How Will ‘Law & Order: SVU’ Write Out Rollins in Season 24?

Meredith Jacobs August 25, 2022, 10:00 am

Kelli Giddish as Amanda Rollins in Law & Order: SVU — Eric Liebowitz/NBC

After 12 years with SVU (beginning with Season 13), Detective Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish) will be leaving the squad behind sooner rather than later.

Giddish announced on August 24 that she will be exiting Law & Order: SVU in Season 24. “Playing Rollins has been one of the greatest joys and privileges of my life,” her statement reads in part. “There is simply no other character on TV like Rollins. She’s grown and changed, and I have as well.”

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So far, nothing official has been said about how the NBC drama will be writing out her character, but according to TVLine, “Rollins will experience a traumatic event early into Season 24,” which may or may not be part of her exit storyline.

If that is part of how Rollins leaves the squad — maybe it makes her realize that enough is enough and it’s time to get into a line of work that isn’t crime-related? — it does seem to have some similarities to how Jamie Gray Hyder‘s Detective Katriona “Kat” Azar Tamin left in the Season 23 premiere. After she was shot in the line of duty, decided that she was leaving the NYPD because nothing had changed. “I gotta get out before I get too deep. I am so happy for the victims’ sake that you’re here, I just can’t stay,” she explained to Captain Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay). It would be understandable, however, for Rollins, given everything she’s been through (with her sister and former boss, just to name a couple). If anyone could use a break, and perhaps time with her kids, it’s her.

Peter Scanavino as Assistant District Attorney Sonny Carisi, Kelli Giddish as Detective Amanda Rollins in Law & Order SVU

Virginia Sherwood/NBC

However, her exit does leave the question of what this means for her and ADA Carisi’s (Peter Scanavino) future, given they’ve gotten serious and said “I love you” — and the end of Season 23 suggested that a wedding could be in the cards for them. Giddish’s exit seems to point to a breakup, though that might wholly depend on whether Rollins leaves New York. (Could she go back to Georgia?) Could SVU leave “Rollisi” in a somewhat happy place (we know, it’s hard to imagine for a show as dark as this one) even with the detective off-screen? That would allow SVU to offer updates on what’s going on with her through Carisi.

Whatever happens, we’re just hoping it’s not a tragic exit. Given her line of work, it’s not hard to imagine something going terribly wrong and SVU killing her off. But then there would be the matter of custody of her kids (Would their fathers be involved? Would Carisi become a single father?) and the squad (especially Carisi) grieving their loss. Hopefully the door is at least left open for her to return in the future. But for now, all we can do is wait and see.

Law & Order: SVU, Season 24 Premiere, Thursday, September 22, 9/8c, NBC