Law & Order Organized Crime “An Inferior Product” Recap, Review, Discussion

The second half of the two-hour Law & Order SVU/Organized Crime crossover – “An Inferior Product” –  showed how dangerous it is to mess with Richard Wheatley’s organization.  It ended with Stabler in shock from a twist he never expected.   This was a tense, suspenseful episode to start, and the revelation at the end can only make one worry more for Stabler and his safety.    

Stabler is drawn to Angela and they share a passionate, yet what looked like an awkward kiss.  Maybe this awkwardness was a portend to what would happen at the end of the episode. Angela Wheatley had already seemed suspect to me.  The revelation that she was the one that ordered the hit on Kathy Stabler is a massive twist, but one has to ask if even that is the truth.  It’s hard to say with the sneaky, slimy Richard Wheatley and his organization.    If it is true, it certainly changes the dynamics of the case in a major way.  If it’s not true, one has to wonder why Richard Wheatley would have Bekher lie about it.  I’m going into this believing that Angela truly ordered the hit, and am looking forward to them unraveling why.

Here it the recap: 

Benson is in the hot seat right away, being questioned by [who I assume is] IAB about Felix, their ¨wired¨ informant, who was killed while she and Stabler watched on the stake out. She thinks she  made the right call.  Afterward, Benson questions Stabler on what he told them, and is annoyed at him that he may have led them to believe there was a chance to save Felix.  He said he told them that Benson saved his ass, and she is welcome.  She tells him he is not dismissed as she storms off, and he calls her ¨Captain¨.   Right afterward, Bell tells Stabler that Benson cleared everything up. 

Later, a guy brings in a guitar to a music store for repair and as he leaves, a group of guys are running away from police.   Unfortunately the police think he is part of the group and they tackle him and one officer steps on his hand and crushes it.  Later, Sgt. Bell gets a call -  this is her wife Denise´s nephew and he was in the hospital from that encounter. 

Stabler heads to Angela´s place and finds her on an outdoor patio.  He is struggling to verbalize why he´s there, and this eventually leads to a passionate, yet uncomfortable awkward kiss.  Angela asks what are they going, and Stabler makes a quick exit. 

Meanwhile, Gina gets a surprise visitor - Richard Wheately.  He admits he had her followed and is looking into her.  He tempts her with a relationship with himself but she passes on it, saying her interest is in his son, Richie.   He tells her she passed the final test.  He offers to take her to work.

Meanwhile, the operation making the knock-off Purple Magic is in process. One of the guys leaves and says he´ll be back in 15 minutes.  Wheatley gets a call from someone and then tells Gina he has to make a stop.   Wheatley gets out of the car and tells her to wait in the car.  She moves to follow him inside and hears gunfire. She makes an anonymous 911 call and goes inside the building.  There she sees the one guy who left return, and he hears gunfire  and he races away.  Gina sees the boots of a man backing away.  She gets back in the car and Wheatley returns to it as well, acting like nothing happened. 

Later, Stabler and Bell are on the scene, Stabler saying the guy goes by El Gato, the guy Felix was meeting with when they wired him up.  The other guy whacked Felix.   The find the fake Purple Magic.  Stabler and Bell think it was a rival gang looking for drugs and money - or  - Wheatley, taking them out for the bad drugs.  They also find a very young child -  a girl - hiding in the bathtub.

Later, they bring this girl – Giana -  into the OC and Benson talks with her to try to get her to explain what she saw.   She says her Uncle K went to get a happy meal and told her to hide there.  She saw men with police badges.  Later, the OC team finds there were no police working that case.  They need to find Uncle K. They also find some of the bullets match those that killed Felix but not the ones fired at their SUV.  They wonder if the shooter was Uncle K. 

Bell secretly meets with Gina who explains that the  men were dressed as cops but she´s sure they weren't,  and explains why she was there and what she saw and heard.  She did not see Wheatley actually come out of the apartment.  She saw they guy who was the girl´s uncle. 

