The Engagement Ring That Hotch Uses To Propose To Penelope In My AU Into The Gotchaverse. It’s Supposed

Building a Home, my SVU AU ideas/general plot

Elliot Stabler is an architect with his own firm. Does lots of projects to build schools, hospitals etc for the less well-off/the local community. He was travelling and doing that in other countries before, then decided he could also make a difference at home, wants to meet someone and settle down, have a family snd be an involved/present dad and he really missed his family.

Big, loving Irish family: siblings Shannon and Dee, Randall, Benjamin ( deceased after fighting in the armed forces) then there’s Elliot after a big gap and another big gap before Joe Jr. Dad Joe is a cop and basically parents like Elliot does, and Bernie teaches art at school and to adults/the elderly. Her bipolar is spotted early on and she goes on medicine that works for her and is supported by her kids and husband. His sisters and older brothers all have kids from more or less good relationships. One is  Aisling, she’s a young adult who interns/works for her Uncle El ( answers the phone, makes appointments, opens mail).

Olivia is paired with Munch and they have to investigate a crime, one of Elliot’s former employees/clients is involved/the victim so they talk to him. Aisling calls him Mr Stabler at work, keeps things very professional but later Liv and Munch go through his texts/e-mails and/or see him having dinner with his niece, they see them laughing/hugging/using her first name or an endearment like honey or sweetheart/he kisses her cheek so they think he’s dodgy. After some questioning, he is found innocent and Olivia offers to take him out for a drink as an apology ( they both had major heart eyes for the other when they met), which turns into dinner then dating. 

They get pregnant fairly quickly but Olivia miscarries. They call the baby Aidan Michael. 

They get married as Olivia rises through the ranks, and go on to have Charlotte Olivia, Sophia or Stella Bernadette, twins Matthew Joseph ( Mattie) and Margaret Joy ( Maggie) followed by an anniversary celebration « oops baby » called Elinor Grace. They could also adopt Calvin and/or Noah. 

Olivia makes Captain and Elliot mostly works from home and has some help from his parents/family/a nanny. 

Liv’s partners all stay in touch with her and are honorary aunts and uncles. Elliot becomes great friends with Carisi. 

SVU Season 20 thoughts

The episodes are evidently not being played in order, as I saw Amanda give birth in one episode, then a few episodes later, she’s pregnant and thinkiing about moving in with Dr Al.

Carisi telling her that flowers, chocolates, fancy dinners and expensive gifts to not equate to taking care of someone and then offering to come and cook for her ( he was trying so hard to not be mortally offended by the fact that she eats frozen pizza) and hang out with Jesse and Billie was adorable. I wish we’d got to see that scene! 

I love that he has a healthy relationship to look up to and it’s what he aspires to have too. 

I love that he was the one who seemingly looked after Jesse while Amanda was giving birth, and how when the nurse/doctor/midwife refers to him as the dad, he tries to correct her but Amanda makes no such effort. 

Peter Stone I am very attached to, he’s kind, good at his job but not married to it, good with Noah and I think he has the hots for Olivia, though it would be easier to list who doesn’t/hasn’t been in love with her! I know he leaves at the end of the Season, which makes me very sad. 

Fin I adore, he’s usually very good at knowing his limits/what he can cope with and when to apologise. There’s an early-ish episode ( Season 6 or so) with a religious cult leader who is impregnating teen girls. He ends up shooting all the kids in his flat before running away when the team come to investigate, and the team all have psych interviews to see if they can/want to carry on with the investigation. Fin goes first and says he can’t deal with it so is off home, Olivia cries and thinks she’s going to be sent home, and Stabler is all “Yeah, it’s terrible, what do you want me to do? Sit here and cry about it?” but Stabler gets sent home and Olivia ( who had the most normal reaction of all of them) stays on to investigate.

He does something similar in an episode this season and apologises to Phoebe for thinking she was a bent cop. 

I think this is my favourite iteration of the team, as they all get on most of the time, as they are all friends and do things together outside of work. There’s no tension with the ADA either. I am really attached to all of them, for different reasons. I think Carisi is the lynchpin, he is close to all of them and is always trying to spend time with them, either as a group or one-on-one. 

He must be super frustrated at not being able to be an ADA, but he’s so patient and continues to give 100% to his work. 

I only have a few episodes left, I am definitely going to be getting Seasons 21-25. 

