Law & Order: SVU: An update on Mariska Hargitay's future on the show and scoop on the season 14 finale (Episode 14x24 "Her Negotiation") from TVLine's Michael Ausiello

Here's some scoop on Law & Order: SVU from this week's (Posted on 5/15/13) Ask Ausiello column.

Question: Do you have any spoilers for Law & Order: SVU? There’s loads of rumors going around that Olivia might die in the finale. —Kayley
Ausiello: OK, so… apparently Mariska Hargitay has not yet inked a deal to return next season, despite my earlier assertion to the contrary. (In my defense, this is the only time I’ve ever been wrong about anything ever in the history of everything.) So, that little development, coupled with Kelli Giddish’s promise that the May 22 finale is “insane,” makes me wonder if the rumors might be true. “I cannot believe they ended it this way,” Giddish adds. ”I gasped, myself, when I finished reading it. The fans are going to go nuts. It’s jarring and emotional, because so often our detectives never, ever let the perp get the upper hand, and that happens in this episode.” The episode opens with the detectives enjoying “a day off,” elaborates co-star Danny Pino. “It’s a very unusual way to go into an episode, where we’re all relaxing, doing our own things. And then it does this slow descent into a very dark place. It’s probably one of our darkest. And by the end of it… I mean, I really don’t know how we’re going to get out of it. I feel like the writers have really painted themselves into a corner.” As to whether Benson makes it out alive, all I can tell you is what Warren Leight tells TVLine: that the finale is “a struggle for survival between Benson and [a perp nicknamed] the Beast… I guess it can go one of three ways, you know?” Not exactly comforting, is it?

Link to the full article:‘Law & Order: SVU’ Finale Death Spoilers in Ask Ausiello: Will Olivia Die? - TVLine