After 15 years as a detective, Benson (Mariska Hargitay) is finally taking charge of Manhattan SVU, and doing so in uniform. A man named Tito (Sean Nelson), a journalist, filmed her speaking to him. She used her badge to get access to the hospital sign-in sheet to figure out the victims name and then confronts the 14 year old rape victim at her school. They break up in the episode "Downloaded Child", however, upon realizing that they want different things. Captain Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Detective Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) are responsible for some of the most memorable moments of the show; FBI Special Agent George Huang (BD Wong) helped piece together criminals' intent with his impressive smarts; and the show just wouldn't be the same without Sergeant Odafin "Fin" Tutuola (Ice-T) on the team. Most of Season 15 follows Lewis' trial until he escapes from prison and kidnaps a 12-year-old. [37][38], In the season 9 episode "Undercover", Benson poses as an inmate in a women's prison to investigate an alleged rape by a corrections officer. One of the worst SVU villains of all time, William Lewis, kidnaps Benson and locks her away in a remote cabin in the woods. Benson takes Munson's children out of the house and Dodds tried to resolve the situation, but Munson shoots Dodds while the latter is trying to take his weapon. Benson was partnered with Detective Elliot Stabler ( Christopher Meloni ), serving as the junior member of the pair. In a later episode, "Intoxicated", Benson mentions being engaged briefly when she was 16 to one of her mother's students; when her mother found out, she broke a bottle of vodka and went after her with it. (SVU: "Murdered at a Bad Address", "Trick-Rolled At The Moulin'"), In 2010, Olivia was appointed to be the legal guardian of Gladys Dalton's cocaine afflicted premature daughter who passed away after Benson gave the doctors permission to perform surgery to try and save her life. At the end of the episode, after Rosten is imprisoned, Benson apologizes to Pruitt, admitting that she was a victim of sexual assault. Before adopting Noah, Benson wished for a child but due to her career which gave her lack of time for relationships, she was unable to ever conceive a child. Just as he is about to rape her, she breaks free, handcuffs him, and holds him at gunpoint. Simon was born and raised in New Jersey, to Joseph Hollister and Sharon Marsden. It's a life of mostly muted hues for a detective handling . On the "Law & Order: SVU" subreddit, a fan writing under the handleu/Brizbizz22 listed out the reasons they think Benson will soon reach a breaking point: "Kat and Garland leaving the squad and [Benson] becoming short staffed; Her conflict with chief McGrath; All the L's they've taken on cases so far when it comes to the victims; Everything between her and Elliot. I think it is a good thing to make teenage girls aware. #LawAndOrderSVU. At the end of the season 14 finale "Her Negotiation", Benson is kidnapped by serial rapist/murderer William Lewis. An underage girl named Jill Foster (Kelly Karbacz) ran away from home, and she happens to be the daughter of Sergeant Frank Foster (Dan Ziskie) from the Brooklyn Narcotics division who Captain Cragen (Dann Florek) knows very well. As other "Law & Order: SVU" fans have noted, Benson has shown signs of breaking down previously. Cassidy leaves the precinct at the end of that episode. Bensler Get Steamy and Almost Kiss | NBCs Law & Order: SVU, Season 15, Episode 1 ("Surrender Benson"), Season 15, Episode 20 ("Beast's Obsession"), Season 16, Episode 23 ("Surrendering Noah"), Season 21, Episode 1 ("I'm Going to Make You a Star"), Season 24 premieres Thursday, September 22. Benson fought back, kicked her mother twice, hard, and ran out of the house. (SVU: "Justice Denied"). To date, Benson further appears recurringly as a special guest in eleven episodes of the spin-off Law & Order: Organized Crime: NYPD Meritorious Police Duty, w/numeral "2", "Law and Order SVU season 22 release date, plot, cast and everything you need to know", "Cops, Lawyers Ready to Roll Into Fall Season", "Law & Order: SVU's Mariska Hargitay speaks! Williams encourages people to commit heinous acts by questioning their responses to authority. The following are the medals and service awards worn by then-Sergeant Benson, as seen in "Betrayal's Climax" and "Beast's Obsession". With each new promotion, "Law & Order: SVU" opened up new story opportunities. [69] However, two months later it was officially reported that both their contracts had been renewed for two more years. John Munch (Richard Belzer),[45] and she gets the promotion soon afterward; Cragen congratulates her for placing 48th out of 8,000 applicants. She is condescending to victims and witnesses. [11] A woman later reports to Benson that Lowe, who is in a 12-step program for his alcoholism, tried to make amends to her for drunkenly raping her six months earlier. One fan loves how out of place Benson looked. Serena died sustained during a fall down the subway stairs across from a bar in 2000, (SVU: "Taken"), Benson said her mother was a drunk. The scene is terrifying and inescapable until the absolute last second when Fin Tutuola saves her. After arguing with ADA Sonya Paxton about alcoholism and seeing her drunk in court, she was moved to leave flowers at her mother's grave. While it's not a given that a person would have a breakdown in her shoes, it's not at all unlikely, either, and they've always just kind of glossed over the true mental health toll jobs like this take especially in the last few seasons.". Sometimes, she goes too far helping victims, particularly in her first year in the Special Victims Unit, which sometimes lands her in trouble. [9] Her mother's rapist, Joseph