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VIDEO: Putting Law & Order: SVU's Benson and Stabler Together Would Be a "Show Killer"

Law & Order: SVU detectives Stabler (Christopher Meloni) and Benson (Mariska Hargitay) have gone undercover plenty of times before, but never quite like this. After the police discover a stabbing victim's unusual hobby, the pair go to a swingers club posing as a married couple looking to spice things up. Series writer Dan Truly says there's one big reason why going undercover is good for business. Watch more clips from Law & Order: SVU "You always want other characters to assume that Benson and Stabler are kind of a couple," he says. "You want everybody to react to them in a way that sort of fulfills...

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Kate Stanhope

Law & Order: SVU detectives Stabler (Christopher Meloni) and Benson (Mariska Hargitay) have gone undercover plenty of times before, but never quite like this.

After the police discover a stabbing victim's unusual hobby, the pair go to a swingers club posing as a married couple looking to spice things up. Series writer Dan Truly says there's one big reason why going undercover is good for business.

Watch more clips from Law & Order: SVU

"You always want other characters to assume that Benson and Stabler are kind of a couple," he says. "You want everybody to react to them in a way that sort of fulfills what we're trying to do."

Does this mean that SVU will really never go the Moonlighting route and give Benson and Stabler a shot at love? "It's a show killer if they ever get together because everybody loses interest and it ruins everything," he says. "So we can't do it, but we can kind of get as close as we can."

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Aside from giving viewers a peek at what the detectives would be like as a couple, Truly says the best part about sending the pair undercover is getting to dress them up. "You dress Mariska up a little bit more than her normal cop stuff.  You have Chris take off his tie and suddenly he looks suave," Truly says. "If Chris had his way, he would take off his shirt, his pants."

Law & Order: SVU airs Wednesday at 10/9c on NBC.

Watch a behind-the-scenes video: