AboutKitt Montague Expertise Fan since 1995; have seen every show from the start to the end; co-edit a Law & Order `zine, apocrypha; freelance entertainment writer. My interest propels my knowledge, so I`m pretty well versed in all things Law & Order!
Question I was checking Wikipedia and according to the character list, Olivia Benson is
still a Junior Detective? After all these years? I can understand Chester Lake
(from Brooklyn to Manhattan) being Jr. Detective but because she is 'partner' to
Stabler and he is Senior, she can't be Senior either? Is this situation due to her
hiatus to TARU (real life pregnancy hiatus)?
Answer Well, No. 1, while I love Wikipedia, don't rely on it for the most up to date information ever. No. 2, while I love the L&O shows, they're not necessarily paying nearly as much attention to the details as the fans do.
The way the detective pairing structure works on the shows is that there's a senior and junior detective in each pair. Dick Wolf likes this -- it can cause friction between older/younger pairs, for example -- and when it stops being a matter of senior/junior usually that means its time for someone to leave the show. But Stabler and Benson have, in my opinion, only ever technically been senior/junior. She's taken the lead on cases almost from the beginning and they've never been fully explicit on who's "in charge" other than Cragen. And let's face it, Stabler can go so off the wall that I'm not sure I'd want him in charge all the time.
So technically, Olivia is probably still the "junior" of the bunch, but to elevate her to Eliot's level would probably precipitate a re-pairing, and nobody wants THAT, right?
