Law & Order Organized Crime “The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of” Recap, Review, Discussion

Trying to work the Wheatley case with the task force while he continues to try to solve who murdered his wife is putting Stabler on the edge.   Benson has talked to him about it, his children have talked to him about it, but Stabler continues to obsess. It’s affecting his sleep.  In “The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of”,  Stabler is haunted by the nightmare of solving his wife’s murder.   This recap isn’t in order of how things occurred in the episode; it may be easier to follow what happened by grouping the recap into key segments of the episode.   The episode didn’t have the action as in previous episodes but the suspense was clearly there.   Stabler is loosing it and it shows, and one has to wonder how much more stressed he will be knowing his wife was the target all along?  He also seems to be forming a bond with Angela, and I wonder if this will come back to haunt him somewhere down the road. Gina is walking a tightrope with Wheatley.  She knows he is watching her and while she thinks she is being so careful, I suspect that Wheatley is already on to her actions, possibly including the bug in his wine cellar.  I wonder who is playing who? 

Carisi,   still a newbie as far as I’m concerned, is already proposing a “shadow counsel”, saying he’s done it before and like it’s an everyday thing.   (I’m trying to recall if/when we’ve actually seen him do this before.)  It also seemed insulting for him to tell the judge that it’s legal “technically”. I would think the judge would be an expert on what is and isn’t legal.  

When Stabler told Benson “I love you”  was this a Freudian slip or did he mean it as he corrected himself to mean “all of them”?   It’s probably both, although I think his love for Benson is not the romantic kind of love. 

Here’s what happened:

Stabler  realizes that someone was in the area taking selfies near the time of the car bombing that killed Kathy. It isn’t until his son Eli makes a comment about geotagging a photo that  he gets the idea to use that information to track down the people in that photo.  Stabler is so distracted at the information from Eli that he stops his car in the middle of traffic and then when he starts moving again, he gets into a car accident.    Later he manages to find the people who were in the selfies.   He stops the woman on the street as she’s walking her dog and convinces her to have her boyfriend send him the photos.  Much later, he gets the photos and looks at them closely.  In the window, near the car bombing he sees  Sacha Lenski.  It’s late in the night but he tries to call Benson and when she sees who is calling, she doesn’t answer.  He leaves her a message, saying that Sacha was there and he activated the bomb from across the street.  Sacha knew it was Kathy getting into the car. Stabler realizes he wasn’t the target, it was Kathy,  wondering why anyone would want to kill her.

Kathleen meets with Benson and, in a very emotional state, asks Benson to help her and her siblings stage an intervention with their father as he is clearly suffering from PTSD.   This intervention does take place – they are waiting for Stabler when he comes home -  and Stabler is stunned and less than pleased.  When Benson asks Stabler to tell them what he needs, he replies “I love you” but then looks around to the others and adds “I love all of you”.  But he’s not ready for any of this and says he doesn’t think he can do this. 

The task force continues to work the Wheatley case, tracking down a local pharmacy whose computer is connected to his company Contrapos and the filling of a prescription of Naradol, a component in Wheatley’s drug, purple magic. This leads them to a home where a young boy has just died from the drug that he just received from that same local pharmacy.  Stabler helps to console his mother. 

Izak Bekher is in interrogation with his lawyer, and they deny involvement in Manfredi’s death. Stabler also thinks Wheatley, targeting him, got Kathy killed.  Stabler and Bell push the theory that Wheatley shot Manfredi, using Izak’s gun (which Stabler confiscated earlier),  leaving the bullet casing to implicate Izak.  Izak’s gun also matches the bullet that killed Jocelyn Howell.  Izak’s lawyer isn’t going to make any deals.    Later, Izak calls Stabler and says he wants to talk – he needs protection. Stabler and Bell meet with Izak in prison, without his lawyer. Izak is ready to turn on Wheatley but his lawyer will never make a deal and worries Wheatley can get to him inside of Rikers. Stabler says they will figure something out.

Stabler and Carisi meet with a judge.  They want to hire a second lawyer – a “shadow” counsel” – to work with Izak in secret to make a deal to cooperate.  Izak’s lawyer Vincent Weiss is beholden to Wheatley, not Izak. Carisi says he’s done this before, and it’s legal – technically. Carisi wants to appoint Izak a new lawyer, but keep it under wraps and in a secret hearing with the record sealed to make  a deal with Izak for his cooperation.   They would then stage a fake arraignment hearing. Weiss will still represent Izak, and the judge will grant bail.  Stabler adds that Izak walks, Wheatley thinks he is in the clear, but the reality is Izak works for them. Stabler uses the death of the boy earlier in the day, and the judge’s grandkids, to hit home the kind of damage from Wheatley’s drugs.   They later have the secret hearing, but Izak will not wear a wire with Wheatley. Bell agrees to this.   The deal is on and the judge warns him what will happen if he doesn’t do this as agreed. 

In the middle of all this, Stabler goes to see Angela as he thinks she is the only one who will understand what he’s going through.  They share their grief over the loss of Stabler’s wife and Angela’s son.

Izak is arraigned and everything goes as planned. 

Meanwhile,  Wheatley tells one of his men to find out all he can about Gina and apparently he has access to many of the city’s CCTV cameras. He watches Gina AND he also has malware on her phone that can tap into her phone camera.  Later, Bell meets with Gina who knows Wheatley is counter-surveilling her. She refuses Bell’s offer for an undercover officer to shadow her.   Bell gives Gina a bug to place into Wheatley’s wine cellar to help penetrate  the Faraday cage.  

Gina attends Richie’s 30th birthday party and has to tolerate a few catty remarks because she’s just a “waitress.”   Angela gets weepy when she comments that Richie is her only son (Raffi is dead).   Wheatley makes some creepy comments which puts everyone off, especially Richie.   Later, Gina plays up wanting to see the wine cellar and manages to get the bug planted. 

The next episode is May 13, 2021 in a crossover event with Law & Order SVU.