‘Law and Order: SVU’ season finale: Fans react to shocking cliffhanger

Anne T. Donahue
·Blogger

When's the last time you've been personally victimized by a TV show? Was it May 22, during the Season 14 finale of "Law and Order: SVU"? That's what we thought. Well, you weren't alone.

In addition to "SVU's" official Twitter account, the likes of star Mariska Hargitay and Debra Messing joined into witness one of the biggest cliffhangers of the series' history. Dean Winters (probably best known as Ryan O'Reilly from "Oz" or as Liz Lemon's ex-boyfriend Dennis on "30 Rock") returned to "SVU to help the team identify a man arrested for exposing himself in Central Park. Unfortunately for all involved, the suspect (who burned off his fingertips! Is he trying to emulate the Men In Black?) managed to outwit the gang and eventually ended up in Detective Benson's apartment.

The last scene of the episode? He pulls a gun on her, and the screen cuts to black. "Executive Producer: Dick Wolf."

And now you can understand why Twitter went wild.

Of course, part of the mania stems from the news that Hargitay has yet to ink a deal to return to "Law and Order" for Season 15. However, according to the actress's tweets, this will hardly be the last anyone sees of everyone's favourite "SVU" detective (thank goodness):

https://twitter.com/Mariska/status/337437240642920448

And just to prove how serious we were about Twitter's reaction to the cliffhanger, we've rounded up a few of our favourites:

https://twitter.com/DebraMessing/status/337396318035136512

https://twitter.com/hannahejo/status/337387703609982977

https://twitter.com/MattBinder/status/337384428106027009

https://twitter.com/AdamDSchick/status/337422731651981312

https://twitter.com/carlasosenko/status/337411880756854784

https://twitter.com/amandasrollins/status/337410720599781376

https://twitter.com/JessHeartsURIV/status/337410585182470144

https://twitter.com/daysofbex/status/337387881716924418

How will Benson get out of this one? Provided she is, indeed, coming back, she's either going to have to put up one heck of a fight, or Season 15 will deal with the fallout of being put in such a situation -- yet again. Can she do it? Or are all of us about to get even more surprised when we realize the whole thing was an intricate sting operation?

OK, that last one probably isn't the case. But we can dream! What do you think?