Elizabeth Olivet

The Olivet character is a clinical psychologist who consults for the NYPD's 27th Precinct and the District Attorney's office in Manhattan. She usually interviews murder suspects to assess whether they are legally sane and assists the DA's office in preparing psychological profiles.

In her first appearance in an episode, the precinct hired her as grief counsellor for Det. Mike Logan (Chris Noth) when his partner Max Greevey (George Dzundza) is murdered in the line of duty. After a rocky start, she helps Logan cope with the loss, and the two form a close bond.[1] The character appears in several subsequent episodes.

Olivet’s character does not offer easy answers on more complicated cases. This tendency frustrates Executive Assistant District Attorney Ben Stone (Michael Moriarty) and particularly his successor, Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston), whose prosecution strategies are sometimes hampered by her diagnoses. Her character also favors compassionate, involved psychotherapy in mental institutions, rather than imprisonment or antipsychotic drugs for genuinely disturbed criminals, often clashing with the detectives' sense of justice.

In the 1992 episode "Helpless,” Olivet’s character is a victim and becomes a patient after she is molested and raped by a gynaecologist, Dr. Alex Merritt (Paul Hecht). While Merritt eventually is imprisoned, the Olivet charachter’s emotional scars never fully heal. In the episode "Point of View,” Olivet’s rape returns as an issue. Her character is subpoenaed to testify in court on behalf of the fictional murderer Mary Kostrinski (Lisa Eichhorn), who she had interviewed about her self-defense claim that her victim was trying to rape her. During cross-examination, Stone reluctantly questions the Olivet character about her rape to undermine her credibility. After the Kostrinski character makes a deal with Stone for a reduced sentence and a new murder suspect is arrested, Stone apologizes to Olivet, whose character forgives him.[2]

The volatile relationship between the McCoy and Olivet characters begins with their first encounter in the 1994 episode "Blue Bamboo.” In that episode, the Olivet character interviews a defendant (Laura Linney) who murdered a sexually abusive employer and informs McCoy that she believes the abuse traumatized the woman. McCoy retorts that she does not belong on his witness list.[3] After that, the McCoy Olivet characters had a strained relationship. Occasionally, his character would be more diplomatic. For example, he convinced her to help him convict an alcoholic (Eddie Malavarca) accused of murdering his foster parents in the “Privileged” episode.[4]

The character was effectively written out of the show in 1997 by stating she was going into private practice. In the 8th season, the Dr Emil Skoda (J.K. Simmons) character replaces her. In 1999, the Olivet character returns in the episodes "Refugee" and "Killerz.” In 2002, Olivet was in the episode "American Jihad.” In the 2006 Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode "To the Bone,” her character is implied to have started a family in a conversation with Logan.[5]

In the 2008 episode "Betrayal", the McCoy and Olivet character foil returned. McCoy’s character is now the Manhattan District Attorney. The Olivet character tells McCoy that she will be a defense witness contradicting the prosecution's expert, Dr. Lydia Stronach (Nancy Hess), who had done studies on child sexual abuse that a professional authoritative body had officially censured as dangerous and damaging. McCoy reveals to Michael Cutter (Linus Roache), his successor as Executive ADA, that Olivet had sex with a patient, a police detective whose partner was murdered. It is implied that Logan was the detective. When Cutter cross-examined the Olivet character during the trial, she confirmed the affair but stated she stopped treating the still unidentified detective shortly after the relationship began.

The Olivet character made her last appearance in 2009 in the "Human Flesh Search Engine” episode.[6]

• In the 1996 New York Undercover episode "Smack Is Back,” the character counsels Detective Nina Moreno (Lauren Vélez).
• In the 2000 Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Baby Killer,” the character is hired by a defense attorney to help defend a young boy accused of murder and finds herself at odds with a former colleague, Alexandra Cabot (Stephanie March).[7] She also makes brief appearances in the SVU episodes "...Or Just Look Like One,” “Abuse,” "Deadly Ambition,” "Pathological,” and "Remember Me Too”.
• In the Law & Order: Trial by Jury episode "Day,” the Olivet character consults with Tracey Kibre (Bebe Neuwirth) on the mental stability of a rape suspect Kibre is prosecuting.[8]
• In the 2006 Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode "To the Bone,” Logan seeks her character’s counselling after he accidentally kills an undercover police officer.[5]
• Also on Law & Order: Criminal Intent, the character treats Detective Alexandra Eames (Kathryn Erbe) after she is abducted and tortured,[9] and her partner Detective Robert Goren (Vincent D’Onofrio) while he is suspended.[10]
• In 2018, her most recent appearance on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, the character performed a psychological evaluation on a victim and testified at trial.

• Carolyn McCormick at IMDb