Might the slow burn end before it extends into three decades? Maybe! Some steamy photos have been taken of Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni on the set of Law & Order: SVU Season 27 that indeed suggest that could be the case.

When SVU began in 1999, Hargitay and Meloni’s characters, Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler, were both detectives and partners. Meloni then left the NBC drama at the end of Season 12. Since then, Benson has risen through the ranks and is now captain of the squad. Stabler, meanwhile, returned to the NYPD in his own spinoff, Organized Crime, in 2021. Since then, there have been multiple crossovers between the two shows, with the former partners teaming up on cases — and sharing some moments that have us wondering just how long the will-they-won’t-they can continue.

But now, with the photos, which you can see above and below, it looks like Benson and Stabler are not just cozying up on set, perhaps after a long day of work for both of them, but also potentially finally sharing a kiss!
Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni are seen on the film set of the TV series

Jose Perez / Bauer-Griffin / GC Images

Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni are seen on the film set of the TV series

Jose Perez / Bauer-Griffin / GC Images

The two almost shared a kiss back in SVU Season 24, after he picked up her son during a threat. “I can’t,” she told him at the time. “What if it doesn’t work out?” He argued, “And what if things work out?” Still, she insisted, “I’m not ready for this,” and pulled away.

When it comes to that long slow burn, “I think we and the writers are trying to find the way, a satisfying way home. We just don’t know what that home is,” Meloni told TV Insider in April, tied to the first two episodes of Organized Crime Season 5 dropping on Peacock. (Hargitay guest starred.)

When it comes to how Stabler feels about her and if he even knows completely, Meloni said, “There could be a whole new spinoff on unpacking that. I think it’s wrapped up in how he’s wired, how he’s built, his Catholicism, the commitments he’s made and promises and complicated.”

Organized Crime has yet to be renewed for a sixth season (the fifth is airing on NBC this fall), but at least it looks like we’ll get our Stabler fix on SVU. And given how long some fans have been waiting for Benson and Stabler to get together, might the scene in these photos be, at the very least, the first step to that? Just look at them!