Law & Order Organized Crime “As Hubris Is To Oedipus” Recap, Review, Discussion

 

Richard Wheatley continues to make trouble for Stabler, Bell, and the people of New York City, and it seems he’s again one step ahead of everyone. His wife Angela has joined him in his efforts. Sadly, Sebastian McClane figured out too late that Angela was using him.  I think this episode was written to appeal to the comic book villain crowd;  Dylan McDermott ramped up his cartoon-villain portrayal of the evil Wheatley to the max. For a while I felt like I was not seeing New York City in peril,  but instead Gotham City. All that was missing was Batman. 

Somewhat amusing was seeing Stabler seamlessly go undercover and  blending in by simply putting on a cap on his head worn by the rest of the group.  Had he not had Malachi on call, there is no way he would have passed the test of being a legitimate follower of McClane.  And hearing the group shouting “To the promised land” and "Project Bedlam" just made me laugh.  It seemed so…corny.  

Don’t get me wrong, I still really enjoy this series, but I’m happy that Dylan McDermott will be moving on to another show.  I'm not sure if it's Dylan McDermott's over-the-top acting, or that his character has been poorly written, or both, but I simply cannot take Richard Wheatley seriously. 

There was one comment that Sergeant Bell made that, for some reason,  raised my eyebrows.  She commented, “Never underestimate the sheer audacity of a white man with nothing to lose.”  What does Wheatley being white have to do with it?  Is this a racist comment, or simply inappropriate?   

It’s likely New York will survive this power outage and that Stabler and Bell will get the upper hand, but I’m very interested in seeing how they do it. Despite the comic book feel of the episode, I still want our superheroes to come out on top at the end of the story. 

Here is the recap:

Stabler and Bell are summoned the Governor’s office, who proceeds to say they were right and he was wrong, agreeing that Wheatley is behind the data center attacks and the prison break.   He states he has been sheltering McClane and playing him for a fool. He tells them to apprehend Wheatley with his full support – except Stabler can’t get a public statement clearing Stabler of the accusation of going rogue.

Meanwhile, McClane gets a young woman to get him some food, and the woman is followed by a black car.  Soon after, she delivers the food to McClane, who eats some of it and begins to black out. The food has been drugged and McClane is soon captured by Wheatley.  He wakes up and finds himself tied to a metal support beam along with Angela.  Wheatley threatens McClane with a gun, telling him to reach out to his followers. When McClane resists, Wheatley plays Russian Roulette with Angela. McClane caves in.  Wheatley tells him to assemble his people.

Stabler and Bell explain to the US Attorney how they tracked Wheatley’s money based on information from McClane about the “digital dust”.  Wheatley got away with $700 million before they shut him down. Angela has gone off the grid, the last time she was seen was at the aborted job interview.  Jet has access to a private gathering spots for McClane’s followers and loyalists on the dark web.  The mob is angry about the manhunt for McClane and they are going to meet in person.

Elsewhere, the McClane  devotees meet in a special location and see McClane on video. He assures them he is safe and is staying ahead of the NYPD and FBI.  He says it is time for the oppressors to pay for their crimes.  He will lead them one step closer to the promised land, welcoming them to Project Bedlam. The crowd cheers and applauds.  With McClane at the other location, Wheatley, with his gun, is thrilled. 

Later, a group of people break into a building to steal blueprints.  One person drops a flashlight and the security guard notices.  He eventually tries to apprehend them but they escape, except for one person who was waiting outside that helps them to get out – Donald Mathers. 

Later,  Donald is at the task force in interrogation and Stabler and Bell question him.  He says there was one guy who seemed to know the most about the mission to steal government building blueprints.    He mentioned he will find out more about the mission at the meeting on Thursday. 

Afterwards, Stabler wants to go undercover and Bell isn’t having it, wondering if she’ll wind up worrying about whether he will come out alive and how many lines he will cross.  He argues this is not fair, and she says nothing is fair, she has a list of grievances that would make his head spin. She raises her voice, saying she doesn’t deal with them by changing her identify and running away from her actual life.  Stabler says they have to find out.

Sometime later, Stabler comes up from the subway and  puts on a cap, which apparently everyone in the group is wearing. He makes it to the location and he communicated to Bell that he’s in.  He tells Bell he just spotted the Alpha (“Brother Bill”)  as a man walks past him on the phone. A young woman starts to chat up Stabler while someone nearby watches them.  Brother Bill addresses the group about the “Promise Land” and the large video screen begins to show a video with McClane. McClane talks about phase two, the five pillars of inequity. Bell radios Stabler and says those five places could be anywhere.  McClane adds the government, courts, the banks, health care, and law enforcement.  Stabler hears a sound off-camera and asks Bell to have Jet try to isolate it.  McClane continues to rally his group and says the time is now, the reckoning is upon t hem and they will meet at the other side. The crowd cheers about the promised land.  Brother Bill tells them under their chair is a card which matches them to their team and to not stray from their team. Bell thinks these are the attack teams. Brother Bill instructs them.   Stabler gets matched with the young woman who was chatting with him earlier.   But some of the group separate Stabler from the group and accuse him of flirting with the girl. As they continue to pressure him, he tries to convince them he is there for the same reason as there, saying Malachi will vouch for him. They don’t believe him but Stabler calls Malachi.  After a series of the men asking Malachi questions and he answers them correctly, they believe Stabler. 

Stabler and the young girl go with Brother Bill’s team, and there are explosives in the van.   Al the vans drive off. 