I like how it seems much more normalised for there to be gay couples/parents on the show, trans people as, when the show started, some of the things that were said about sex workers/gay people/trans people were shocking at best and offensive at worst. 

SVU Season 24 thoughts and OC musings

Not so interested in the actual cases this Season, and find a lot of the new characters indistinguishable/hard to keep track of. Velasco seems to look different every episode, then there is Duarte too…

Churlish has a stupid name, it means petty, moody, rebellious. They could have gone for Furnish or Cornish!

I quite like Muncy. I think she comes from money and was expected to be perfect growing up so is now applying that to the job, and it’s not working!

Fin’s mentoring skills are excellent, I think he really does a great job.

I like that Stabler and Rollins have a close friendship, but would love to see Stabler bond with Carisi, as Carisi is what Stabler could have been with a non-abusive childhood. Those two at a bar having a beer talking about their kids would be fab. 

I only really watch for the Rollins-Carisi relationship, and they had some lovely moments this season. Loved how Carisi told Liv about the pregnancy, he was clearly bursting to tell someone. 

I have been thinking about OC, and how Eli wasn’t in New York for the award ceremony. I think he’s at soccer camp in Italy of staying with a friend, so never got to see his mum in hospital or say goodbye to her properly. That’s got to have screwed him up emotionally, especially as we don’t know how or when he was told, as would Elliot have told him over the phone ( about the accident) or waited until Eli arrived in New York to tell him, as the window of time between the accident and her passing is fairly small, a day or two, I think? However Elliot tells him is going to make him sad and angry. I would have liked to have seen more of the 5 stages of grief from all the Stablers, maybe with Bernie’s Alzheimer’s making her confuse Kathleen or Maureen  with Kathy and Dickie or Eli for Elliot. 

Lots of fanfic ideas of the sad variety are now percolating in my brain!

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More SVU Season 23 thoughts

The disclosure episode for Rollins and Carisi was amazing. Both their fears/viewpoints were valid, and they are both invested in the relationship and clearly love each other a lot. It was cool to have them have the conversations in the same place, and I love that Amanda puts her hand on his chest before kissing him, mirroring their first kiss. Yay! Squee! I love them together, Your Honour! 

Her calling him Counsellor is already becoming a thing, it’s sooooo cute!

Jesse was adorable, asking him if he’s Billie’s daddy. Maybe she was asking  a little bit for herself too, as we know that Declan has had no contact with her since before she was born, so Carisi is her main male father figure, as he is for Billie. 

When they go undercover as a married couple, I wanted so much more of that, they were so cute!

Very weird to hear Mia calling Carisi Uncle Dom and not Uncle Sonny. Her “Finally!” when Amanda came for dinner at the Carisi household was lovely, and Amanda’s jubilation that Mrs Carisi likes her ( obviously she does, she makes her beloved son extremely happy and is awesome) was so sweet. 

I’d have loved to have seen Dominick Carisi Sr, but I think what we hear from Carisi’s phone call with him is that he is a pretty great guy/dad as he tells his son he loves him as Carisi says “I love you too” at the end of their chat, is patient when Carisi has to field another call, goes to fix stuff that isn’t working at his daughter’s place, and he raised Carisi to be a great guy. 

Is it just me or does the actor playing Velasco look wildly different, maybe even unrecognisable from episode to episode? Sometimes he’s clean shaven, the next he has a beard, then he has stubble. That might just be because episodes are filmed out of order.  He’s not bad, but I am not very invested in him as a character. 

It was nice to get a bonus episode, which was the crossover with OC where Eli steals his grandmother’s medication and runs away to Jersey. It was great to finally be able to watch it in English. It’s definitely an emotional one! 

The trial for Richard Wheatley was so tense! I am sure I saw Eli there at first, but he was absent by the time his dad took the stand. Eli looked very uncomfortable, covering his ears and looking down, so maybe he went home after a bit, when he realised he couldn’t cope with it emotionally. 

It was great to see Carisi in action, I thought he did a fantastic job .

I was prepared to hate the new judge/chief legal person but then realised she wasn’t all bad, and she’s really helped Carisi come into his own. 

The episodes are pretty good, I am enjoying them a lot.

