Alexandra Cabot

For the comic and cartoon character called Alexandra Cabot, see Josie and the Pussycats (comic).

ADA Alexandra Cabot
Law & Order character
First appearance	"Wrong Is Right" (SVU) "Pilot" (Conviction)
Portrayed by	Stephanie March
Time on show	2000–2003, 2005 (SVU) 2006 (Conviction) 2009–2010, 2011–present (SVU)
Preceded by	Various (1999–2000) Kim Greylek ("Lead") Tracey Kibre (Homicide Bureau Chief)
Succeeded by	Casey Novak ("Loss") (SVU) Jo Marlowe ("Torch") (SVU) Christine Danielson (Homicide Bureau Chief)

Alexandra "Alex" Cabot is a fictional character within the Law & Order universe portrayed by Stephanie March. She is a primary character in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Conviction.

Character overview

Cabot first appears in the SVU episode "Wrong Is Right," when she is hired to work with SVU as their permanent ADA overseeing the legality of its arrests, following a rotating mix of ADAs (among them Abbie Carmichael of the original Law & Order). While she empathizes with the sexual assault victims she deals with, her strict code of legal ethics often forces her to make harsh decisions and judgments that go against her personal feelings.

She does occasionally bend the rules to suit her own notions of justice, however, often with unpleasant results. In the episode "Guilt," for example, she lies to detectives about having a search warrant to convict a serial child molester, and aggressively pressures one of the molester's victims to testify against him. The victim later attempts suicide, leaving him with severe brain damage. She only lied about the warrant after he attempted suicide, because he could no longer testify within the time frame demanded by the court. She is let off with a one-month suspension, but never truly forgives herself.

While Cabot had only been seen dating defense attorney Trevor Langan (Peter Hermann), executive producer and head writer Neal Baer has said that there is an unaddressed sexual tension between Cabot and Detective Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay). Baer admits saying: "We read the fan sites. We know that people are into the Alex-Olivia thing. All the codes are in there."

Cabot has appeared in 94 episodes, making her the third longest ADA in the Law & Order franchise history, surpassed by her successor, Casey Novak, and by CI's Ron Carver.

Departure from SVU

Cabot was taken out of the show in the episode "Loss," in which she is prosecuting a rapist named Rafael Zapata Gaviria, who worked for the notorious drug lord Cesar Velez. Zapata had brutally raped and murdered an undercover NYPD officer working with the DEA. Cabot receives a threat on her life, as well as that of her mother. Despite warnings from her colleagues, Cabot continues the case, unwilling to let Zapata scare her. Timothy Donovan, a key witness and DEA special agent, is murdered in a car bombing right before Cabot's eyes. Cabot initially wants to try Zapata, even with no witness and her own life on the line, but after pressuring from the SVU detectives and District Attorney Arthur Branch (Fred Thompson) that her losing case isn't worth dying for, she drops the charges. However, Zapata is immediately arrested by Federal Agents for the witness' murder.

At the conclusion of the episode, she is shot in a drive-by shooting while saying goodnight to SVU detectives Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni). Proclaimed dead in the newspapers, Cabot disappears into the Witness Protection Program. She insists on telling Benson and Stabler the truth the night she leaves the city. She is replaced by ADA Casey Novak (Diane Neal).

First reappearance on SVU

Detectives Benson and Stabler are the only ones in the precinct who know the truth about Cabot's "death" until one year and four months later (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Ghost"), when she emerges from hiding to be a witness in a case against Liam Connors, the assassin who tried to kill her. It is revealed in this episode that Cabot was living in Wisconsin under the name "Emily" and working for an insurance company. Her "Emily" identity was from Tulsa. It is also mentioned that Cabot's mother died during her time in witness protection and that she was unable to attend the funeral. She wants to see Connors brought to justice, but does not want him to be convicted of a murder that he didn't actually commit, which forces her to leave witness protection and face him in the courtroom. Connors goes to prison, having been found guilty under two counts of attempted murder (Cabot and an eight-year-old boy), plus five counts of murder. Cabot quickly disappears again under a new identity.

