Love him or hate him, but don’t let him vanish without a word.
When someone who was loved by the entire fandom leaves the show, it’s always very sad. Not even the best ending to the character’s arc can ease the fans’ pain.
But even more controversial characters deserve a proper send-off instead of just leaving and never coming back. The Law & Order franchise is not particularly known for its concern for story endings.
The writers clearly care more about the logic of the cases than the personal development or relationships within the characters, and the audience seems to accept it.
However, they would still prefer that the showrunners put a little more effort into character departures.
Peter Stone, portrayed by Philip Winchester, left the show after season 20 and became just another example of someone who never got a chance to say a proper goodbye.
Although he wasn’t the most popular character, and was often found to be rather annoying by the audience, that doesn’t mean he wasn’t important.
Being on the show for two seasons, Stone had built up some real relationships with other characters, and no one liked to see them just dropped.
His unlikely friendship with Olivia or his baseball coaching sessions with Noah were never mentioned again, as if the character had simply disappeared from the Law & Order universe.
“I thought he was a terrible character and I hated how the showrunner pushed his character to be the lead behind Olivia. But also… To be fair law and order sucks at wrapping up a character’s storyline. Elliot just disappeared and Barba killed a baby, both of which seem massively out of character,” Redditor ButterscotchPast4812 said.
Unfortunately, these misfortunes lead to a pattern that fans just can’t stand anymore.
With every other character leaving the series in a worse way than the previous ones, viewers are just scared to see the fate that awaits the next one.