The one with Burton Lowe was incredible! I could tell from the Season 1 episode ( Wanderlust)  that she’d been groomed ( and I thought her retelling of the relationship didn’t mesh with what we knew about her character so far). When Liv realises that he is a serial groomer and she was one of his victims, then left his hotel room, I cheered. I loved seeing all the flashbacks with Elliot, that was so nostalgic. It was a really powerful episode. It was also an interesting choice to have Nick Amaro come back, he was 100% correct in what he said to Olivia, it shows just how much he cares about her. 

I like that the show is moving with the times, regarding technology and the jobs involved with that. 

Pretty in Pink? More like Handsome in Red!

You didn’t see my ball, did you?

Mons in Belgium also has a statue of a monkey, I believe, whose head you can rub for luck before exams!

Via @korvys​ (Twitter)

This is one of my favourite episodes. It never fails to make me cry every time I watch it, but at different moments or for different reasons.

Elliot being all brash and writing off the crazy perp/suspect at first, but then shutting up and listening to Olivia telling him it’s Kathleen.

He immediately goes from judgemental cop mode to concerned dad mode, and he is right, Kathleen’s girlfriends have abandoned her.

Going to see his mother is such a poignant moment.

I love that their different accounts of the same event show their different personalities/the choices they’ve made in life.

She’s talking about making sandcastles on the beach, how it was blissful and idyllic, he remembers being scared out of his mind and thinking his mother wanted him dead.

She remembers wanting to go on an adventure to Paris to become a painter, while he remembers a chaotic trip that probably involved being woken up in the early hours of the morning and his mother being loud and embarrassing.

Elliot has definitely chosen to parent very differently from the way he was raised, which in some ways is great, as he tells his kids he is proud of them, that he loves them, gives them hugs and reassurance when they are afraid or upset as well as giving them rules and structure. He tries very hard to be patient and gentle with them, to not be physically or verbally abusive, but can be too over-protective sometimes and not trust his kids to make their own choices and mistakes, then face the consequences of their actions.

His parents were emotionally and physically absent ( dad working double shifts and mum who would take to her bed for days/weeks at a time), so while Elliot does work long hours, we see him actively trying to make time for his wife and kids, doing tasks that his father would have considered Bernie’s responsibility like preparing dinner. He also tries to go out for dinner/to a picnic with his family , playing at the park, driving the kids  to school, reading them stories, doing their hair…

Something he always does is apologise to his kids if he’s been too controlling/come down too hard on them/made a bad parenting decision, which I can’t imagine his parents ever did. 

Olivia going to see Bernie is just an incredible moment, we can see how much she loved and still loves her son, and her experience with mental health facilities in the late 60’s/early 70’s is just heart-breaking. 

The scene really shows Olivia’s deep ability to empathise and not judge, it really made me love her more than I already did. It also showcases just how much she cares about Elliot and his family.

Bernie’s exchange with Kathleen and when she tells her the story of driving in the ice and snow which causes her to crash the car and break Elliot’s arm ( he would have be3n about 3 at the time) is just a perfect way to explain that her actions are hurting the people she loves. 

Kathleen thinking her dad hates her breaks my heart.

This episode makes me wonder when Joe Sr died, as Kathleen is able to remember stealing his hat and cigars for a snowman she made with Bernie, but no actual dates are given.

The accounts of Elliot’s childhood also very much make him sound like he was an only child, but I know in earlier episodes he references siblings as he says his parents didn’t praise or say I love you to us growing up, it was just the typical Irish way of doing things at the time. 

In later episodes ( the more recent ones, in L and O OC), we find out that he has 3 brothers and two sisters. From what I have heard, he is the second oldest, which just seems weird to me. 

If he were the eldest, I think he would have stayed in touch with his mum to make sure his younger siblings were safe, so I like to think he is the youngest, by 10-15 years. Bernie and Joe Sr had the first 5 kids within the first 5-10 years of marriage, then they had a big gap, and as Joe Sr got progressively more violent/abusive and started cheating more and more, Bernie thought maybe a new baby might help him be faithful/get his act together. Hence no mention of siblings being around during Bernie’s episodes or Joe Sr beating Elliot ( Ripped, Season 7).

All in all, this is such a powerful episode about mental health, families, parenting and how the choices you make can affect those you love. 

Bernie to elliot: But it wasn't your life. It isn't your life. You living your living your father's life all over again. If you can only find a way to be your own man.

I love how the two of them are so different. He's weighted down by responsibility and how much that shaped his life. How stability is something he didn't have as a kid. And how much he craves it and how much he fights for it for his kids.