Brewster communicates with Bell who is heading to Wall Street. Brewster explains to her all the agencies that have been deployed.  Stabler is on the way to the Marshall courthouse and he is told to stop talking.  They arrive at the location in the parking garage and Bell arrives outside as well, and she is told ESU is on the way.   All Bell knows it is divide and conquer -  half of them run point and the others rig the explosives, that’s all she could get before she lost coms.  She asks for the building to be evacuated as discreetly as possible. 

Stabler volunteers to rig the explosives, saying that is why Malachi wanted him there.  The girl says she can program the detonator.  Brother Bill sends the others off to the other location.  As they walk off, Stabler tells the girl to pop the hood and then he puts a gun to Brother Bill, saying he is police.  He knocks him to the ground and then tells the girl this is the luckiest day in her life. She says she believes in McClane but didn’t  know it would be violent.  He convinces her to take off to give her a second chance. 

Meanwhile, McClane is still tied to the beam and he doesn’t want to be left without water. 

Stabler is now outside and he confers with Bell, Brother Bill has been silent.  Stabler gets into the vehicle and tries to get him to tell him the other locations, saying they are just pawns, explaining Bill is following Richard Wheatley, not McClane, and that Wheatley killed his wife and walked away. He wants to know if he wants to go down for  murder, saying they are fighting the same enemy.  Soon after, Stabler  gets out of the car and tells Bell the other locations are the New York Stock Exchange,  Bellevue, Manhattan DA,  13th precinct.  Bell radios the information for evacuations.

Back with McClane, Wheatley lets Angelo go and as they kiss, McClane realizes he’s been had.  The two of them leave Sebastian tied to the beam and with a ticking bomb. 

As TV covers an explosion near the stock exchange, Brewster  tells Jet and Malachi says that 3 teams have been apprehended and car bombs deactivated; a fourth detonated near the stock exchange which was already evacuated. Damage  but no injuries.  They isolated the sound from the feed from Stabler and the sound is coming from a recycling plant – Simms Municipal and McClane’s llocation has been narrowed to a 10 block area.  Brewster thinks that is not enough and Jet and Malachi think if they find a surge of electricity they will find McClane. 

Meanwhile, Wheatley waits in a car  with two  men and thinks he’s successful and says that McClane chose one of them – Wayne – for a special task.  He tells the men to say hello to Big Alex – it looks like a power station.

Jet tells Stabler and Bell how they isolated McClane’s location and the address, based on the energy the location had been drawing.  There is one point of entry off the back alley, the bomb squad is en route.  Bell asks Stabler if he is good, and he says he is recalibrating.  Bell says he may like to slip his skin from time to time but he is damn good at what he does. Stabler says he appreciates the trust, and Bell says trust is a two way street, his instincts were right and he shouldn’t have doubted him.  He nods. 

Back with Big Alex – Wayne disables the outside cameras and they explode a door to enter the facility. Wheatley tells them they just breached the most secure campus in all of New York and they made it look easy. Wheatley notes that some energy coils have 200,000 volts of electricity  in them and if they get too close to an arc flash they would vaporize on the spot. 

Meanwhile, Stabler and Bell enter the location that Jet gave them and find McClane and the bomb.  They  get McClane out and Bell calls in the bomb squad.   The device is quickly rendered safe.  Stabler tries to question McClane but he needs medical help and Stabler calls for a bus.  Bell looks at the blueprints that were left behind and discovers there is a sixth target – the Chalamet Power Company,  and electrical substation in Queens – Big Alex.  Stabler wonders if it is a controlled outage, and McClane tells them to guess again. 

Wheatley, with Gunther, who he spent time with in prison,  walk into the plant, and says this is his piece de resistance. 

Stabler and Bell radio in that the first five locations were distractions and the sixth - the power station - is his main target.  It controls the entire power grid.

Wheatley and Gunther enter the control office and Gunther and shoots a man as soon as he opens the door. 

Stabler and Bell continue to race to the substation, thinking they can stop Wheatley. Stabler tells Brewster on the phone that he thinks Wheatley is still there, having a front row seat to all the madness he created. He’s not going to slink away without taking a curtain call. Bell says never underestimate the sheer audacity of a white man with nothing to lose. 

Wheatley works on the computer to all a virus that will shut down the substation and the others will not be able to handle it and will also fail.  

As Stabler and Bell arrive, they are told by an officer that the bomb squad is two minutes out and there are units sealing off streets and evacuating.  Shots ring out and a shooter flees but walks into the power area and is vaporized. 

Stabler and Bell get inside with other officers and find the men in the control room dead.  Stabler sees a message on the computer which says “Hello Detective Stabler” and he says they have to get TARU in there. An officer says that will be a minute, every unit is either coming from or heading to a different location; the building has been cleared of explosive devices. Stabler asks if he is sure and when the officer asks if he is questioning him, Stabler says he is asking if he is sure.  The officer moves closer to the computer and asks what is that, as Stabler tells him not to get near it,  The officer bumps into the computer mouse and this triggers a 50 second countdown clock.  Stabler and Bell are shocked and she asks that if he said…he said he did, he is certain there are no explosives on the premises.  Stabler asks then what does that mean, and Bell says she doesn’t want to take any chances, radioing out a 10-13 calling for everybody to get out. Everyone runs away from the building.   Outside, as they look back at it, Stabler comments if that thing blows they don’t have a chance.  But there is no explosion. As they look to the New York City skyline, the lights in each building go out, one by one. Stabler stays Richard Wheatley just took the whole city hostage.  As the darkness surrounds them, we cut to black.