Maybe the Law & Order-related section of my heart has been tenderized by the latest news out of SVU — Kelli Giddish back full-time (yay!), Octavio Pisano and Juliana Aidén Martinez out (wait, what?). Maybe I’m just a softie for Stabler holding a baby. But something about this week’s Law & Order: Organized Crime cracked me open just in time for a smart, all-business new character to show up and slip in; I immediately loved her.

The character, played by Olivia Thirlby (Y: The Last Man, Goliath), enters the action after some code Vargas wrote years ago shows up in a digital protest that involved a death-by-automated-deliverybot. The group responsible calls itself The Collective. Tanner, who works for the Counterterrorism Bureau, knew that the OCCB’s resident computer geek likely wasn’t involved, but she was at an investigatory dead end. With Bell and Reyes away, Stabler had very little to distract him from the kinda troubling stuff on a low simmer at home (more on that in a minute), so he figured what the hell and appointed himself part of her task force.

The Collective’s next stunt was hacking electric vehicles, causing traffic and ultimately a fatal car accident. “Look, I didn’t do this, but I can’t help but feel responsible,” a pained Vargas says. “I get it,” Stabler tells him. “Trust me, I get it.” Until told otherwise, I will be accepting this as proof that he’s found out about Liv dating Tucker. Much later, The Collective’s leader kills his girlfriend after she breaks up with him and makes plans to talk with the police.

The girlfriend’s murder sets back the investigation and pains Tanner, who quietly shares her upset with with Stabler. He understands, and while being the exact right about of collegial/not patronizing, he bucks her up by observing that such an extreme reaction from The Collective must mean the NYPD is closing in.

Granted, we don’t know much yet about Tanner. But I like the perceptive way Thirlby plays her, as well as how quickly Stabler acknowledged her capability and intelligence. And with Jet gone and OCCB staffers on the endangered species list (RIP Whelan, Rivera, Cappelletti…), not to mention SVU‘s trouble sustaining a younger female presence on that squad, wouldn’t it be nice to keep her around for a while?

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Elsewhere in the episode:

* Elliot wakes up, sweaty and disturbed, and we see his hand is trembling. It doesn’t stop as he walks into the kitchen to listen to his answering machine. Bell is on vacation in Italy. Reyes is out. Randall reminds his brother to go to therapy. When Stabler’s hand continues to shake violently as he attempts to pour himself a cup of coffee, he winds up breaking the glass coffee pot, cutting his hand badly. Is something neurological going on? Could it be a manifestation of stress? Does he ever make it to that therapy session? We don’t get answers to any of those questions by the end of the episode.

* Elliot learns that Vargas has been helping Randall with Joe Jr., who keeps showing up in known drug scenes in “the weirdest collection of cities” including Baghdad. At the end of the hour, Joe Jr. swings by to see Bernie, but no one else sees him there. She notes that her youngest son seems troubled, and she suggests he ask Elliot for help: “You can trust Elliot,” she says. He says there’s nothing his brother can do for him, then leaves.

* Becky calls Elliot at work, worried: Eli didn’t show up for dinner with her parents. Stabler finds his son at a bar, absolutely obliterated while drinking with Sgt. Hunt and his police buddies: Looks like the Internal Affairs Bureau cleared Eli of any wrongdoing. After Hunt calls the death “a good kill,” Stabler has had it: “Sarge, get between me and my kid again, and I’ll kick the living s—t out of you,” he warns. Later, Becky is feeding her son (whose name, at least for now, is Owen) when she breaks down to Elliot: Eli is acting weird, crying at night, and she doesn’t know what to do. As she sobs, you can see Stabler’s consternation: He wants to hug her, but her boob is out and his grandson is latched, so he settles for a firm yet consoling grip on her forearm. He tries to make her feel better by pointing out that maybe Eli’s tears are evidence that he’s not dead inside (um, OK?), but she sadly says that she doesn’t know if they’re going to make it through all right. “I just want the gentle soul I fell in love with back, and I feel like this job is going to kill that part of him,” she says. Stabler’s eyes are red and teary when she asks him to take the baby for a minute so she can go to the bathroom and he can question every life choice he’s ever made.