Not everything should happen through a tragedy.
There is a fair amount of criticism of Dick Wolf’s treatment of secondary characters. While most TV shows use secondary characters as plot devices when necessary, they still try to justify their decisions at least to some extent. Unfortunately, in the case of Kathy Stabler, there was no way to justify her death at all.
Not only did the woman Detective Elliot Stabler married years ago die, but she died so tragically that it left viewers speechless on her behalf.
After experiencing so much devastation and pain during Kathy’s 12-year run on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, this woman deserved to end up amicably separated from her husband and lounging with a cocktail in her hand.
As the mother of five and the wife of a cop with an extremely dangerous job, Kathy rarely got a chance to breathe.
The exit could have been her chance to finally live a better life than the one Stabler had to offer. But the writers decided to go the good old-fashioned way of character development through great tragedy, so Kathy was blown up in a car bombing and left to die in a coma.
The technical reason for this, of course, was to start a new chapter in Elliot’s career as a part of the NYPD’s new Organized Crime Task Force.
However, many also claim that Kathy’s death was something that opened a door for the fan-favorite ship with Olivia Benson to come to life. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be any need to deal with Kathy as violently and permanently. And as much as people enjoyed even the sheer possibility of this couple coming to life, it still didn’t justify the methods used to get there.
“They did Kathy AND Olivia dirty if they make Bensler endgame. Olivia should be treated like the queen she is and be someone’s no.1 choice,” Redditor CassCat952 said, throwing in another perspective on a possible relationship.
If you want to rewatch the earlier seasons of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit to dive deep into Elliot and Kathy’s complicated marriage, or Law & Order: Organized Crime to find out the details of her horrific murder, you can stream both series on Peacock.
Both shows are also set to return with new seasons, but there is no information on when production will take place. As of today, it remains frozen due to the WGA and SAG AFTRA strikes. Stay tuned for news and updates!
