Mariska Hargitay has reached 600 episodes as Olivia Benson on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, and she marked the moment by directing the milestone episode herself. The Mariska Hargitay 600th episode, titled Obedience, aired on Thursday, November 12, at 9 p.m. ET on NBC, and it streams the next day on Peacock. Hargitay has played Benson since the show began in 1999, and the episode brings her face to face with her former partner, Elliot Stabler, played by Christopher Meloni.
The episode revisits one of Benson’s earliest cases, and it asks questions about that case that pull Benson and Stabler back together. Meloni left the show in 2011, and he has returned for guest appearances since then. The Mariska Hargitay 600th episode gives the pair a full story together, and it leans on the long history between the two characters, with its power shifts and its unanswered questions.
Hargitay spoke about the milestone in an interview with Variety ahead of the broadcast. She recalled a celebratory dinner with the cast and crew, series creator Dick Wolf and Meloni. At the dinner, she gave a toast about what 600 episodes meant to her. She said, “Here we are at 600 episodes, and it really does not feel totally real.” She added that it felt right that it should feel that way, because it was as if they all get to live in a dream of what they thought might be possible someday. The Mariska Hargitay 600th episode dinner brought the cast and crew together before the broadcast.
Mariska Hargitay 600th episode tells a personal story
The story in Obedience is close to Hargitay’s heart. She said the episode is about a woman having her voice and being submissive or subservient in a way, or giving up her power or her instinct, and she said that is an important story to tell because so many women identify with it. The theme runs through the case at the center of the episode, and it shapes the scenes between Benson and Stabler as they look back at work they did years ago.
Hargitay also spoke about the bond between Benson and Stabler, which has stayed a core part of the show for more than 25 years. She said every relationship is fraught, and every relationship has power dynamics, and will they or will they not, and what could have been and what is not, and why, and could they and can they not, and the complexity of all that. She said some things are a mystery, and she said chemistry is one of them. The remarks show how much of the Mariska Hargitay 600th episode rests on the two characters and not on the case alone.
Mariska Hargitay 600th episode follows a big year
The milestone arrives at the end of a packed year for Hargitay, and the Mariska Hargitay 600th episode caps it. She won two Emmys in September for her documentary My Mom Jayne, about her late mother Jayne Mansfield, and she hosted the Emmy ceremony the following week. She then returned to New York to film the 600th episode, with production starting four days after the ceremony. She also founded the Joyful Heart Foundation in 2004, a nonprofit that works with survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence.
Variety reported that Hargitay now earns nearly 850,000 dollars per episode as the star of the show and an executive producer, a role she took on in season 15. A 22-episode season at that rate would come to about 18.7 million dollars. The figure puts her among the highest paid actors on network television, and it reflects a run that has lasted through 28 seasons and now includes the Mariska Hargitay 600th episode. Variety also reported that Selena Gomez, Steve Martin and Martin Short each earn 1 million dollars an episode for Only Murders in the Building.
What comes next after the Mariska Hargitay 600th episode
Wolf gave a toast of his own at the celebration dinner, and Hargitay said it made the night land for her. Wolf said, “This has never happened, and it will never happen again.” Hargitay told Variety that everything landed that night, and she thanked the people who helped make the 600 episodes. The show is the longest running live action prime time drama in American television, and the Mariska Hargitay 600th episode is the latest mark in that run.
Hargitay has thought about leaving the role, and she has said so in public. She told E! News in October that she has thought about it for way later, and she added that she is very engaged and fulfilled at SVU right now. For now, she stays, and Law and Order: SVU airs on Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on NBC.