They later track down Uncle K -  Kwan Chen - and apprehend him after a chase.  Later at the OC squad  interrogation, they find the gang has been knocking off Purple Magic for 6 months but Kwan didn’t agree with them doing it.  He comments that if you step on Purple Magic, they take you out.  They know it was Kwan´s gun that shot at Stabler and Benson, they now have his gun.  Benson comes in and puts the pressure on about the “trick-roll” operation,  telling Kwan that the knockoff drugs killed her brother.  She tells him she hopes and prays that the thought of him haunts him for the rest of his pathetic life.  

After this,  Stabler chases Benson down. She said she spent the last two years thinking Simon did this to himself and  the addiction caught up to him.  Stabler says now she’s heard the truth and can let it go. She asks about progress on Kathy’s case, and he says they are keeping him in the dark and she is staying away. Benson thinks he looks better but he says he is confused as hell at so many things. She says whatever he is doing to keep doing it. 

Back at the OC. Stabler tells her to check into a few files referencing Kwan.  Bell says she is waiting to hear on Denise’s nephew and will let him know if it becomes a problem.   Diego announces he has Wheatley in his office with Bekher.  While Wheatley is on the phone, Bekher looks for and finds the bug and disables it, much to Stabler and Bell’s dismay. They think he is playing them.

Later, Stabler meets with Bekher who says he found it so his boss would trust him again.  He tells them that the crew selling the bogus Purple Magic was done by someone else, he does not know who.  Stabler tells him to get something he can use or Bekher is going back. 

Meanwhile, Angela is teaching a class. After class, Stabler meets with her and says he doesn’t know who that was last night and he had no business being there. She said it would not have happened had she not wanted it too. They continue to talk and he offers her a lift home but she declines.  She says he terrifies her because of how he fell into her life suddenly and the things she feels – she was not prepared for him.  Wheatley shows up and acts very possessive and then brings up the bug in his office, accusing Stabler. Wheatley tells him not to come near his family again. 

Back at the OC squad, Terrance Bryant, Brooklyn Bureau president, the Chief of Detectives, and  Deputy Chief Garland.  Bell is also there and they discuss a lawsuit involving Bell’s wife’s nephew.  The only way Bell will survive this is if the task force does what is supposed to do – take Wheatley down. Failure means Bell’s career is over. 

Stabler later finds that the pipe bomb killing Kathy had vice marks from when it was assembled and there was no vice at Sacha’s. They do not think Sacha built the bomb. 

Back in the squad they go over the homicides that Kwan told them about.  He tells Bell about the pipe bomb.  Bell tells Jet to research credit card purchase going back a few years for Isaac Bekher.  Stabler and Bell tell each other they have each other’s backs.  The other detectives find that at all the crime scenes in question,  someone yelled “police” before breaking in.  Stabler recognizes one of the addresses as where Rafiq Wheatley was murdered. There were multiple pills in that office. Bell tells Stabler to go to the property clerk’s office.  Stabler does so, and finds pills marked as Purple Magic. 

Later, Stabler meets with Angela and she says he didn’t have to tail Wheatley’s car taking her home last night.  She told Wheatley he made his point.  She refers to Stabler as detective, and he says he is in a  place he does not want to be, this can’t happen right now.  She suggest they just let it be whatever he needs it to be.  But Stabler says he is hunting the person who killed his wife and her son and she is the ex of a prime suspect and he won’t let his emotions derail him – emotions that he doesn’t even understand.  She tells him he has a higher calling, a mission, and then tells him to slay his dragons.  She suggest they start over and she re-introduces herself and says she has information that may be of value to him.  She suggests dinner and he says he has some questions to ask her. 

When he meets her later to take her to dinner, he gets a call from Bell saying Bekher bought the vice.  He tells Bell where he will meet her and Angela knows he has to go, saying to do what he needs to do.  

Bell explains that Bell bought the vice at a place 5 miles from Wheatley’s house.  Bell made an excuse to meet him.  She reminds Stabler no matter what they  need Bekher to testify Wheatley gave him the order to kill Kathy.

They meet with Bekher and when he senses something is wrong, Bell explains they are  searching his apartment and all his other places.  Bell mentions the vice and the pipe bomb and Stabler says it was the bomb that killed his wife. He clocks Bekher and pushes him against a chain link fence, asking Bekher why Wheatley wants his wife dead.  Bekher says he didn’t give the order – Angela Wheatley did. Stabler lets go  and stands there, stunned and speechless as we fade to black.