‘Law & Order: SVU’ season 17: How will Mariska Hargitay’s Benson handle transfer?

“Law & Order: SVU” season 17 has contained a few events that you could describe as game-changers in one way or another, but few are going to make the same sort of widespread impact as what we saw happen to Olivia Benson at the end of Wednesday night’s new episode. In the midst of a larger scandal, she found herself transferred over to Community Affairs, and it could take Mariska Hargitay’s character a little bit of time to eventually find her way back into the unit that in many ways is a reflection of her resiliency and strength.

The unfortunate thing for Benson is simply that there are a few elements to this issue that, at least for right now, are out of her control. For more on this, here is what executive producer Warren Leight had to say to Entertainment Weekly:

“She knows there’s nothing she can do right now … It’s extremely disorienting to her. The other guy who also doesn’t have his job at the moment in Tucker. The two of them are officially sidelined. Unofficially, can they figure out what’s going on, how powerful is this ring, or is Tucker involved? I hope she enjoys [being in] Community Affairs for a little while.”

Of course, we have to assume that she will make it back to the team eventually given that without Benson at the SVU, this is going to be a very weird show and it just won’t feel the same. However, this is a world where moves have to feel earned, so when the show comes back on March 23 it would be a disservice for the character to just pop back to her old unit as though nothing ever happened.

(Photo: NBC.)