SVU‘s 1999 premere “Payback” was jam-packed with memorable moments between Benson and Stabler.
fter nearly three decades of tense investigations and heated moments, it’s quite impressive that Law & Order: Special Victims Unit stars Christopher Meloni and Mariska Hargitay can still remember their first scene as Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler. But it certainly helps that the long-running NBC crime drama hit the ground running in delivering the shock and awe.
Law & Order: SVU fans first fell in love with Detectives Benson and Stabler after meeting the partners in SVU‘s 1999 premiere, “Payback,” where they investigated the gruesome murder and genital dismemberment of a New York cabbie. It’s a debut episode that gave viewers a perfect first taste of what to expect from SVU: jaw-dropping crime scenes, salacious investigations, and two detectives ready to make sense of the chaos. It’s no wonder fans were hooked from the get-go as Benson and Stabler emerged as two squad room badasses.
During a 2022 interview with the Law & Order stars, not only was Hargitay able to recall her very first line as Benson (her character’s name), but Meloni also demonstrated that he could quote the full crime scene cold open.
Chris Meloni reveals the “best line” from his first SVU scene with Benson
Detective Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Detective Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) appear in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 1 Episode 5 “Wanderlust”.
Photo: Jessica Burstein/NBCU Photo Bank
After correctly deducing that his first-ever line on SVU was introducing him and Benson to the reporting officers, Meloni reminisced about one of the more humorous lines within that first SVU scene.
“I remember the best line of that scene, which was, ‘Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar,’ something like that,” Meloni recalled. “And he goes, “Yeah. Well, that guy’s cigar is missing.’ And I looked in there, and I look out, and Mariska and I look at each other like: ‘Oh.'”
Meloni flaunted some sick recall ability during the chat, nearly quoting that first SVU scene verbatim. For those in need of a rewind: after Detectives Stabler and Benson arrived at the murder scene of the cabbie in the midst of a downpour, they were a tad confused as to why sex crimes had been pinged, only to catch wind of a gruesome dismemberment that immediately clarified their presence.
“Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar,” Stabler tells the reporting officer with confusion after looking through the taxi for evidence. “Is there any specific reason you called us out?”
“Whoever did this sliced off his cigar and took it with him,” the cop explained to the detectives. “Is that specific enough?”
Benson and Stabler processed this, taking a beat to look back into the cab and notice the cabbie’s predicament. After swapping a weighted look with her partner, Benson quipped, “Works for me.”
Mariska Hargitay knew Chris Meloni was SVU’s Stabler from the jump
Just like Hargitay and Meloni can recall their first-ever SVU scene with impressive skill, Hargitay also holds the memory of first meeting her Law & Order co-star close to her heart.
During a January 2025 interview with TODAY, Hargitay looked back on her first meeting with Meloni, telling the outlet that she had a good feeling that they were going to be SVU partners before they were even officially cast. From the moment Hargitay “sized him up,” she knew Meloni was “the guy.”
“In the room, when he walked in, I sort of sized him up, and I said, ‘That’s the guy,'” Hargitay recalled fondly. “‘That’s the guy. That is the guy. That is the guy.’ It was so obvious to me that that was the guy, and apparently, he felt the same way. So, it was — just felt meant to be.”
