SVU Kills Cragen After 35 Years (In A Disrespectful Way)

Warning! Spoilers ahead for Law & Order: SVU season 27, episode 1.Law & Order: SVU returns with a major loss to Olivia Benson and the NBC franchise as a whole. TV’s longest-running show is back with a lot of exciting things ahead, including the full-time return of Kelli Giddish’s Amanda Rollins. So it’s quite jarring to learn that the year is opening with a massive franchise death.

Considering their line of work, Benson and the rest of her team are no strangers to danger. All of them have faced certain situations that almost killed them. Benson herself has been kidnapped and beaten a few times. Still, NBC and Wolf Entertainment have managed to keep Law & Order: SVU’s main cast deaths to a minimum.

The last time a major character in the show died was when Richard Belzer’s demise mirrored Munch’s fate in the series. Law & Order: SVU didn’t make a big fuss about the matter, only alluding to it with a brief toast. Its latest death, however, is far more heartbreaking and, frankly, even headscratching.

Law & Order: SVU Season 25 Kills Captain Cragen After 35 Years In The Franchise

Instead of the usual case set-up that opens an episode, Law & Order: SVU season 27 starts with the death of Captain Donald Cragen. Benson walks to his memorial, where she is reunited with her fellow original cast members, Dr. George Huang and Brian Cassidy. After some pleasantries, she joins Sonny Carisi and Fin Tutuola.

For context, Cragen was originally a character in the original Law & Order series, debuting in “Prescripion for Death,” the show’s pilot in 1990. By then, Cragen was already a captain — a role that he kept for a couple of more decades and more prominently when he became a main cast member when Law & Order: SVU in 1999.

Granted that Cragen retired from the service in 2014, he continued to appear in both Law & Order: SVU and, more recently, in Law & Order: Organized Crime to reunite with arguably his best detectives — Benson and Elliot Stabler. This has kept him relevant and active in the franchise.

Why Cragen’s Death Is So Underwhelming

NYPD Captain Cragen congratulates Benson in Law And Order SVU

Cragen’s impact and contributions to the Law & Order franchise can’t be overstated. As Benson said, everything she knows about being a captain, she learned from her former boss. Aside from being a work mentor, Cragen was also a father figure to both Benson and Stabler.

The acknowledgment of Belzer’s death through Munch makes sense, but it’s quizzical why NBC and Wolf Entertainment decided to kill Cragen now. Dann Florek is still alive, and was even on set when they filmed Benson and Stabler’s emotional talk outside of his memorial. There doesn’t seem to be any narrative reasoning for killing him — at least right now.

Even if Law & Order: SVU has a bigger storytelling plan involving his death, the brief memorial at the start of the season 27 premiere is disrespectful to the legacy of the character in the franchise. At the very least, the show should have staged a proper reunion with him and even just Benson and Stabler before he bit the bullet.

Enjoy ScreenRant’s primetime coverage? Click below to sign up for my weekly Network TV newsletter (make sure to check “Network TV” in your preferences) and get the inside scoop from actors and showrunners on your favorite series.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

Release Date: September 20, 1999
Showrunner: Michael S. Chernuchin, David Graziano
Directors: Jean de Segonzac, David Platt, Peter Leto, Alex Chapple, Juan José Campanella, Norberto Barba, Constantine Makris, Martha Mitchell, Arthur W. Forney, Michael Slovis, Steve Shill, Alex Zakrzewski, Michael Pressman, Helen Shaver, Mariska Hargitay, Michael Smith, Ted Kotcheff, Fred Berner, Jonathan Kaplan, Holly Dale, Jonathan Herron, Jud Taylor, Adam Bernstein, Jim McKay