Hi friends, Terryn here. This is probably a regular occurrence now but we decided to talk about another important topic: sexual harassment. We talked a little about this in "For Evermore" but I think we maybe got bolder since then or something but the nature of this story is a bit more intense.
Hi everyone, Kalli here. Sexual Harassment according to the Oxford dictionary is defined as "behavior characterized by the making of unwelcome and inappropriate sexual remarks or physical advances in a workplace or other professional or social situation." As Terryn already mentioned we have discussed this before but now we are going to go into it in more depth. As the two of us talked and researched while writing this chapter we learned more as well. I will end with this, what we wrote about in this chapter is something that very few people have noticed but it is too damn important to ignore, so we're sharing it with all of you.
I don't remember the episode where I first saw this happen to Jet, but I can still picture the scene clearly
Stabler was behind Jet and squeezed her arms causing her eyes to go wide and then he pushed off of her before walking away. I saw something in her eyes that made me realize Jet was shocked, that she felt uncomfortable, almost scared even. I noticed what was happening immediately. Ever since then I've paid close attention to all their interactions. Situations like these have happened multiple times, even in the very first episode of OC.
And in case anyone isn't so sure of what we've written, here is canonical proof. (Copy and paste the links)
https://twitter.com/6313stablergifs/status/1457795548820369410?s=21
https://twitter.com/slootgifs/status/1453778367124328457?s=21
https://twitter.com/slootgifs/status/1454026473350651910?s=21
And for Oliva's rewatch the Letter Scene again. (Terryn here, I think pointing out here that Olivia is really uncomfortable in this scene. Elliot nonconsensually touched her and if he had checked in on her, he would have known that's a trigger for her. It's selfish of him to think Olivia had to let him in. She mentioned later (In The People Vs Richard Wheatley) that this was scary to her and was not okay.)
As trial preparations begin, a new situation arises that brings the two teams closer together.
The next day Olivia heads to Denise's office to meet with her to prepare for trial. She walks in and sees Ayanna sitting on her desk talking to her wife
"Am I interrupting?"
"No, come in Captain Benson." Denise says.
Olivia comes in and sits down. Ayanna looks at her.
"I just wanted to let you know that I'm here to support you, but also in case Elliot tries to break his restraining order."
"Thank you. It means a lot to me." Olivia said.
"Of course Olivia. Now I'll let you two talk." Ayanna says as she goes to stand in the doorway.
"Before we start Captain Benson, I wanna make sure that you're okay. I want to help you be as prepared as you can be on the stand."
"I'll be honest, I'm struggling. I'm afraid to face Elliot again, but I know that I want justice for what he did to me."
"And as I'm sure you already know from your experience at SVU those feelings are valid. I am here to make sure you and your squad are ready for trial."
"Thank you Denise."
"Now if it's quite alright with you, I have a few deeper questions to ask you to prepare you for cross examination. If you feel uncomfortable or upset, I'll stop. But before we discuss that, I'm going to show you the pictures taken of your injuries at the hospital. The defense is going to over analyze that he didn't use as much force as you claim Detective Stabler did. So your story has to be exactly as you and the medical record described. Keep your focus on me when you tell the story to the jury. Detective Stabler wants you to fall back into his gaslighting so don't give any attention to him. He may not say anything to you but the thoughts and memories of him might. He wants to think he still has control of you."
