‘Law & Order: SVU’ Bids Farewell To Capt. Cragen With Emotional Funeral: “The Best Boss I Ever Had”
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit kicked off Season 27 on a bittersweet note as an emotional funeral offered many of the original characters a chance to mourn one of their own.
The season premiere, which aired Thursday, showed everyone’s favorite detectives convening at a New York City bar to bid farewell to the late NYPD Capt. Donald Cragen (Dann Florek). Florek is still very much alive and even paid a visit to set in August when they filmed the episode, but this marked a final farewell for Detective Olivia Benson’s (Mariska Hargitay) longtime boss.
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Benson remembered him with a touching tribute at the memorial service.
“He was the best boss that I ever had,” she says. “Everything I know about being a captain, I learned from him.”
The episode also saw a touching reunion with several of Florek and Benson’s colleagues from their decades spent in the SVU together, including Dr. Huang (BD Wong), Rollins (Kelli Giddish) and Fin (Ice-T).
Christopher Meloni also made a brief appearance. Though he couldn’t bring himself to walk into the memorial service and mourn his former boss, Detective Elliot Stabler shared a kind moment with Detective Benson. “We had a pretty good run there for a bit,” he tells her.
Florek has not been a series regular since 2014. But he’s reprised his role as Capt. Cragen a select few times over the yeas since, with the Season 27 premiere possibly marking the last time he could.
The funeral also marked a possible turning point for Detective Benson, who can be seen questioning her own future in the force as she reunites with her longtime friends and colleagues to mourn their “all-our-friends-are-dying era.”
At one point, she even notes that she’s “closer to the end than the beginning,” which could mean some serious change is coming to the Special Victims Unit.
Florek also appeared in the Meloni-led spinoff Law & Order: Organized Crime for four episodes between 2022 and 2024.
New episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit air Thursdays on NBC at 9/8c.
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