In all the years Law & Order: Special Victims Unit has been on the air, Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) has been looked to as a pinnacle for change. She helped pave the way for strong female characters to rule the screen, and showed that they can hold their own as main characters just as well as men. In the case of SVU, Benson was a much-needed juxtaposition to her partner Stabler (Christopher Meloni) in terms of morality, ethics, and how they went about cases. Stabler tends to be the one to lead with his emotions, and often gets heated with perps, whereas Benson is always the more level-headed and gentle one in the room. But even she has her flaws, and those flaws were extremely evident in the Season 9 episode “Closet,” in which she outs a gay football player.
What Is ‘Law & Order: SVU’s “Closet” Episode About?
After an investment banker named Jeremy is found dead in his bed, with signs of rape evident, SVU is called in to investigate. They learn that Jeremy was involved in a secret relationship with a famous person who is not yet out to the general public, and after some digging, Stabler determines the secret lover to be Lincoln Haver (Bailey Chase), a star football quarterback. In an effort to keep their relationship a secret, Lincoln has also been having a fake relationship with a woman named Natasha (Chloe Cmarada). As Stabler and Benson are interrogating Natasha for more information on Lincoln’s potential involvement in the murder, Benson mistakenly assumes Natasha knows about Lincoln and Jeremy’s relationship, and outs Lincoln to her.
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The problem is that Natasha actually wasn’t aware that her boyfriend was gay, and instead gets angry and immediately calls up her friend to spill the secret. Lincoln’s agent manages to do damage control and keep Natasha from spreading Lincoln’s secret, but it proves to be pointless because the secret gets out anyway, and it all comes back to Benson — but not in the way you might think. Lincoln is badly beaten and falls into a coma after he is outed, and IAB is brought in to interview the detectives and see if they were responsible for the wider leak. Some digging reveals that Benson has been talking to a reporter named Kurt Moss (Bill Pullman) for some time now, and that she has called him twelve times in the last five days. Benson is accused of leaking information, but she informs them that she has actually been dating Moss, and she would not jeopardize an investigation by feeding information to a reporter. Even though the case is wrapped up in the end and the right person is convicted, the episode doesn’t sit quite right.
“Closet” Is an Extremely Frustrating Episode of ‘Law & Order: SVU’
At the end of the Law & Order: SVU episode, Lincoln is set free from prison with his name cleared, but he reveals to the detectives that he is no longer able to play football due to permanent brain damage. He reflects on how football gave him everything, but simultaneously took it all away. While other episodes of SVU certainly have more tragic endings than this one, there’s something that feels so unfinished about this story. Lincoln already had some damage from previous sports injuries, but the beating he endured after he was outed made it impossible for him to play again. Yes, it’s revealed that he was outed by his agent to the public and not Benson, but we never get any apology from Benson for outing him to Natasha.
Sure, it was only to one person, but she still outed him, and played a role in everything that ended up happening. She had no finesse at that moment, instead just sort of word vomiting and not stopping to think that maybe Natasha didn’t know. She didn’t protect Lincoln’s privacy at that moment, which put him at risk, and helped ruin his career in the office. Even Lincoln himself said in the episode that he just wanted one more season, and then he was going to come out and live his life with Jeremy (whom he reveals he married in Canada sometime before his death).
Benson is such a great role model, but “Closet” is a stain on her character. She makes up for these less than admirable moments throughout the show as she, and the show, grow and evolve with the times, but it is hard to ignore such an abysmal — and rather obvious — mistake she made. Not to mention, the whole “dating a reporter” thing was conveniently never brought up again. But hey, at least we got Bill Pullman as a guest star?
- Release Date
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September 20, 1999
- Network
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NBC
- Showrunner
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Robert Palm, David J. Burke, Neal Baer, Warren Leight, Rick Eid, Michael S. Chernuchin, David Graziano