In Conviction

A year later in the TV series Conviction, Cabot returns to New York and resumes work at the District Attorney's office as the Homicide Bureau Chief (replacing Tracey Kibre from TBJ). Cabot's departure from witness protection and return to New York as a Bureau Chief were not explained during the show's airing. In Conviction, March was a last-minute addition to the cast, and most of the early episodes had already been written before she was added. There were plans in a later episode to explain Cabot's departure from witness protection, and a greater exploration of her personal life and past was planned, but the cancellation of Conviction made this a moot point.

Second reappearance on SVU

The explanation of Cabot's return from Witness Protection to Bureau Chief in Conviction is finally revealed in the SVU episode "Lead": She had left witness protection after Velez was murdered in prison and Connors was extradited to Ireland. Sometime between 2006 and 2007, she stepped down from the position of Bureau Chief and is replaced by Christine Danielson, and then Cabot begins work in the Appeals Bureau. She was then asked by DA Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston) to step in to take over for ADA Kim Greylek (Michaela McManus) when the latter requested to return to the Justice Department. At that point, she had not told her former colleagues of her return; it is implied, and later confirmed, that she is still traumatized by her attempted murder.

At the beginning of Season 11, it is revealed that Cabot is training in Albany, and will eventually work return to the Appeals Bureau. McCoy asks Executive ADA Sonya Paxton (Christine Lahti) to assume Cabot's role ("Unstable"). In the fourth episode of Season 11, Paxton begins drinking after she makes a mistake at trial; it is later revealed that she is an alcoholic. She is ordered to go through court-mandated rehabilitation and will therefore be temporarily absent. Cabot returns in the fifth episode, commenting that she had "clawed her way" out of Appeals to return to SVU, to prosecute a man running a pedophile advocacy group. In this episode, Stephanie March is added to the Season 11 opening credits as a series regular (though only in episodes in which she appears). In the eighth episode, detectives Benson and Stabler are informed that Cabot had been accused of withholding evidence and is being investigated by Liam Black, a member of the State bar association. In that same episode Paxton returns to give Cabot some "much needed advice."

In "Witness," Cabot tries a rape case with an illegal immigrant from the Democratic Republic of the Congo as her witness. The witness was a rape victim in the Congo herself, and Cabot works to help her get asylum, as well as trying the rape case, which then becomes a murder case after the victim dies from an infection caused by a large cut sustained during the rape. Cabot succeeds in getting the rapist convicted and gets the witness a visa that would allow her to remain in the United States without fear of being deported. However, the case affects both the witness and Cabot; the witness decides to return to the Congo to help rape victims there, while Cabot decides to take a leave of absence and joins the Prosecutor's Office of the International Criminal Court, which prosecutes sex crimes and other human rights abuses in areas such as the Congo. She is replaced by ADA Jo Marlowe (Sharon Stone).

Third reappearance on SVU

ADA's Alexandra Cabot and Casey Novak both returned to Law & Order: Special Victims Unit for the show's 13th season.

Career in the District Attorney's Office

Time Period	Position	Bureau	Office	District Attorney	Predecessor	Successor
2000–2003	Assistant District Attorney	Special Victims	Manhattan District Attorney's office	Nora Lewin/ Arthur Branch	Abbie Carmichael	Casey Novak
2003–2006	Witness Protection
2006–2007	Bureau Chief ADA	Homicide	Manhattan District Attorney's office	Arthur Branch	Tracey Kibre	Christine Danielson
2007–2009	Assistant District Attorney	Appeals		Jack McCoy	Unknown
2009		Special Victims			Kim Greylek	Sonya Paxton
		Appeals			Sonya Paxton	Unknown
2009–2010		Special Victims			Sonya Paxton	Jo Marlowe
2010–2011	International Criminal Court
2011–present	Assistant District Attorney	Special Victims	Manhattan District Attorney's office	Unknown	Gillian Hardwicke	–