The Fin Moment On Law & Order: SVU That Went Too Far
"Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" is one of the "Law & Order" franchise's most successful spin-offs. The procedural crime drama, which kicked off in 1999, is still going strong today in its current 23rd season. "SVU" has had a solid cast of beloved characters, including Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) and Odafin "Fin" Tutuola (Ice-T). Stabler left the show after the 12th season but reconnected with his old team thanks to a special crossover episode between "SVU" and "Law & Order: Organized Crime." On "Return of the Prodigal Son," Fin and Stabler have drinks while playing catch-up. And this was shocking to some fans as Stabler and Fin weren't exactly the best of friends on previous seasons of "Law & Order: SVU."
Although they respected each other, their relationship could be seen as rocky at best and volatile at its worst. So seeing the two brief each other alone in a bar is in stark contrast to the Season 7 episode, "Venom," where the two officers are probably at their worst. Fin's estranged son is a major suspect in a homicide case in the episode. "Venom" basically puts Fin's troubled familial relationship on display. Couple this with some tense dialogue between him and Stabler, and we've got the moment where many fans thought Fin went too far.
Fin delivered a brutal insult about Stabler's daughter
Tensions are near the boiling point with Fin, which is understandable given the situation with his son. But it's an exchange with Stabler that pushes everything to the next unfortunate level. Following Stabler's statement that Fin may not truly know his son, Fin, with an ice-cold response, brings up Stabler's daughter, Kathleen, and her previous arrest for drunk driving. The situation then turns briefly turns physical before they're broken apart.
On the "Law & Order: SVU" subreddit, some fans expressed that Fin was hitting below the belt with his response. u/Jdpm1991 wrote, "Stabler didn't know the whole story. It looked bad on Fin's son's part. Fin's son Ken was digging up a grave or something while drunk after partying with his cousin Darius. But what Fin said about Stabler's daughter was uncalled for." Another Redditor agreed but added that Stabler should have been a bit more supportive of Fin "... instead of low-key accusing him of being an absent father." The scene may have made for brutal dialogue, but it was another excellent example of the combative dynamic between Stabler and Fin. And as Ice-T noted in an interview for Hollywood Life, it was that clash that helped build up his character.
"People say, oh, you and Stabler went at each other. I'm like, that was 15 years ago," Ice-T said in the interview. "Of course, in the writing, they'll say, okay, you guys push up against each other. But I think they did that just to let people know that Fin wasn't going to back down. They were building my character, not so much that I hated Chris [Meloni], but they just wanted to see somebody that wouldn't back off."