseas before landing a job as the NYPD's international liaison in Rome investigating organized crime. He returned to New York for work-related reasons, but also wanted to surprise Benson when he discovered she was receiving an award while he was in the city. However, Stabler's wife, Kathy, was seriously injured in a car bombing. This was when he reunited with Benson and the rest of the new S.V.U. team, as he tried to assist them in finding out who planted the bomb. Benson later confronted Stabler about his abrupt departure, criticizing him for not explaining to her why he left and having to hear about it from others. Stabler apologized, saying that he might not have left the S.V.U. if he heard her voice.
It was later revealed that the car bombing may be linked to a much bigger crime network, and that Stabler was the intended target. As the investigation continued, Kathy died at the hospital after her spleen ruptured. Devastated by the loss of his wife, Stabler then joined the new Organized Crime Control Bureau to find his wife's killer and assist in bringing a larger criminal network down. This directly leads into the pilot episode of Organized Crime, which sees Stabler continue his investigation while also trying to keep his family together in the wake of their tragedy.
Created by Dick Wolf and produced by Wolf Entertainment and Universal Television, Law & Order: Organized Crime stars Christopher Meloni, Dylan McDermott and Tamara Taylor. The series premiered Thursday, April 1 at 10 p.m. ET on NBC.