I haven’t watched much of the new season (I used to watch the reruns on USA instead), so last night’s show (5/2) surprised me with Benson’s transfer. I assume it’s because of her pregnancy, but did they hint at it at all or was it out of the blue?
They wrote her into Computer Crimes presumably because of her real-life pregnancy. A couple of eps ago, there was a lunatic who was menacing them and first Elliott stopped to help Olivia before running after him, and then Olivia didn’t take the shot at the lunatic because he had a gun on Elliott. She realized their friendship was compromising their ability to be good cops and asked for a transfer. Another poster here implied that they may be writing in a romantic relationship between the two but I haven’t seen much of that. Certainly their being available could help with that happening though.
Benson made a couple of appearances in Tuesday’s (05/02/06) episode but was only shot from neck-up and it appeared that the scenes with Stabler were not even shot together.
I assume the writers had to adjust the story lines to account for Hargitay’s pregnancy and maternity leave.
All I can say is, I need more Benson!