Law & Order: Special Victims Unit has had a lot of assistant district attorneys in its more than two decades on the air, but Alex Cabot (Stephanie March) is a fan favorite. The early seasons of the Law & Order spinoff series saw several different attorneys come and go for an episode or two. Cabot was the first regular ADA.

March has appeared as Cabot in 97 episodes of Law & Order: SVU since she first appeared in the season 2 premiere. She has not been back on the show since season 19, so some might not remember why the ADA left in the first place, or whether there is room for her to return to SVU.

Alex Cabot Originally Left In SVU Season 5

Season 4, Episode 5 “Loss” Would Have Been Her Last

Cabot is the primary prosecuting attorney starting with the season 2 premiere “Wrong Is Right.” When she is initially introduced in SVU, she has political aspirations. Her goals change as she settles into her role as the primary prosecutor for sex crimes.

Cabot becomes the kind of attorney who is always willing to go the extra mile to get justice for a victim. “Loss” is the perfect example of that, as her life is threatened repeatedly. At the end of “Loss,” Cabot is shot by a member of the drug cartel that plays a role in the case.

The episode reveals, however, that Cabot has been placed in witness protection until her “killer” can be caught and the organization can be shut down. The only people who know about her being in witness protection are Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) until she appears to testify at a trial in the season 6 episode “Ghost.”

Following “Ghost,” Cabot is put back into witness protection for her own safety, and it might have seemed like that was the last SVU fans would see of her. Cabot, however, did return to the Law & Order franchise.

Alex Cabot Led The Conviction Spinoff

Conviction Lasted One Season

“Ghost” aired in 2005, but Law & Order had another spinoff series begin in 2006. Conviction only lasted a single season, but the aim of the show was to give the audience an inside look into the lives of the assistant district attorneys.

Cabot returned as a series lead for Conviction. In the ensemble show, she became the Homicide Bureau Chief for a crop of new ADAs. She mentored them as they took on cases, and while the focus was more on the personal lives and the growth of the new generation, Cabot appeared in every episode.

At the time, there was no explanation for her no longer being in witness protection or just when Conviction took place in the SVU timeline. Continuity issues aside, the series just did not hit with Law & Order audiences.

After the cancellation of the series, Stephanie March returned to SVU as Cabot, appearing regularly in seasons 10 and 11 as the people behind her attempted murder were caught or deceased. She was not the only ADA in the series, and was no longer their first call for a prosecutor.

It’s likely that if Conviction had continued as part of the Law & Order franchise, Cabot would not have been regularly appearing in SVU unless there was a crossover between the two shows.

Cabot Leaves Again To Work For The International Criminal Court

Cabot’s Storyline Stuck With Stephanie March

Image via NBC
With Alex Cabot appearing more sporadically over the course of two seasons, Stephanie March was no longer a regular cast member and free to take on other work. That meant that Cabot could be written out of Law & Order: SVU yet again.

Cabot officially left her post as an ADA for SVU when she decided to take a job with the International Criminal Court. In the episode “Witness,” Cabot decides she needs to help young women, not just in New York, but in other parts of the world who do not have access to the same help that the people of New York do.

She takes on a particularly difficult case, and it prompts the decision to move to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to help young women who are being exploited there. It might seem like a drastic move for the character, but March credits the storyline for leading to her involvement with the Panzi Foundation.

March actually serves on the board of the foundation, whose aim is to support survivors of sexual violence in the DRC as well as end the use of sexual exploitation as a weapon during conflict. When talking about the episode, March explained to People:

When I left to go to Congo? I remember it very clearly. And it was kind of stuck in my head at the time. And so I have to believe that to some degree, everything happens for a reason. That’s part of the reason I was so interested in the Panzi Foundation…

I felt like my passion really was to advocate for women and girls who are survivors of sexual violence, and how sexual violence deprives us of our body autonomy and often our legal rights and our right to work…

I’m not sure that when I got the job, I intended for this to happen, but once I had the job, I became pretty deliberate about it because the subject matter I found disturbing and compelling. It was just not something I could put away when I came home at night from work.

Of course, because Cabot was written out again, but not killed off, it meant that Stephanie March could still be called on to play the character again.

Cabot’s Final Episode Is “Sunk Cost Fallacy” In Season 19

Cabot Has A Very Different Path In Her Final SVU Appearance

When Cabot returns one last time to SVU in season 19, she is not there as an attorney. Instead, “Sunk Cost Fallacy” reveals that Cabot is operating somewhat outside the law.

Cabot is part of a network that helps women escape abusive relationships. One of the ways they can do that is by faking their deaths, something Cabot understands after her own time in witness protection.

While Cabot and Benson argue about her new path, Cabot’s work is foreshadowed 15 years earlier in the series. The season 4 SVU episode “Desperate” features a network of women who help survivors of domestic abuse. In that episode, each woman only knows about her small part in helping the woman, a link in a much longer chain.

Cabot’s arc from a young attorney with political aspirations to a woman determined to help those whose lives are full of darkness makes a lot of sense for her character. Many long-running SVU characters choose to leave the job when the darkness of it becomes too much for them. Cabot becomes someone who is determined to find a way through it.

Could Cabot Return To SVU?

March Is Not Opposed To Returning

While Cabot’s arc in Law & Order: SVU is a satisfying one, it does not mean future appearances are out of the question. The series has brought back characters years after their initial appearances. Detective Cassidy (Dean Winters) left SVU in season 1, but returned a decade later to date Olivia.

Season 27 is set to feature returns for Cassidy, Dr. Huang (B.D. Wong), and Stabler already. It would not be out of the question for Cabot to appear again, despite being absent from the show for several years.

March would not be against a return to the show either. March previously said about returning as Cabot:

I guess if people still write, you could do a write-in campaign, that would be my only suggestion. The good news is, I get to see Chris [Meloni] and Mariska [Hargitay] and BD [Wong] and all of those other wonderful people with regularity, so that’s good. I think it would depend on the story, but they’ve got some good writers. Never say never, right?

Cabot returning to SVU would have to build on the story of her new life, and it would certainly be great for fans to see her again. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit would just need to find a way to make it work.