SVU Reveals Who Dies in Season 27

Law & Order: SVU Season 27 just premiered, and the lead characters are already attending a wake for someone who died off-screen. With this grim revelation, the show started on an emotional note. So, who was the wake for?

Here are all the details you need to know.

Who dies in Law & Order: SVU Season 27 premiere?

In the Law & Order: SVU Season 27 premiere, “In the Wind,” the episode opened with Captain Donald Cragen’s (Dann Florek) wake. While the actor is still alive, his character received an off-screen death.

Played by Dann Florek, Capt. Donald Cragen was an integral part of the Law & Order franchise. He has appeared quite prominently in the first three seasons of Law & Order and the first 15 seasons of Law & Order: SVU. During his time on SVU, he had mentored Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and many other officers. He officially retired from SVU in 2014, resulting in Olivia/Liv becoming the Captain.

In the premiere, Liv walked into the wake and saw a floral wreath around Cragen’s picture. As she makes her way through the crowd, she meets Dr. Huang and offers her sympathies. After seeing that Liv is clearly upset about the death, Huang offered to talk, but Liv turned her down politely. She also encountered other team members like Rollins, Carisi, and Fi.

At one point, Liv watched a video of Cragen from his retirement party and recalled how she learnt everything from him. Fin admitted to Liv that he’s been thinking about retiring, though not anytime soon. Later, she also ran into Kathryn Tynan, who praised her for her work by saying, “You’re the standard I’d like everyone else to meet.” This made Liv a little uneasy.

As she exited the wake, Liv finds Elliot Stabler by the car. Both relived their partnership and admitted that they had a good run for a while. She responded by saying, “We still do.”