Detective Eliot Stabler had Irritable Bowel Syndrome
February 13th, 2008IBS is no laughing matter. Unless it’s happening to one of the toughest cops on television.
Let me paint you a word picture - Stabler and Benson are on foot in hot pursuit of an armed suspect, racing wildly through the streets of NYC. Both cops are yelling at the guy to stop, freeze, all that jazz. The camera pans forward to the back of the bad guy, the pans quickly back to Detective Benson, who is now whispering quietly into her police radio that Stabler had to make “a quick exit”. The camera flashes quickly to Stabler ducking into the nearest business whose door is unlocked and, with his badge in the air, yelling almost unintelligibly about a “police emergency” and searching frantically for the nearest commode.
Now just in case that one didn’t exactly strike a chord with you, here’s another hypothetical. There’s a serial killer on the loose and Captain Kragen has all of his troops assembled in the common area of the police station. Everyone is looking solemn and determined as the Captain details the crimes committed by the target of what could only be described as a manhunt. Stabler is standing confidently and supportively near the center of the action, making damn sure that nobody is taking this too lightly.
The very next second, he’s at a dead run, knocking over any unfortunate constables unlucky enough to be between him and relief. There’s an awkward silence as he damn near takes the bathroom door off, at which time the Captain makes several feeble attempts to corral the cops back into some type of order, then sighs reluctantly and says quietly to himself, “That poor son of a bitch…”