Law & Order: SVU star Raúl Esparza discusses the potential romance set up between his character Rafael Barba and Olivia Benson. Benson, the character played by Mariska Hargitay, has been one of the leads of the Law & Order spinoff, which focuses on a team that investigates and prosecutes sex-related crimes, since the show's beginning in 1999. Throughout the series, her character's primary potential romantic interest has been her longtime partner Elliot Stabler, played by Christopher Meloni. Stabler left the series after season 12, but recently returned for a crossover with his new series Law & Order: Organized Crime, leading fans to believe that a Benson-Stabler romance is in the cards once more.
However, SVU's season 23 finale has thrown a wrench in the works. Making his second appearance this season, Esparza returned as Barba, the former assistant district attorney who made his SVU debut on season 14 in 2012 and appeared on an additional 90 episodes. An emotionally charged conversation between him and Benson implied that, should she choose to open up to him, they could very swiftly become romantically interlinked, implying a potential love triangle should she take her therapist's advice and seek to explore her feelings with Stabler.
TVLine sat down with Raúl Esparza to discuss that Law & Order: SVU finale twist. The actor admits that the scene "can be taken in a number of ways," and it doesn't necessarily mean that Barba and Benson are jumping into a romantic relationship. He describes laughing about the script with Hargitay and saying “Well, are we suddenly in a triangle here? What’s going on?" The two of them haven't included romantic elements in their own performances, so they were as surprised by the development as the fans. Check out Esparza's full quote below:
I think that it can be taken in a number of ways. So, it surprised me to have it brought out so explicitly, however, but not too much. There are fans that have always wanted to kind of spin off that story. And Mariska [Hargitay] and I kind of laughed about it, too. Like, “Well, are we suddenly in a triangle here? What’s going on?” [Laughs] Which is hysterical, because it really isn’t how we play it. I think she and I always play it as best friends and almost brother and sister sometimes. However… I don’t know, I know what I was thinking when I said the words that I said onscreen… I like that it can be read in number of ways.
The persistence of this particular love triangle depends on how frequently both Barba and Stabler are able to return to SVU. Neither actor is currently part of the main cast of the series. Meloni is going to be busy on Organized Crime season 3 while Esparza hasn't been a regular cast member on SVU since season 19.
The fact is that Meloni is most often in the orbit of Law & Order: SVU because he is currently playing a character in the same universe, and the series tend to feature lots of crossover. Even if Benson attempts to enter a relationship with Barba, it seems more likely that Stabler will be around for the long haul even if he's not able to appear in every episode. However, Law & Order is always full of twists and turns, so viewers should know by now to expect the unexpected.
Source: TVLine