Elizabeth Olivet

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Law & Order character
Dr. Elizabeth Olivet
Time on show 1991—1997; 2002—present
Preceded by Emil Skoda
Succeeded by Emil Skoda
First appearance "Confession"
Portrayed by Carolyn McCormick

Dr. Elizabeth Olivet is a fictional character on the TV crime drama Law & Order. She was portrayed by Carolyn McCormick from 1991 to 1997. The character was revived in 2002, but makes far less frequent appearances on the show.

Olivet is one of only five characters who have appeared in all four Law & Order series. The other four are Lennie Briscoe, Ed Green, Arthur Branch, and Elizabeth Rodgers. Olivet and fellow police psychiatrist Emil Skoda are the only Law & Order characters to make crossover appearances on New York Undercover, another series produced by Dick Wolf.

[edit] Character biography

Olivet is a clinical psychologist who performs consultation work for the 27th Police Precinct and District Attorney's office in Manhattan. She is usually tasked with interviewing murder suspects to assess whether or not they are legally sane, and to assist the DA's office in forming psychological profiles.

In her first appearance, she was hired by the precinct as a grief counselor when Max Greevey was murdered in the line of duty (L&O: "Confession"). After a rocky start, she helped Greevey's partner, Det. Mike Logan, cope with the loss. The two formed a close bond. She worked closely with the 27th Precinct for years afterward.

It was not always a perfect partnership, however; her keen understanding of the subtle, complicated nature of mental illness did not allow for the quick, easy-to-understand diagnoses that the police and DA wanted in order to expediently arrest and prosecute suspects. While she was able to see through a suspect who was malingering, she could not offer easy answers with more complicated cases. This was of particular frustration to Ben Stone and his successor, Jack McCoy, whose prosecution strategies were sometimes hampered by her diagnoses. She is also generally in favor of compassionate, involved psychotherapy in mental institutions, rather than imprisonment or antipsychotic drugs, for genuinely disturbed criminals, which often clashes with the police's sense of justice.

Olivet has never been married (L&O: "Breeder"). She was molested and raped by a gynecologist she was attempting to investigate. While the doctor was eventually incarcerated, Olivet's emotional scars never truly healed. (L&O: "Helpless").

The character was effectively written out of the show in 1997; in the Law & Order universe, Olivet went into private practice. She was replaced by Dr. Emil Skoda. In 2002, she returned to do freelance work with the DA's office. She would later appear in several episodes of L&O.

The bond Olivet and Det. Mike Logan formed while he was coping with his partner's loss may have been more than just a Doctor-Patient relationship. In a 2008 case, it was revealed by Jack McCoy to ADA Michael Cutter that Olivet had "sex with a patient" who was "a detective who'd lost a partner" (L&O: "Betrayal").

In that case, Olivet felt compelled to contradict the prosecution's expert witness who had done studies that were officially censured as dangerous and damaging by the authoratitive body in her field. When she informed McCoy that she would be testifying for the defendant, he felt he had no other choice but to provide Cutter with information that could be used in their favor when cross examining Olivet.

When Cutter questioned Olivet during the trial, she confirmed that she had sex with a detective while treating him and that it was many, many years ago when she worked for the Police "counseling Police officers". The patient she was refering to may have been Det. Mike Logan. Olivet added that she stopped treating him shortly after the relationship began.

[edit] Appearance outside of Law & Order

  • In 2001, she was hired by a defense attorney to help defend a young boy accused of murder and found herself at odds with a former colleague, Alexandra Cabot (SVU: "Baby Killer"). She also made brief appearances in the (SVU:"...Or Just Look Like One" and "Abuse").
  • Later on, Olivet consults with Tracey Kibre on the mental stabililty of a rape suspect that Kibre was prosecuting (TBJ: "Day").
  • In 2006, Olivet was asked for advice after Logan accidentally killed an undercover police officer (CI: "To The Bone").