There's been something I have been wanting to share about Isabel Gillies THINK blog post regarding a meltdown over her former character, Kathy Stabler. I took my time not to write out my feelings immediately after she posted as I wanted time to think, let dust settle, and be sure of change.
Last year, NBC announced they were spinning a new Law and Order spin off series through Special Victims Unit, called Law and Order: Organized Crime. The television show would star Christopher Meloni as Elliot Stabler returning back after 10 years after departing from SVU in 2011. Naturally, questions of what happened to Elliot during that time were asked (and answered on April 1, 2021), including what was the status of his marriage. There were assumptions that Elliot and Kathy got divorced - Christopher was clever enough to hide his left hand during location shots in between takes to leave us guessing. The synopsis of Organized Crime was Elliot returning to NYPD (after being an international liaison on their behalf in Rome) after a devastating loss. Naturally it became a guessing game. Would it be Kathy, his wife? If they're still together, or not? Would it be one of his five children? Would it be his mother? Although, clues were clear that it was going to be Kathy, my favorite recurring character, so, I braced myself after a moment of having my blood boil and knowing EO/Bensler shippers would throw a celebration as now Elliot and Olivia Benson (play by Mariska Hargitay) can finally get together. I have posted about this before some years back; short version of that story is that Kathy was not a favorite as she was the road block, keeping the love struck detectives apart. Kathy's only crime to be hated was being Mrs. Elliot Stabler. Obviously, I didn't feel that way. I loved Elliot and Kathy together, they had sweet moments, some passionate, some problems - yes - like any marriage. I also didn't see anything wrong with Kathy. She was nice, sweet, trying to live with a cop who is a workaholic. And having an attractive female (single) partner didn't help Kathy's insecurity and fear that Elliot would either leave her for Olivia, or Elliot and Olivia were having an affair (which they did not; Elliot was faithful to Kathy). Anyway, the day came for the big crossover event for SVU and OC on April 1, 2021! We learned that Elliot and Kathy were indeed still very married and had moved to Italy after his departure from SVU; they returned to New York for Elliot to do some business and it coincide with Olivia receiving an award for her achievements. Kathy really wanted to go ... why? Well, that remains to be seen, but, the catch was this letter Elliot had given to Olivia after Kathy had died ... okay, I jumped ahead there. Yes, apparently attempting to leave for the award ceremony, Elliot got distracted by a phone call so he gave Kathy the keys to their rental car... as Kathy was about to go in, the car exploded! Kathy got thrown and burned, very critically injured. As she got loaded into the ambulance, Olivia arrived at the scene after getting notified for help while on her way to her award ceremony. We took off with the reunion of Elliot and Olivia and eventually Kathy dies from her injuries.
Okay, now for this complicated letter. In Organized Crime pilot, Olivia gave Elliot whatever evidence and reports she had regarding Kathy's murder case and was given an envelope of a letter Elliot said he wrote but opted not to speak at her award ceremony as he isn't the type of doing public speaking. Since then until (mystery air date), a majority of viewers wanted to know what was in that letter. It was written before Kathy's death, but could it be a love letter? Could Elliot be confessing his true feelings of love for his former partner? Well, you can say yes, it was. But, there was a big twist: it was actually Kathy's idea and Kathy dictating to Elliot of writing that whatever feelings they may have for one another wasn't real, that he wished her the best of luck, blah blah blah (I honestly don't know word by word of it as I wasn't, and still am not, obsessed over it). When the letter discussion happened, Elliot was working undercover and got drugged by a roofie that was slipped in his mouth. He found his way to Olivia's apartment and wanted to talk about the letter.... something Olivia attempted to do with Elliot at the end of the Organized Crime pilot but he blew her off. However, after Kathy was done dictating and went off after Elliot sealed the envelope, he reopened the letter and added that in a parallel universe it would always be Elliot and Olivia. Yeah, I'm not happy about how this is going but that's... I really don't want to get into that. And it's not really the reason why I'm writing this. Prior to the air date of the letter reveal, Christopher Meloni did warn that the letter reveal would cause an uproar, and he wasn't wrong! An uproar it did cause and viewers took to Twitter to let it out. Kathy became the ultimate enemy number one. Many were happy she died, wanted to dance on her grave, wanted to give Angela and Richard Wheatley (who murdered Kathy) high fives and an expensive celebratory dinner party. Those tweets got a hold of Isabel's Twitter handle and she saw that Kathy was trending. With natural curiosity, Isabel saw those tweets. At first, she shrugged it off, maybe did a chuckle or two, I mean, it wasn't serious.... until it got serious.
You see, I have been in the SVU fandom for a lot of years during its 23+ seasons run. I have been part of forums, groups, and other platforms as part of the fandom. I have seen quite enough of Kathy hate, or "I love Kathy but not with Elliot" types. I have had my share of wars with the EO/Bensler fandom, defending Kathy and her own love story with Elliot. I may have been in the minority, but I was and still am definitely proud to be part of it and not shy away from it. My take on Kathy's part of this letter thing was that she was only trying to hold her family and her marriage together, she wasn't being vindictive, gaslighting, or whatever else she's been accused of doing to keep Elliot and Olivia apart. I think if Elliot is truly in love with Olivia as everyone else (particularly Richard Wheatley) says he is, then he could've let the divorce Kathy had filed in seasons 6-8 be final to have his chance with Olivia. He had his chance! But, no, Elliot opted to go over to Kathy's house to want to come home and in the process, he got Kathy pregnant with Eli. There's been times since that letter reveal that I kinda wished Kathy slammed the door on Elliot ... at least she would've still be alive! Before the letter and when the countdown was going on for Elliot's return to television, we kinda already knew Kathy was going to be the one that dies, I saw tweets of EO/Bensler shippers excited that Kathy would be smokey confetti, wanting to throw a party of her demise, and when I call them out on the cruelty, they would claim it was a "joke". Yeah, sure. Jokes. It got to the point where I felt compelled to warn Isabel of what she and her character would be in for with these passionate fans. It will not be a pretty sight, I can tell you that. Isabel took it in stride (we converse privately), and for a time it was okay, despite the joy of Kathy's death, Isabel did get praise for her performance from all sides, and she carried on with her life free from L&O commitments now that her character is dead (although Isabel did return as Kathy for Organized Crime episode to appear on security surveillance on the car bomb). Next thing she knew, the peace became an uproar circus when the letter reveal happened.
