[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Law & Order: SVU Season 23 Episode 13 “If I Knew Then What I Know Now.”]
While Detective Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish) struggled with telling anyone about her and ADA Sonny Carisi’s (Peter Scanavino) relationship, the moment of disclosure ended up taking up pretty much only a handful of seconds. “OK,” Captain Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) said. “I’m very happy for you.” And hopefully that has set a precedent for what’s to come for “Rollisi.”
After all, there was enough drama in “If I knew Then What I Know Now,” which started with Rollins’ daughter Jesse asking Carisi if he’s her sister Billie’s father. Rollins deflected, but as Carisi pointed out, they would have to deal with that. And that led to the couple’s conversation about disclosing. She hasn’t told anyone, which he got, given that she “grew up having to compartmentalize.” But “I don’t want to be Uncle Sonny forever,” he admitted. “We’re nine months in, and your kids still don’t know who I am to you.”
In turn, Rollins brought up his parents and the fact that she hasn’t met them yet. The answer to that is simple: “Because you don’t want my mom to know that you’re my girlfriend. I’m going to bring a colleague home for Sunday dinner? Do you know how strange that would be?” And what about their jobs? Carisi spoke to HR “hypothetically” and found out they’d be fine as long as they both disclose. Why wait? “I don’t want to push you some place you don’t want to go,” he told her. “But what are we doing here? Are we going to try to make this work or not?” Even though she might have been holding back on that, she told him she’d never been as “open” or “honest” in a relationship before. But by the end of the episode, they were on the right track, with both disclosing officially and planning to head home, make dinner, and talk to her kids.
So with that out of the way, what should come next on SVU for Rollisi? We take a look at some key areas in their life below.
Zach Dilgard/NBC
Meeting the Parents
There’s a reason why Carisi’s parents and that Sunday dinner came up: Beverly D’Angelo is guest starring as his mother, Serafina, in an upcoming episode, during which there’s a family dinner. After that conversation, Rollins has to be joining Carisi for that, right? If that’s the case, might that prompt another conversation about where their relationship is going? As Carisi pointed out, they’ve been together for nine months, and it does seem like they’re both in this for the long haul.
Rollins’ Daughters
While Rollins may have wanted to listen to her psychiatrist and wait to see if Billie brought up her father again, Carisi pointed out her daughter doesn’t even know who her father is. That could have come up in their conversation with her daughters mentioned at the end of the latest episode, but whether or not it did, let’s not have it be a big deal. As Carisi put it, he doesn’t want to be Uncle Sonny forever, but there doesn’t have to be any drama around that. Yes, Jesse’s father, Declan Murphy (Donal Logue), is back in New York after being undercover for a while, but they’re all adults and based on his and Rollins’ interactions this season, they can handle co-parenting.
Separation of Professional & Personal Lives
SVU has done a good job of having Rollins and Carisi’s professional and personal lives be separate, and we hope that continues. However, now that they’ve disclosed their relationship, we do have a feeling that there has to be something coming up during which the two have to mix or there’s some sort of conflict.
Relatively Drama-Free?
Let’s be honest: There’s enough drama and conflict and messy complications with Benson’s relationship with her former partner, Detective Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni), since he came back into her life. (That letter!) And we don’t even know where that’s going, though signs do sometimes seem to point to them crossing that line being inevitable. After the conflict in “If I Knew Then What I Know Now,” why not have Rollisi be the more stable pair (on-screen) of the Law & Order universe? Leave the drama behind as much as possible, at least between them.
Law & Order: SVU, Thursdays, 9/8c, NBC