Hollister, later committed suicide. She tries to force medical staff to do rape kits on mentally ill victims. Also she believes she has a very high moral compass therefore anyone who doesn't agree with her point is wrong. In the episode "PTSD," while investigating the rape and murder of a female Marine, she is pushed against a wall while trying to break up a fight between suspect Master Sergeant Dominic Pruitt (Ryan Kwanten) and Lieutenant Gary Rosten (Dominic Fumusa), who is eventually revealed to be the killer. In the episode "Hunting Ground", she decides to take it slow with Haden, claiming she needs time to see if their relationship will last. "I wanted [Benson] to go undercover because I thought there's no way to fully see and understand this problem unless you experience it," he continued. "When I decided to write the scene of the attempted rape, we just said, 'Well, you know we're going to have to go as close as possible.'" Tito is then shot while filming their conversation, and Lance Kanick then appears on the screen as the murderer. Lewis is found guilty of kidnapping and assaulting a police officer, but the jury voices doubts about Benson's story and acquits him of attempted rape. All the codes are in there."[32]. [19], In season 12, Benson is named the legal guardian of a young boy named Calvin Arliss (Charlie Tahan). (SVU: "Philadelphia", "Florida") Benson was a graduate of Siena College. During the trial of a serial rapist and murderer, the culprit grabs an officer's gun, takes her hostage, and attempts to escape the deliberation. As TV's longest-running detective, Benson has been through it. She also has sparkly makeup on her face. In Season 17, she is promoted to Lieutenant and becomes the squad's official commanding officer. Privacy Policy. Regardless of their disapproval, they still supported Benson with her relationship with Tucker. Lewis contacts Benson, who then sneaks away to help the frightened child. Her most notable relationship is with Ed Tucker, who she dated from 2016-17. In the season 2 episode "Taken", Serena dies falling down a flight of subway stairs outside the entrance to a bar. Olivia never visited her mother's grave, until a case left her shook (SVU: "Hammered"). A few months after she returns to work, they get a new apartment together. [23] Although the year is rocky due to Noah's health issues and the demands of her job, Benson grows to love Noah and begins formal adoption proceeedings a year later. Later, as he is being interrogated, Rosten tells Tutuola that, "That broad [Benson] has PTSD, I would know that glassy-eyed look anywhere." Benson frequently mentions Stabler in both a professional and personal context; she tells the squad's newer detectives what Stabler would do in a given situation, and says more than once that she is "getting over someone". In subsequent seasons, Lewis' name becomes a kind of code for an intensely dangerous situation, and Benson admits that her trauma and ordeal with him will always be a part of her. "[40], The San Francisco Chronicle's John Carman called Hargitay "the show's weakest performer" when the series originally premiered in 1999. Benson appeared in Comcast's list of TV's Most Intriguing Characters and also in the website's list of TV's Top Cops. The detectives find Jill, but she is already dead from an overdose. In the season 5 episode "Lowdown", it is revealed Benson had a relationship with a murder victim who turned out to be gay and HIV positive. Just as he is about to rape her, she breaks free and attacks, handcuffs him, and holds him at gunpoint. In 2014, after the Season 15 finale, Benson becomes the court-appointed custodial guardian of Noah Porter, an orphaned baby who she rescued from child pornographers. That's why they work so well together. He also told the outlet that he still has nightmares about Hargitay's performance in that scene, calling it "so haunting and intense.". Inside Their Iconic Law & Order: SVU Relationship Jessica Sager Apr 2, 2021 Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni were the ultimate partners in. After Velasco was cleared of all charges, Tutuola firmly told him that he didn't have to show any of his loyalty to him or Churlish but to Benson. For the male role Stabler the finalists were Tim Matheson, John Slattery, and Christopher Meloni. [33][34][35] In the episode "Justice Denied", Benson and Haden end their relationship due to a conflict of interest. For the first 12 seasons of the show, she is partnered with Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni); after he resigns (offscreen) at the beginning of season 13, she is partnered with Nick Amaro (Danny Pino) until season 15, where Benson becomes the commanding officer of Manhattan SVU; first as Sergeant, then Lieutenant, and finally Captain. NBC. She claims to be on the victims side but she's not, she's a despicable person. (SVU: "Payback") Serena was worried about Benson working in the Special Victims Unit. [76][77] She was included in TV Guide's list of "TV's Sexiest Crime Fighters". I think that the average lifespan of an SVU detective is four years because of the difficulty and stress involved. Both Calvin and Benson are devastated by the separation. Benson's life has been a hard one. They told her there wasn't one. [73], Hargitay has won a number of awards for her role as Benson: 'Individual Achievement for Best Female Lead' and 'Outstanding Female Lead' Gracie Awards in 2004 and 2009 respectively, an Emmy for 'Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series' in 2006, a Prism Award for 'Performance in a Drama Series Episode' in 2006, and a Golden Globe for 'Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series' in 2005. Mike Dodds is made Acting Commanding Officer. Elliot Stabler. Law & Order: SVU and