There is no Law & Order: SVU without Mariska Hargitay or Olivia Benson.
“I read the script, and I knew in my gut that I had to do this role,” the star, executive producer and director has said. When she thought another actress had been called back at the same time, she recalled, “I walked in and I go, ‘I’m pretty sure this has got my name written all over it. This is my part.’”
We’re glad she did! Twenty-five seasons later, Hargitay is the sole original cast member left and the longest-running actor on a live-action primetime series, while Benson is the longest-running character on a live-action primetime TV drama.
We’ve watched her trajectory since the very first episode, with Benson going from young detective to seasoned sergeant, established lieutenant and now veteran captain. She’s become an impressive leader along the way. “I think I lead with love and with a maternal nature. I’m tough but fair and protective,” Hargitay has said of Benson.
As tends to be the case in many procedurals, she has a tragic backstory, but rather than constantly threatening to bring her down, Olivia’s rich history informs who she is and why she’s so good at what she does. She was the product of rape; her mother, Serena (Elizabeth Ashley), was abusive; and during the series, Benson learned she had a half brother, Simon (Michael Weston), who later died from an overdose (spiked with fentanyl to kill him).
Benson has been through hell on the job as well, finding herself on the other side of an investigation several times. Among the worst are the four days during the Season 14 cliffhanger finale “Her Negotiation,” followed by the Season 15 opener “Surrender Benson,” when she was held captive by serial rapist and killer William Lewis (Pablo Schreiber). Olivia is forced to relive the trauma during his subsequent trial, and the emotional effects of her ordeal follow her still.
Four years later, in the 2018 episode “Gone Baby Gone,” Olivia is again terrorized when her son, Noah, goes missing—kidnapped by his biological grandmother, Sheila Porter (Brooke Shields). (He, like Benson, is a product of rape, and Benson adopted him after encountering his parents, both now dead, during a case.)
Through it all, Benson remains the beating heart of the unit and often gets emotionally involved in cases—just look at how strongly she was affected in the Season 25 opener when she failed to locate a missing girl. Benson saw the girl in a van and had a hunch something was wrong, but didn’t yet know the girl had been kidnapped, so she did nothing. Four episodes into the new season, Benson was in therapy trying to cope with her guilt over the incident.
She’s any criminal’s worst nightmare (you don’t want to face her in an interrogation room) and the investigator that survivors want on these cases because she will fight for them. Hargitay won an Emmy in 2006 for Benson doing just that in Season 7’s “911,” in which she’s convinced that a 9-year-old girl with whom she stays on the phone is a victim of child pornography.
For Hargitay, Benson is “heroic and something that our culture needed, somebody who fought for women and who elevated women’s voices and who bears witness to such pain. There is great healing in that.” She does the same off the set, having created the Joyful Heart Foundation in 2004 with the mission to change how society responds to sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse; to support survivors’ healing; and to end the violence for good. It’s only recently that Hargitay opened up for the first time about her own sexual assault when she was in her thirties, by a man she considered a friend, and how her work with her foundation showed her what healing looks like. “I was building Joyful Heart on the outside so I could do the work on the inside,” Hargitay wrote in a piece for People.
Off the clock, Benson’s life is a work-in-progress, with none of her relationships sticking, whether with Dean Winters’ Det. Brian Cassidy, Harry Connick Jr.’s ADA David Haden or Robert John Burke’s Internal Affairs Capt. Ed Tucker.
But there may yet be hope for Olivia finding enduring love. She wears a compass necklace given to her by her former partner Det. Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni), who reentered her life in 2021 after a 10-year absence. Has their will-they-or-won’t-they connection been what has prevented Olivia from making a lasting connection with anyone else?
The pair almost shared a kiss in Season 24 (Olivia said, “I’m not ready”), and she never removes the compass necklace, prompting her new therapist to remark, “What are you hoping to navigate?” Benson didn’t respond. But in a past episode, she’s said, “I trust my instincts. If I don’t have that, I shouldn’t be here.” We trust them too. —Meredith Jacobs