When NBC opted to air Law & Order: Organized Crime after it was previously available to stream, it created some confusion for fans, but Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is doing its best to clear it up.

The spinoff series sees former SVU detective Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) on a series of undercover assignments. Just where those undercover assignments fall in the main timeline of the Law & Order universe, however, is a little less clear since the show is much more isolated from the other Law & Order series on NBC.

Law & Order: Organized Crime originally aired on NBC alongside the flagship series Law & Order and its sister series Law & Order: SVU, but previously moved to Peacock for season 5. The streamer and the network are now working together to keep the Law & Order universe cohesive.

Law & Order: Organized Crime Reairing Season 5 Caused Some Confusion Among Fans

When Law & Order: Organized Crime season 5 was first made available to watch, the premiere episode aired on NBC as a teaser for viewers, but all other episodes streamed weekly on Peacock starting in April 2025. That made a lot of Law & Order franchise fans believe that the season took place alongside the NBC shows airing at the same time.

That, however, is not necessarily the case.

At the time, Law & Order was closing out its 24th season and SVU its 26th. While the two NBC shows did have a crossover between them, Organized Crime was not involved in that particular storyline. Instead, SVU Captain Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) guest starred in the second episode of Law & Order: Organized Crime season 5.

NBC and Peacock made the decision to air Organized Crime on NBC again, starting in September of 2025, alongside new seasons of Law & Order (25) and SVU (27). It’s a chance for NBC to see if the series will pick up more viewers on the network, and just where a potential Organized Crime season 6 could air.

While NBC mistakenly advertised the upcoming episodes as a new season of Organized Crime, the network is actually reairing season 5, creating the question of just when the season takes place in the larger timeline..

Because the Law & Order shows airing during the same television season on the same network have previously all taken place at the same time, creating a mostly cohesive timeline for the franchise, fans were even more confused. Was Organized Crime set in early 2025 or late 2025?

Law & Order: Organized Crime season 5’s events muddled the Law & Order franchise timeline as well because the series does not use the same style of scene breaks with date and location cards as the rest of the franchise.

Law & Order: SVU Clears Up The Organized Crime Timeline Confusion

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit season 27 clears up the timeline confusion with a little help from Captain Olivia Benson. Because of Benson and Stabler’s connection as former SVU partners, friends, and potentially something more, their relationship has been the connective tissue between the two shows.

SVU season 27, episode 2, mostly focuses on Benson dealing with a new detective joining her squad at the request of the Chief of Detectives. The final moments of SVU’s “A Waiver of Consent,” however, directly line it up with Organized Crime season 5, episode 2.

A member of Benson’s team rushes into her office to tell her that Stabler is in the hospital, causing Benson to immediately leave, and the screen cuts to black. When next we see Captain Benson, she is wearing the same clothing she was wearing in SVU’s “A Waiver of Consent” in Organized Crime’s “Dante’s Inferno” while in Stabler’s hospital room.

With SVU season 27 filming nearly a year after Organized Crime season 5, that attention to detail makes the connection intentional. It’s a smart way to link the two shows together while they’re both airing on NBC. It also means that “Dante’s Inferno” takes place between episodes 2 and 3 of SVU season 27.

“Dante’s Inferno” is also the only episode of Organized Crime season 5 in which Benson appears, unless NBC opted to film any new surprise scenes when they edited the season for broadcast. That seems unlikely, but the episode does solidify the show’s timeline as she is away from her own squad to help Stabler in his recovery and on his case.

That means the first half of SVU season 27 and Organized Crime season 5 are actually taking place at roughly the same time. SVU’s premiere episode saw Stabler stop by a memorial service for his former captain, Don Cragen (Dann Florek), which would have then taken place right before he got his first Organized Crime season 5 undercover assignment.

While this might seem small for some audience members, confirming the Law & Order timeline is actually great for the franchise. It means there is the possibility of more crossover between Organized Crime and the wider Law & Order universe this season, or at the very least, of the Organized Crime characters appearing on other shows.

Law & Order: Organized Crime season 5 is still available to stream in its entirety on Peacock, but now, fans can see the episodes while understanding how the events play out as they fit into the timelines of Law & Order and SVU.