I am currently rewatching Season 9.
The Season premiere is fantastic, it is up there as one of my favourite episodes regarding the crime committed/the perpetrator.
Cynthia Nixon is just incredible! All her different personalities are so distinct and she switches between them so seamlessly.
The car crash in Paternity still makes me gasp every single time and that first hug between Elliot and Olivia just encapsulates their relationship perfectly, how they can communicate everything they need to tell each other without saying a word. I still think Oliver should have been used somewhere in Eli’s name, to honour Olivia’s role in saving both Kathy and Eli’s lives!
The actual crime investigation in Paternity is also so sad. The non-biological father ( but Tommy’s real dad in terms of care and love provided) breaks my heart. Tommy is such a cute little boy, and it’s adorable to see Elliot with him.
After Eli is born, Elliot seems to spend even more time at work, if that is possible! Several times it is mentioned that they’ve been working on a case for a couple of days, that it’s the early hours of the morning and they are questioning suspects, looking through footage…
I also watch OC, so I think this needs to come up in conversation between Elliot and Eli, as Eli wants to become a cop and Elliot is not a fan.
Eli and his girlfriend are also expecting a baby, and they are no more than 20 ( second year of college, I think).
I had forgotten how little Elliot sees of his family. I knew he worked hard and occasionally spent a few days on a case without any/many breaks, but this is just constant, and there are probably lots of overlapping cases too.
I am frankly surprised Kathy stayed married to Elliot, as in Season 10 she is ready to leave him again, when he yet again goes undercover and doesn’t warn her, leaving Olivia to come over and explain things to her.
The Robin Williams episode is brilliant, another favourite and at first I thought « Oh, that sounds just like Robin Williams, they’ve found an actor who is just as good at mimicking voices… Oh, hang on, it is Robin Williams! ». I love that they left the ending unresolved so he could have come back at some point.
I love Casey Novak, she is one of my favourite ADA’s. I find her mindset very similar to Elliot’s, and they have this big brother-little sister dynamic that I find very interesting.
After having watched Season 16 to 22 of SVU after stopping at the end of Season 12, and seeing Elliot back, Kathy dying and bits of OC, I just keep thinking about what if Kathy and Elliot weren’t together shortly after Eli’s birth. I always felt they ultimately would have ended up divorcing at some point after Eli came along, as they only got back together because of Kathy’s pregnancy, and Elliot was still working all hours in Season 10/11/12 and Kathy nearly left him again!
So my brain went to what if she died following complications from the accident, so in the Season 9 finale or early Season 10. She could have had to have an operation for some side effect/condition she developed after the accident, so she goes in for surgery in the Season 9 finale, we see her go into surgery, with one or several of the big kids/his mum/Liv waiting with him, the doctor comes out and calls for Mr Stabler and Dun Dun, cut to black. Season 10 finale, we see the doctor talking to Stabler and whoever is with him. There are tears and hugs. Then we have the funeral, Liv and the team are there. Elliot ends up becoming a stay at home dad ( something he seemed interested in doing in at least one episode) while Olivia navigates training a new partner and moving up the ranks, eventually becoming Captain.
There could still be all the drama with Kathleen and Dickie, plus some from Lizzie as she was criminally underutilised.
Maybe Elliot works as a private consultant so can still help out with cases, and Olivia is over at the house more and more. They eventually get together romantically and have at least one kid together ( either biologically, or they can adopt Calvin and/or Noah, kind of following the show).
So that leaves room for the new team members to come along as they do in canon, there can be some adoption/fostering drama…
El and Liv would definitely be friends with Carisi and Rollins. He has very similar values to Carisi, so I can see them being buddies. And it would mean Billie and Jesse would have another strong male presence in their lives, which wouldn’t be a bad thing.
Obviously it would impact some of the storylines, like William Lewis wouldn’t happen fully. I haven’t seen Seasons 13-15 so not sure how I could rewrite that, but I’d like to try!
I have so many other missing scenes of family life ( Stabler and his kids, Liv and the young Stablers, Carisi and the Rollins girls…) that would be easier and more fun/less traumatic!