Law & Order: Organized Crime are on the verge of what could be the biggest multi-part event in the L&O universe since the three-parter that opened the 2022-2023 TV season (which Hugh Dancy addressed as a possible answer to a question about next fall). A rape victim does not want to press charges or have a medical exam. Thoughts on Olivia Benson : r/SVU - Reddit [28] In the Season 22 episode "Return of the Prodigal Son", Benson and Stabler see each other again for the first time in 10 years when Stabler's wife Kathy (Isabel Gillies) is severely injured in a car bombing apparently meant for Stabler. She is attending group therapy, something she has not shared with anyone but Tutuola. [5] Wolf conceived Benson as a detective in the Manhattan Special Victims Unit, which investigates sex crimes. [18] A year later, however, she learns that he was in fact murdered by a gang of prostitutes who rob and kill their clients with heroin and fentanyl which happened before Benson left that voicemail. However, Benson recoiled, stating that she wants to kiss her but she is scared that if they entered a romantic relationship with each other, it won't work out. As a mother, Benson is caring and understanding but also strict when she needs to be. She returns to work in the following episode, "Imprisoned Lives", which takes place two months later, but is still haunted by the experience. Serial rapist and killer William Lewis abducts Olivia in her home, tortures her, and hides her away in a Long Island beach home. People ask me if they'll ever get togetherand people want that, and sometimes I think even Olivia wants thatbut I don't think that will ever happen. Catch up nowonPeacockandNBC. [40] She feels her character is a role model for teenage girls, revealing: I get letters saying, 'I want to do the right thing like Olivia. [7] Executive producer and head writer Neal Baer has explained that Benson is "the empathetic, passionate voice for these victims,"[8] in contrast to Stabler, who embodies "the rage we feel, the 'How can this happen?' Benson always wanted to be a mom but was afraid the SVU would hold her back, so the moment is a particularly gratifying scene forfans. They've been doing it for longer than that, so they feel like they're in their own world almost. Olivia Benson has caught and prosecuted more rapists in 25yrs than any RL detective. Badass TV Female Detectives - The Odyssey Online Olivia treated Casey worse than dirt. In "Psycho/Therapist", Lewis fires his new attorney and chooses to represent himself. [14] In addition to English, Benson speaks some Italian,[15] Russian, some Spanish and French, and is able to recite the Miranda warnings in at least two other languages. and one episode of Chicago Fire. She is the longest-running character in the, Benson is one of two main characters in the, Benson has been assaulted more than any other main character in the, She has had more on-screen promotions than any other main character in the. Casting for the lead characters on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit occurred in spring 1999. The following are the medals and service awards worn by then-Lieutenant Benson, as seen in "Heartfelt Passages". Ellis makes a deal to have Simon serve a 60-day sentence, knocking his charge down from kidnapping to a misdemeanor, custodial interference. Simon, whom she found by illegally running her DNA through the system, was a suspect in a rape case. Cookies help us deliver our Services. In "Post-Mortem Blues", she is brought before a grand jury to explain her admission and Lewis' death. Despite her tenacity, some fans think that Season 23 has Benson on a path toward a mental breakdown from all the current stress she's dealing with. (SVU: "King Of The Moon"). With the death of Simon, her only known living biological relative is her niece Olivia Marsden. It comes out only because Internal Affairs is investigating Benson and Stabler in a case in which the department accidentally outed a professional football player. For me, when a television show has that kind of positive effect on young people, it is great. After a few nail-biting empty rounds, Lewis shoots himself after telling Benson that the last thing she'll ever see before dying is the horrific scene in front of her. If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Following Stabler's departure at the end of the 12th season after a deadly shootout in the precinct, she is partnered with Detective Nick Amaro (Danny Pino) and becomes the senior member. [48] When Murphy returns to undercover work, he appoints her acting commander. The journalist helping them is soon found murdererd, but evidence was found on Tito of him speaking to Jill, who says pictures were taken of her that night, and she was given drugs in exchange. Law And Order SVU: Why Each Cast Member Left | Cinemablend She lies to a father that she can force his daughter to do a rape kit. In "911," the episode that earned Hargitay an Emmy, Benson is forced to stay on the phone after a kidnapped child calls 9-1-1. She often worries about how Noah will turn out due to his biological parents dodgy past as criminals but is frequently reassured that he will turn out fine due to her great parenting and having custody of Noah since he was a baby. Before taking over SVU, Benson worked as an SVU detective and was partnered with Elliot Stabler for over twelve years. 4. In "No Good Reason", Porter brings Benson to family court, accusing her of being an unfit parent; the case is dismissed, but Benson agrees that it's in Noah's best interest that they stop fighting. I understand Olivia was upset about how Alex was forced to leave, but she refused to give Casey the benefit of the doubt and clearly thought her to be inferior.
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