Law & Order: SVU Star Reacts To Finale's Major Barba & Benson Scene
Law & Order: SVU star Raúl Esparza discusses the potential romance set up between his character Rafael Barba and Olivia Benson. Benson, the character played by Mariska Hargitay, has been one of the leads of the Law & Order spinoff, which focuses on a team that investigates and prosecutes sex-related crimes, since the show's beginning in 1999. Throughout the series, her character's primary potential romantic interest has been her longtime partner Elliot Stabler, played by Christopher Meloni. Stabler left the series after season 12, but recently returned for a crossover with his new series Law & Order: Organized Crime, leading fans to believe that a Benson-Stabler romance is in the cards once more.
However, SVU's season 23 finale has thrown a wrench in the works. Making his second appearance this season, Esparza returned as Barba, the former assistant district attorney who made his SVU debut on season 14 in 2012 and appeared on an additional 90 episodes. An emotionally charged conversation between him and Benson implied that, should she choose to open up to him, they could very swiftly become romantically interlinked, implying a potential love triangle should she take her therapist's advice and seek to explore her feelings with Stabler.
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TVLine sat down with Raúl Esparza to discuss that Law & Order: SVU finale twist. The actor admits that the scene "can be taken in a number of ways," and it doesn't necessarily mean that Barba and Benson are jumping into a romantic relationship. He describes laughing about the script with Hargitay and saying “Well, are we suddenly in a triangle here? What’s going on?" The two of them haven't included romantic elements in
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