Here's the link of Isabel's post on receiving hate over her TV character: T.H.I.N.K.
I did warn her! She finally got to see firsthand of what I have been going through for many years in the SVU fandom, she saw the ugly side. Of course, I felt sorry for Isabel to see all that cruel tweets but I am glad she spoke up about that.
On her blog, she posted the picture of her image with a note that said this, 'this girl is the nastiest skank bitch I've ever met...". As it turned out, the note itself was from the movie Mean Girls and was made into a meme with her image getting pasted on. Well, Isabel did not know that as she never saw Mean Girls. In truth, neither have I although I have heard of the movie; I did see that particular tweet myself and knew it was spliced together. As a fan, it hurt while scrolling, but I wasn't surprised either. After Isabel posted that, the person who originally posted the Mean Girl meme started receiving death threats while defending herself of why she posted that. Despite my own feelings about that hurtful meme, I don't think she deserved death threats - that's way too much. I have had my share of heated arguments with EO/Bensler shippers, but never have I ever made a death threat. I just eventually blocked, as they do with me.
I believe the main reason why people dislike Kathy (including the viewers who doesn't want Elliot and Olivia together) is because we don't know her. We know Elliot well, Olivia, we know their favorite foods, color, the kind of music they listen to, there's a connection. We don't know Kathy's favorite color, or favorite shape of pasta. All we really knew was Kathy was a wife and mother. I do know Kathy's favorite food was Italian, seeing how happy she was going to an Italian restaurant in season one and living in Rome for about a decade, she loved it so much that Elliot said Rome was Kathy's place in the now deleted scene of Organized Crime's first episode as well in the murder trial episode of getting an Italian lunch to celebrate her belated birthday. Even Isabel once said in 2018, "Still, sometimes I feel like Kathy didn’t really get a chance to be a whole person. Sometimes I made up stuff in my head to fill her out. I always hoped people were pulling for her, but I never really knew." Out of 23 and counting seasons with over 500 episodes (and counting), Kathy has only been in 32 episodes; and she's been the "star" in two of them: Paternity and Return of the Prodigal Son. Paternity was when Kathy gave birth to Eli after being in a car crash with Olivia. Isabel's onscreen time succeeded over 20 minutes than the typical 3 minutes, one scene, maybe 2 if lucky, small part. As Isabel puts it, she was the 10th banana on the show. It has tiers of top billing of the main cast, then regulars, then recurring with judges, lawyers, doctors, forensics, and, at the bottom of the list: family. As for Return of the Prodigal Son, although the episode centered around Kathy's car bombing investigation and her ultimate death, the show once again put Isabel in the 10th banana spot. Kathy was onscreen in 3 scenes: going to the ambulance after the car bomb, being questioned by Olivia, and suffering from cardiac arrest (maybe 4 if you count the one Elliot and Olivia arriving outside her room, Kathy was sleeping). Her longest scene was with Olivia and it was less than 5 minutes. I get the tier importance thing: Olivia is now the star, Elliot and Olivia's reunion was the top billing and most anticipated event. Isabel definitely gets high praise for those two episodes with her performances - she's no slacker and can keep her toes up with Chris and Mariska, no matter the time gap.
I just find it a real shame that Kathy was picked to be the one that dies in order for Elliot to have his own show. I was originally rooting for Elizabeth because she was (and still is) the least seen, used, barely any lines, and more of a background prop. But then there was talk on how Elliot was originally going to come on by using Kathy with Dickie or Eli mixed in with troublemakers; Kathy was going to turn to Olivia for help, Elliot was "away" from everything, including his family (naturally some people took that as divorce "proof" but another thought was Elliot being deep undercover). So, my guess went from Elizabeth to one of the boys. I also thought with Elliot as a focus on the show, we could finally learn more about Kathy, that Isabel would finally have more scenes lasting a most half an hour instead of blink-or-miss appearance, that her place in the tier would have gotten promoted to regular character rather than an once in a blue moon recurring. As it turned out, it was my beloved Kathy who bit the dust, so we lost all opportunities of her interact her teenage Eli, to see her with Kathleen (Allison Siko since SVU season 3) and Dickie (Jeffrey Scaperrotta since SVU season 1), including the brand new faces of Maureen and Elizabeth, and with her mother in law Bernadette (played by Ellen Burstyn), who Kathy had a great off screen relationship. Including her grandchildren! It just doesn't seem fair. And it doesn't seem fair for people to dislike Kathy all because she was married to Elliot and not able for him to hook up with Olivia. Don't get me wrong, I completely understand about disliking/hating a character; I have my list, however, I tend to dislike for reasons like hypocrisy/selective memory, arrogant, narcissism, doing something unforgivable and no redeeming qualities. Plus, there's over-acting and under-acting. Maybe some do feel that way other than being the "cock-blocker" between Elliot and Olivia, okay, fine, I can respect that. As I have learned, you can't make everyone happy.
Anyway, I hope as Organized Crime seasons unfolds that we can still learn about Kathy as a whole person before eventually fading away into oblivion.
