Mariska Hargitay has more than 500 episodes to choose from when it comes to picking her favorite of the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit series. The show has become the longest-running and most successful Law & Order spin off and Mariska Hargitay has been there since the beginning. While the original Dick Wolf drama Law & Order focuses on major crimes, which usually means murder mysteries, SVU takes on crimes that include a sexual component. While the series often has very dark subject matter, the commitment of the actors and the storytelling keep fans coming back for more.

When TV Guide produced a magazine highlighting the 25th anniversary of SVU, they set out to talk to the cast (both past and present) about their favorite episodes of the show and get behind-the-scenes details. Many cast had different answers about their favorites, and favorite episodes often boiled down to which episode felt different from the work they usually had on the show. Hargitay, however, could not pick just one episode.

Mariska Hargitay’s Favorite Episodes Broke From SVU Tradition In Season 15

Hargitay’s Favorite Episodes Involve A Recurring Antagonist

Mariska Hargitay revealed to TV Guide that her favorite episode of the series was actually an entire arc for the show. She loved the arc that centered on her character’s interactions with William Lewis (Pablo Schreiber). The character specifically stalked, kidnapped, and tortured Olivia Benson, making for a very memorable arc. Hargitay enjoyed the work because it went into “uncharted territory” for the show. Her full comment to TV Guide stated:

Pablo Schreiber played a psychotic killer who twice kidnapped and tortured [Olivia Benson]. We definitely went into some uncharted territory there. The goal is to surprise yourself and truly be in a moment. I felt like we achieved that.

While the arc began in season 14, it propelled the show into its 15th season, and Hargitay further called the season 15 premiere the “most difficult episode” she had filmed up to that point when interviewed on TODAY. She said the arc provided the kind of episodes that made her “nervous” to go to work, but that was a good thing because it only reignited her love for acting and making sure she is in the moment with her character.

This particular SVU story arc made Benson a survivor instead of simply the investigator. While Olivia Benson had been known as one of the most empathic of detectives for the run of the show, her experience only intensified her ability to understand and connect with survivors of horrific crimes. It also broke from tradition for the series.

Not many arcs in Law & Order: SVU spanned more than a few episodes in the early seasons of the series. Most of season 15 became devoted to Benson dealing with the trauma of what William Lewis put her through. It allowed the audience to get to know her better as a whole character instead of simply as an investigator.

Hargitay’s Best Episode Is Actually In Season 7

Hargitay Won An Emmy For The Episode

Though the season 15 arc might be Hargitay’s favorite episodes of Law & Order: SVU, those episodes actually do not include her best of the show’s run. Season 7, episode 3 is “911.” It is Screen Rant’s own best episode of SVU and the highest-rated episode of the series on IMDb with a 9.3 out of 10.

The emotional impact of the story relies on Hargitay to carry the episode...

The episode is one of the first to break the traditional format of a Law & Order episode. While most episodes of the series follow the initial investigation and then the court proceedings, the entire “911” episode follows the investigation, most of which simply involves Benson on the phone with a nine-year-old girl.

When the girl places an emergency call claiming to be trapped in her room, dispatch reroutes the call to the Special Victims Unit. While most think “Maria” is simply making a prank call, Benson believes her and uses clues from their conversations throughout the episode to find her and save her life. The emotional impact of the story relies on Hargitay to carry the episode as the cameras spend most of the time trained on her as she talks into a speakerphone.

For her work in the episode, Hargitay became the first main cast member of the entire Law & Order franchise to win a Primetime Emmy. She also cemented her status as the show’s leading lady, despite it being an ensemble series.

Hargitay also won a Golden Globe for her work in SVU in 2005.

What SVU Learned From “911”

“911” Helped Usher In More Character-Driven Stories

It is not a stretch to say that without “911” there would not have been a William Lewis arc for SVU. With the season 7 episode focused so sharply on one character and one case, it demonstrated that the Law & Order audience was ready for more character-driven stories. It allowed the series to begin to bring in more personal anecdotes from the lives of the detectives and lawyers at the center of the cases-of-the-week and raise the personal stakes for the characters and the audience.

Without “911,” the series would not have begun to bring in more outside-the-box ideas.

An episode like “911” also demonstrated that SVU did not always have to keep the Law & Order formula intact. The series slowly allowed more recurring villains, two-part episodes, and episodes that focused more on the investigation than the courtroom to become a part of the show’s narratives. Without “911,” the series would not have begun to bring in more outside-the-box ideas.

“911” also provided a jumping-off point for another episode nearly 20 years later. In 2024, Benson and Maria meet again, though this time Maria is an adult and a police officer herself. The original episode is a superb addition to the Law & Order canon, but 2024’s “Probability of Doom” allowed Benson to get closure about the case, finding out what happened to Maria, and learning she inspired her to help others.

2025 also brought Maria back again for a more tragic story, but again, the emotional stakes of her tragic return in an SVU crossover with Law & Order would not have been possible without that initial episode. “911” helped the writers discover new ways to make the audience truly care about the characters, and gave them the leeway to revisit those past story arcs instead of keeping the show purely episodic.

Hargitay might have a fondness for season 15 of Law & Order: SVU, but “911” is her best episode of the show, and without it, SVU might not have become the iconic procedural it is today.