Bernie is so uncombered by responsibility she is a free spirit and lives her life by her own rules. But it cost her a great deal to chase her own heart. So Elliot went the other way. He chose responsibility and stability over what he wanted in his heart.

Bernie just wants him to go out there and be himself. And now finally he's had time to get to know who he is away from the job. In Rome. He's gotten more comfortable with his emotions. He expresses them much easier now.

So what's going to go down with him and his mom in the new episodes? Did she know about Kathy's murder? I can't think she didn't know by why was she not there?

This was such a vital relationship to elliot. His mother. Who shaped the man who he became. I wanted so much for them to delve me into this relationship and so hopefully they will in oc.

I just think that the two is them are opposite sides of a coin. Both need to learn from the other to be a better person. Elliot needs to live more for himself and Bernie needs to own up to her responsibilities, obligations and her family.

SVU Season 23 thoughts

Yay, I finally have Season 23 and have started watching!

Loved seeing Rollins and Carisi making out and both being somewhat in disbelief that this is actually happening! And he asked her out to dinner, as that is what he believes she deserves and it’s what you do when you date.

Their episode 2 conversation in the courtroom ( with matching colours in their outfits, yay!) was adorable with the “I am taking this seriously” “So am I” exchange, showing that they are on the same page,  and the comment about Amanda loving Sonny’s guilty Catholic side. Squee to the max! 

Oh Kat, no! I loved Fin staying with her in the ambulance, he was really fatherly towards her and kept so calm in spite of internally freaking out. 

I can see why she would be want to quit, and loved that she’d talked to Carisi about her fears/doubts. He gives good advice and seems to be a good friend to everyone. 

Fin trying to set Stabler up with Phoebe’s relative but nothing happening surprises precisely nobody, I believe. 

Tut tut, Olivia lying to her therapist. But it’s good that she’s going, unlike some people *cough*Stabler*cough*.

Velasco I am intrigued by, but can we please have a cop without an absolutely crappy home life/childhood/parents? It was so refreshing to have Carisi with his slightly complicated but ultimately loving and supportive family. 

Currently looking into finding Season 24 and 25 for a non-ridiculous sum of money, but I am invested and need to keep watching!

More Thoughts on Law and Order Organised Crime Seasons 1 and 2

Throughout Season 1 and 2, I love that we see Bernie and Elliot going to feed the ducks independently of each other.

I think Elliot says he grew up in this area, when he goes to dig out the bullets he shot into a tree when his dad was teaching him how to use a gun, so it would be somewhere he went fairly regularly as a child with Bernie, which is confirmed by what Bernie says when she thinks the young child feeding the ducks near her is Elliot. I guess it was her way of protecting Elliot and herself from Joe’s alcoholic rages and violence. 

Once again, the casting director/team did a great job finding a kid who realistically looked like young Elliot, both for that scene and for the home videos at the end of the Season 2 ep. The actors for young Joe and Bernie  were perfect too. 

While I think it is good that Elliot had some good memories of his father, we know that the smallest thing could send him into a violent rage as in S7, Elliot says he moved a tree on the diorama they had worked on together and Joe threw it on the floor and stomped on it until it was destroyed, then beat Elliot for crying about it ( and probably beat him again for getting an F). The scenes we see of them together in the home videos made me think of how Elliot interacted with his kids when they were little as well as when they were older, but Elliot is consistent in always doing that. 

I like to think Elliot took his kids to feed the ducks, maybe even going to the same place he went. 

Eli’s decision to join the police force I think must have been sparked by the brand new officer who helps him when he runs away and is going to jump off the bridge, as Eli grew up with Elliot no longer in SVU, just doing security and less dangerous police work. I’m sure he heard about what Elliot did from his siblings and maybe Elliot himself, and, like most little boys, I’m sure he thought it was super cool that his daddy was a detective. So maybe he was thinking about it then the interaction with the police officer really solidified that idea in his mind. 

I also really like how Eli is super protective of his family, just like Elliot is. He’s also just as stubborn as his father and 3 out of 4 of his siblings. He also internalises his feelings until they come out as anger and has trouble asking for help, just like his dad. 

Eli wanting to jump off the bridge made me think of Dickie wanting to join the Marines in Turmoil, S 11, as they both seem to think it will be easier if they go away and stop disappointing their dad.