![\"Law](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/2ADIIB5A3NAHRNSRQPESIXPKRE.JPG\"\/)
Dann Florek as Capt. Donald Cragen.Virginia Sherwood\/NBC<\/p>\n\u201cLaw & Order: Special Victims Unit\u201d killed off an original cast member during the season 27 premiere.<\/p>\n
The Thursday, Sept. 25, episode featured a memorial service for Captain Donald Cragen<\/b> (Dann Florek), who died offscreen before the events of the premiere.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was the best boss I ever had,\u201d Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) told Dominick Carisi Jr. (Peter Scanavino). \u201cEverything I know about being a captain, I learned from him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Florek made an appearance in the episode via old footage of Cragen making a speech at his retirement party.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a long road. It hasn\u2019t always been pleasant, and it certainly hasn\u2019t always been easy,\u201d Cragen said in the clip. \u201cI lived for my job, I don\u2019t think that surprises anybody, and I can\u2019t imagine my life any other way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Florek was an original \u201cSVU\u201d cast member, along with Hargitay, Christopher Meloni (Elliot Stabler), Richard Belzer (John Munch), and Michelle Hurd (Monique Jeffries). He starred as Cragen for seasons 1-15 before returning as a guest star for seasons 16 and 23.<\/p>\n
Cragen\u2019s death marks a new chapter for Olivia and Elliot. <\/p>\n
Dann Florek as Capt. Donald Cragen.Virginia Sherwood\/NBC<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like we\u2019re entering the \u2018all our friends are dying\u2019 era,\u201d Olivia told Elliot during the episode. <\/p>\n
Elliot agreed, calling it the \u201cworst era,\u201d before reminiscing about their days as partners with Cragen as their boss.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot that you can go back, and not that I\u2019d want to, but we had a pretty good run there for a minute,\u201c Elliot said.<\/p>\n
Olivia reassured him, \u201cWe still do, just different.\u201d <\/p>\n
READ MORE: <\/b>\u2018Law & Order: SVU\u2019 cast changes: See who isn\u2019t coming back<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n Later in the episode, Olivia told a rape survivor who asked how she does her job every day that she once had \u201ca really great boss who believed in\u201d her, referring to Cragen.<\/p>\n \u201c[He] told me I was worthy, and then eventually, I started to believe it. He worked a lot longer than he needed to because he was so good at his job and because it gave his life meaning. He and I were a lot alike, and I don\u2019t think I fully realized it until after he was gone,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cLaw & Order: Special Victims Unit\u201d airs on NBC on Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET. Episodes are <\/b>available to stream on Peacock<\/b><\/a> the day after they air.<\/b><\/p>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cLaw & Order: Special Victims Unit\u201d killed off an original cast member during the season 27 premiere. The…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":256563,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[171,1004,135047,135048,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-256562","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-episodic","10":"tag-nup_208222","11":"tag-season-27","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115271664220347282","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}