THIS, THIS, THIS
THIS JUST FUCKING HAPPENED.
WHY IS THIS SIGNIFICANT, YOU SAY. THIS IS WHY:
THOSE POSES. THEY ACTUALLY USED THE EXACT FREAKING POSES. THE BEECHER-KELLER POSES. They pull eachother in, man. Their whole relationship, they just pulled towards eachother. It was the most screwed up thing in the world, but they had such incredible chemistry . Messed up as it was, they were Oz's love story, man, they really cared for eachother, and that's their pose.
That pose, that was how we could see that there was real affection. Sex happens in Oz, but resting foreheads together, holding eachother like that? That's ONLY Beecher and Keller, because Beecher and Keller were the assigned epic love story.
(I actually think there was something epic in Doctor Nathan (a girl, fyi) and Ryan O'Reily as well, but their's was an epic, it can never be~~, kind of love.)
So, SVU know this. And so much of Chris Meloni's role in SVU is, I think, on some level defined by his role in Oz.
In SVU, Meloni plays a good cop, with some rage and aggression issues, who works sex crimes, is a good Catholic, and has a wife and kids who he loves dearly. Sometimes he flies off the handle, sometimes he'll get so heavy on a suspect it's a little scary, but he's always, always a good guy.
In Oz, Meloni played Christopher Keller. A bisexual serial killer with serious religious guilt issues and three ex-wives. He was locked up for burglary and murder, but also had a whole slew of dead gay men burried out there somewhere because he couldn't handle his attraction to them (within prisons, however, he heartily embraced the whole sex-with-men thing). He was one of the most intensely menacing and unpredictable characters on the show, one of the most intriguing figures to examine when considering the show's amazing moral relativism (I have a half-written essay of this sitting on my hard drive waiting for me to rewatch the series), was incredibly fascinating and astoundingly well-played by Chris Meloni, and was also one half of the couple the show used to explore the theme of romantic love.
This inversion of Keller in Stabler, while still keeping traces of him, it never fails to get me. Sometimes they'll do a Stabler-going-off-the-rails plot and I'll flashback to Keller so hard. Meloni was cast as Stabler while he was still doing Oz. This is significant. He was playing these two roles at the same time. It's one of the most beautifully, and intentionally ironic pieces of casting ever. I just, I will never get over this.
So then they bring Lee Tergesen on for a guest appearance. YEARS after Oz has ended. In an episode that also has Mischa Barton guesting, and the main plot really is focusing on her and Olivia.
But Tergesen plays the bad guy. And Eliot is the one to interogate him. This character, they don't examine him. Don't go into a backstory for him or even have to hunt hard to find him. Mischa Barton is the focus here, this is a victim-centred plot, not an offender one.
But there's this scene. Just him and Stabler. In the interogation room. Befoore that, when Tergesen first appears, there's this little look, like Stabler's surprised to see him. I love that. There is no reason for that appart from the fact that they are the fucking twisted reincarnation of Keller and Beecher in a way, jesus. Anyway, this scene. This whole scene only makes sense if you know Oz. Tergesen's sitting there, and Stabler's absolutely looming over him, getting so close, bending in at these odd angles, and there's that hint of menace, that memory of Keller, of how he'd get so close, use this massive body of his and that unwavering eye contact, work his way in and just be unshakable. Then - and I mean yeah, Stabler's Catholicism is a thing, it's a major recurring thing with his character, but this, this is not that. Because then, Tergesen starts reciting a prayer.
He gets up, still talking, and Stabler is looking at him, and their eyes lock, and Stabler joins in the prayer. They get so close, and they put their arms on eachother's shoulders, and they rest their foreheads against eachother, and it's intense. It's TOO intense for the situation. Eliot HATES offenders, he can't frigging stand them, he has no sympathy for them. El's religion might be a thing, but it wasn't a thing in this episode. There could not be scene like that, foregrounding Eliot's religion so strongly, with no build up. It couldn't happen. But this scene happened, because this scene has nothing to do with Stabler and this random murderer/rapist.
I love that they used religion for this, by the way. So much of Keller was his religious issues. It was a big part in the whole twisted scheme of Keller, and another big part of that scheme was Toby.
So they're standing there, reciting, and looking at eachother, so intently, so, frigging, obviously, this is not about Stabler at all. This is not about religion and it's not indulging a witness to get him to talk because the scene freaking ENDS before that happens. It's just them, this reuniting, this obvious evocation of Keller and Beecher. It's all in the body language, this carefully constructed exact replica. Years after the show ended, their was such a massive deal of a story, it resonates even now. And I mean, they didn't part on the best terms, okay, so there's something so right about the reuniting being so distorted.
I don't even know how confused non-Oz viewers must have been by this.
But me, I was shrieking at the TV. INTERTEXTUALITY, man. One of my greatest loves in the universe, INTERTEXTUALITY. And, there is so much of Keller in Stabler, and Oz is something that stays with you. You don't ever really get over Oz. It was so epically awesome and intelligent and intense and Beecher and Keller were so unique. And okay, Mischa Barton was on a teen soap and then all over the tabloids so she's gonna sell better, but that they'd do that, that they'd directly use characters from another show like that, that floors me. I can't even. Words cannot express how much things like that get to me.
Because when you watch shows, you're bringing all these other things from other texts and applying them, and you get this whole universe of connections and depths, and everything connects, man, and it all makes everything so much richer. The more things work together, and, I just.
I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED.