Law & Order: SVU is on 24 seasons and counting (thanks to the recent renewal) without giving Benson/Stabler fans everything they want from the iconic TV duo, but all signs point toward another pairing ending the season on a very high note. Not only is Kelli Giddish coming back to the Law & Order universe after Rollins was written out back in December, but the good ship Rollisi has apparently been sailing smooth waters off screen! Let’s start at the beginning.
How Kelli Giddish Is Returning First
The first news to break about Kelli Giddish coming back to the Law & Order corner of the Wolf Entertainment universe was that she would be reprising her role as Amanda Rollins for the second-to-last episode of Law & Order: Organized Crime’s current third season, according to TVLine. It’s too soon to guess about what will bring her into Stabler’s world after she left the NYPD to become a professor, but this won’t be her first OC appearance in the 2022-2023 TV schedule. It will also presumably precede her return to SVU... and that is going to have a lot of fans talking!
Why Rollisi Fans Are In For Good News On SVU
Kelli Giddish will return to Law & Order: SVU in the Season 24 finale, according to the same TVLine report, but she won’t look the same as she did when she left, as – SPOILER ALERT – Rollins is apparently pregnant! Already the mother to young Jesse and Billie, she and Carisi evidently didn’t waste any time in conceiving her third and his first (although it’s safe to say that he’s been a standup stepdad off-screen). For me, a Rollisi baby is especially sweet in light of Jesse asking “Uncle Sonny” back in Season 23 if he’s Billie’s father, well before her mom tied to the knot with Carisi.
Although nobody at NBC or SVU has officially commented on Rollins returning with a bun in the oven, the news is certainly worth celebrating for Rollisi fans… and SVU viewers who are ready for at least one couple to get some happy news. After all, Fin and Phoebe don’t get to appear together all that often, and Benson’s dynamic with Stabler – whether romantic or platonic – seems too complicated to be anything but tense unless they actually have a conversation.
There are also no details about whether a case brings Rollins out of the background and in front of the camera again, although her marriage to Carisi means that SVU doesn’t really need a crime-related reason to bring her in like Organized Crime presumably does. After all, her tenure with Special Victims didn’t overlap with Stabler’s, although she has certainly been curious about his status with her former captain!
I would say that there’s a lot to look forward to on the SVU front, particularly in light of the show’s renewal for Season 24, which Ice-T wasted no time in celebrating! Whether or not Benson and Stabler share the screen again before the end of the 2022-2023 TV season, Rollins’ return is a treat that I wasn't counting on. Plus, there are plenty of questions to be asking about the nine Wolf Entertainment shows on top of who could return and which series could cross over. For now, I’m just happy that I’ll get to see Rollins back with Carisi and Benson again!
Unfortunately, all three of the Law & Order shows are currently on a mini hiatus, after a L&O episode that prompted Hugh Dancy to share what he’d like to do more of, an SVU episode that may have dropped some hints about the season finale, and an Organized Crime episode that poked fun at Chris Meloni’s “Zaddy” reputation. The shows will return to NBC with new episodes on Thursday, April 26 with Law & Order at 8 p.m. ET, SVU at 9 p.m. ET, and Organized Crime at 10 p.m. ET.
