Paternity
I have seen it! Finally! Paternity! The best episode of SVU!
The thing is, sometimes when you're trying to up the drama on your show by throwing ridiculous shit at the wall -- hello, guy in the previous episode who jumped off a building and got crushed in a garbage truck -- you hit something brilliant. Something like "What if Elliot isn't there for the birth of his child, so Olivia takes over his role?"
And the way they did this was by having Olivia and Kathy get in a car accident while Olivia was taking Kathy to a doctor's appointment (because Elliot got so invested in a case he forgot the appointment until Olivia said something, which I find a bit hard to swallow in terms of plausibility, but I'll give them a pass).
The really great thing is that it wasn't about Elliot at all. Killing Kathy in season 23 was all about the Elliot angst, but T-boning his pregnant wife and the one true love of his life? Nope. All you're getting is Fin coming to get him, telling him to get in the car, and absolutely none of Elliot being told and reacting to what happened. Meanwhile, please enjoy like 15 or 20 minutes of Olivia petting Kathy's hair and calling her honey and sweetheart and Kathy begging Olivia not to leave her and Olivia holding baby Eli before Elliot ever gets to. (I really want tearful Olivia saying, "She's my partner's wife," to ring in my ears forever, or at least alternate between that and Kathy telling Elliot, "Olivia's taking really good care of me." And they definitely stuck Elliot's speakerphone voice thanking Olivia in there because "I love you, too" sounded like "I love you two," change my mind.)
In theory, this would've been great commentary on how close partners are and how integrated into the Stabler family Olivia is. In theory. In reality, for that to have worked, we'd have needed to have seen Olivia being a fixture in Stabler family life. What do we have before this, though? Olivia mentioning in season one or two that she bought Kathy's birthday present, and then perhaps season eight with Kathy asking Olivia to get Elliot to sign the divorce papers. I guess you could also cite Elliot almost immediately telling Olivia that Kathy was pregnant.
It feels more like the beginning of something than a natural extension of or commentary on something that already existed (especially since Eli's birth was all about a new beginning for Elliot and Kathy). A pity given the state of the follow-through, but whatever, I'll be over here writing the Elliot/Kathy/Olivia that canon didn't give me. Dreamwidth: Comment | Read Comments
The thing is, sometimes when you're trying to up the drama on your show by throwing ridiculous shit at the wall -- hello, guy in the previous episode who jumped off a building and got crushed in a garbage truck -- you hit something brilliant. Something like "What if Elliot isn't there for the birth of his child, so Olivia takes over his role?"
And the way they did this was by having Olivia and Kathy get in a car accident while Olivia was taking Kathy to a doctor's appointment (because Elliot got so invested in a case he forgot the appointment until Olivia said something, which I find a bit hard to swallow in terms of plausibility, but I'll give them a pass).
The really great thing is that it wasn't about Elliot at all. Killing Kathy in season 23 was all about the Elliot angst, but T-boning his pregnant wife and the one true love of his life? Nope. All you're getting is Fin coming to get him, telling him to get in the car, and absolutely none of Elliot being told and reacting to what happened. Meanwhile, please enjoy like 15 or 20 minutes of Olivia petting Kathy's hair and calling her honey and sweetheart and Kathy begging Olivia not to leave her and Olivia holding baby Eli before Elliot ever gets to. (I really want tearful Olivia saying, "She's my partner's wife," to ring in my ears forever, or at least alternate between that and Kathy telling Elliot, "Olivia's taking really good care of me." And they definitely stuck Elliot's speakerphone voice thanking Olivia in there because "I love you, too" sounded like "I love you two," change my mind.)
In theory, this would've been great commentary on how close partners are and how integrated into the Stabler family Olivia is. In theory. In reality, for that to have worked, we'd have needed to have seen Olivia being a fixture in Stabler family life. What do we have before this, though? Olivia mentioning in season one or two that she bought Kathy's birthday present, and then perhaps season eight with Kathy asking Olivia to get Elliot to sign the divorce papers. I guess you could also cite Elliot almost immediately telling Olivia that Kathy was pregnant.
It feels more like the beginning of something than a natural extension of or commentary on something that already existed (especially since Eli's birth was all about a new beginning for Elliot and Kathy). A pity given the state of the follow-through, but whatever, I'll be over here writing the Elliot/Kathy/Olivia that canon didn't give me. Dreamwidth: Comment | Read Comments