For the first time in six years, Alexandra Cabot is back! Stephanie March is returning to Law & Order: SVU for the Wednesday, April 18, episode titled “Sunk Cost Fallacy,” in which Benson (Mariska Hargitay) crosses paths with Cabot once again.
“Mariska just texted me and she said, ‘Do you want to do an episode?’ And I said, ‘Sure.’ I hadn’t even read the script. We’ve been friends for a long time,” March, 43, tells Us Weekly about how the cameo came about. “I thought, ‘Yeah. Actually, great. As long as it doesn’t conflict with my kids’ spring break, let’s do it.’ And then it worked out perfectly and it was such a joy to be back on set. It was great. It was really, really fun. It was like a homecoming. One of the reasons that I love it is that despite the fact that the show has been on for so long, all of the cast members and all of the crew members, they’re so committed. Nobody is phoning it in. Nobody is pretending.”
When fans last saw Cabot in 2012, she was leaving for Congo to help victims of violence — now, she’s returned to the states and working as an attorney on behalf of the victims. This episode focuses on a case about domestic violence, something the Odd Mom Out star was happy to be a part of.
“I think when Alex Cabot first started in her role, she was really law-oriented and very black and white about what was right and what was wrong with regard to what’s written in the Constitution. I think now she is older and has more experience and there is a much more gray area around where she feels she can be the most help to people. I like that. I like things being less clear for a character as they get older … or certainly softening,” she shares.
Cabot, who was the ADA from season 1 to season 13, has always been one to push the limits and break the rules when necessary, and that definitely has not changed, March says. “She’s definitely skating the edge of what is technically legal in order to protect someone she feels really needs protection. She’s calling upon the strict letter of the law as opposed to the, maybe it’s a spirit of what is the letter of the law,” she teases of what Cabot’s up to in her return.
Law & Order: SVU airs on NBC Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET.
With reporting by Anna Chan
