In the first episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 8, Detective Elliot Stabler

(Christopher Meloni) calls his partner, Detective Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay),

only to learn that her number has been disconnected. And he doesn’t know why.

How to Watch

Watch Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Thursdays at 9/8c on NBC and next day on Peacock.

She left without saying goodbye, and his reaction tells you everything you need to know about how much he cares about her and their partnership.

Why Benson disappeared on Stabler

In the Season 8 premiere, “Informed,” Benson goes to great lengths to help an assault victim who was also working as an informant for the FBI. She’s part of an eco-terrorist group planning an attack. To save the woman from further assaults, Benson decides that she will go undercover and infiltrate the group so that she can help thwart the attack… too bad she didn’t tell Stabler where she was going.

Watch the episode now on Peacock.

In a heart-wrenching scene, he picks up the phone to call her, but the line is disconnected and he gets a message from the phone company instead. His expression says it all: shock, disbelief, worry, sadness. “What is this, a joke?” he asks.

The unshakable Stabler-Benson bond is at the heart of SVU — if the two cops can’t trust each other, the unit is in trouble

The real reason Mariska Hargitay was gone

Fortunately, the behind the scenes reason for Hargitay’s absence is a happy one: She was having a baby!

In 2006, Hargitay gave birth to her first child with husband (and fellow SVU actor) Peter Hermann. During her pregnancy, Hargitay wrote on her blog (according to People), “I’m LOVING every minute of [pregnancy] and am so excited to be a mom…Not sure if you’ve heard, but the producers have decided not to make Olivia pregnant, so I won’t be in a few episodes. But don’t worry, the writers are working on some really great storylines, and there will be a special guest star filling in for me.”

All in all, Benson is gone from six episodes of Season 8, and Stabler gets a temporary replacement partner named Dani Beck (Connie Nielsen). Thank goodness.

When do new episodes of Law & Order: SVU air?

SVU airs weekly on Thursdays at 9/8c on NBC. All new episodes are available to stream the next day on Peacock, as are the previous seasons.