Law & Order: SVU returns with a major loss to Olivia Benson and the NBC franchise as a whole. TV's longest-running show is back with a lot of exciting things ahead, including the full-time return of Kelli Giddish's Amanda Rollins . So it's quite jarring to learn that the year is opening with a massive franchise death.

Considering their line of work, Benson and the rest of her team are no strangers to danger. All of them have faced certain situations that almost killed them. Benson herself has been kidnapped and beaten a few times. Still, NBC and Wolf Entertainment have managed to keep Law & Order: SVU' s main cast deaths to a minimum.

The last time a major character in the show died was when Richard Belzer's demise mirrored Munch's fate in the series. Law & Order: SVU didn't m

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