We Finally Know What Was In Elliot's Letter To Olivia On Law & Order

The saga of Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler is long and tortured. The two worked together in the Special Victims Unit for years, getting closer and developing romantic tension for over a decade. Then Stabler left New York, which devastated Liv. She wept openly when he left the force and was completely blindsided when she saw him again years later.

Christopher Meloni's return to the "Law & Order" universe has been dredging up all the feels, both for the characters and the fanbase. "Special Victims Unit" and "Organized Crime" have been crossing over for much of the 2nd season of the latter show, and in Season 2, Episode 3, things came to a head.

Last season, Stabler gave Benson a letter. His wife had just died, and her killer was evading justice. It was a bad scene all around. We didn't see the contents of the letter; we only knew they were upsetting for Olivia. In this episode of "Organized Crime," we finally learned the contents of that letter.

Elliot showed up on Benson's front door, stoned out of his gourd by the Albanian mob. But rather than seek medical attention, Stabler wanted to talk about his feelings. Apparently, this is something Elliot can only do at literally the most inopportune time, but we kind of love to see it.

"We never talked about what happened," he said. "I didn't write the letter ... I didn't write the letter." It would seem his wife Kathy (Isabel Gillies) dictated the letter, from her hospital bed, right before dying. A drama queen move, if we've ever seen one.

So before we even know what's in the letter, we know that it wasn't exactly true to Stabler's feelings. Liv rattled off the letter's most salient points from memory because that's how hurt she'd been by them. "That what we were to each other was never real and that we got in the way of each other being who and where we needed to be? ... And if there was a man in my life, he should be the kind and faithful and devoted man I deserved?" she asked. All those words were Kathy's.

One part of the letter was Stabler's original thought. "But in a parallel universe," Liv started, only for Elliot to finish the sentence.

"'It'll always be you and I.' I wrote that," he said. "I slipped it in there before sealing the envelope."

How these revelations will shake out for Benson and Stabler — and how Stabler will feel about sharing them while drugged — remain to be seen. But regardless, fans are looking at Kathy in an entirely new way.