Then there's her personal life, which hasn't really found any sort of even keel until last season: For years, Olivia played the devoted work wife to Detective Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni, who abruptly walked away from SVU at the end of season 12), despite the fact that there was clearly something more between them. (There are volumes upon volumes of fanfic devoted to this, by the way. If you've always been left wanting a little more, I'm sure series creator Dick Wolf wouldn't mind if you indulged.) Apart from that, she's engaged in a string of mostly unsuccessful relationships, generally maintaining an "it's complicated" status, since, at the end of the day, her real commitment is to the job.

Hearteningly, a lot of that shifted when Noah entered the picture. Olivia had to fight to become his mother, but she finally wound up with something she's been seeking since the first day she showed up on the small screen: a family. But while it's good to see a character we've grown so fond of over the years at long last achieve something that gives her true fulfillment, it also opens up another door: Detective Benson has more to lose than she ever has before.

And so here we are: on the cusp of a new season, our heroine returning for another year — this time with a kid of her own, a stable romantic partner, and a rocky relationship with her boss that she'll have to surmount or sidestep. In the show, as in the real world, crime has been forever reshaped by the internet and the war on terror.

While I would never advocate that a woman quit a job she loves if she doesn't want to simply because she's become a parent, I would be lying if I said I wasn't worried about what's next for Olivia. She's been tied to the whipping post on SVU for so long that I'm having a hard time envisioning a season during which — in even just a single aspect of her life — she's allowed to be happy and safe. I hope that the writers prove me wrong, and this character gets to enjoy this new phase of life. But if not, I truly hope that she'll decide to move on and maybe retire. There's only so much heartache any one person can take. Olivia Benson has already undergone far more than her fair share.