The second episode of Law & Order Organized Crime “Not Your Father’s Organized Crime” brought viewers deeper into the web of organized crime and also into the effects of the murder of Elliot Stabler’s wife, Kathy. Both issues beat Stabler down both literally and figuratively. It was an exciting episode, both in story and visually.
Stabler and Bell work the investigation of Sinatra Manfredi’s death. Richard Wheatley arranges to have COVID vaccine stolen, in a dramatic truck hijacking, to use for a special vaccine party. This leads Stabler and Bell to confront Richard outside his own office building, and Stabler isn’t pulling any punches in telling Richard he thinks he jacked those vaccines. Richard makes the usual denials. Richard then surprises Angela at her home and expects her to be his alibi for the time Manfredi was killed. Later, Richard and his son Richie meet with other unsavory characters in Manfredi’s organization at the Seven Knight Club and Richard thinks he can bring that group and the business into the modern era. Richie puts the moves on a cocktail waitress at that meeting – Gina – and Richard isn’t happy with Richie’s behavior. Later, we see “Gina” in a grocery store, secretly meeting with Bell to tell her who showed up at the Seven Knight Club.
Stabler and Bell and the team think they’ve tracked down the stolen vaccine to a company Wheatley bought which sold a frozen dessert - Nitro Nibbles – and they think it’s being stored in the company's refrigerated trucks. But the vaccine isn’t there; they think someone tipped them off. (Probably a mole. There is ALWAYS a mole.)
They eventually track down the details for this vaccine party and they arrest the doctor giving the shots and everyone else there.
In addition to Stabler and Jet Sloomaekers (the hacker who Stabler suggested in the previous episode), Bell added two more to her team: Detective Diego Morales from GVSD – “Gun Violence Suppression Division” - and Freddie Washburn, who previously worked with Bell in Narcotics. Freddie immediately gets on Stabler’s – and my – nerves. I am certain he’ll turn out to be either a mole or a flaming jerk that will somehow screw up horribly.
Stabler has a nightmare and is calling out for Kathy, and Eli witnesses this.
Later, Stabler comes clean to Bell about being at the Wonder Wheel where Manfredi was found murdered and that he was the one who called 911. Before he can tell her he took Manfredi’s phone, Bell stops him and explains if Stabler tells her he took the phone she’d have to arrest him. But she chooses her words carefully when she tells him “if you did take it, I know you gave it to Slootmaekers, told her to get every bit of evidence off of it, so we can nail the son of a bitch who did this to your family”.
At the end of the episode, Stabler is coming home and sees his son Eli approaching the entrance but also sees some suspicious looking men nearby – likely Wheatley’s guys. He urges Eli to get inside the building and Stabler winds up getting a very bad beating from them.
Benson and Stabler fans got a great scene – after Benson has dropped off Noah to school - when the two of them have a discussion in her car that went like this:
Benson: Thank you, and thank you for meeting me.
Stabler: Well, seems like this is the only way we're ever gonna get to talk. Yeah. Drive Noah to school every day?
Benson: You know, whenever I can. Every chance I get.
Stabler: You're a good mom.
Benson: So...
Stabler: So...
Benson: You gonna tell me what happened the other night?
Stabler: Happened where?
Benson: Umm..The other night when you walked past me in the lobby of your building, and you practically jumped out of your skin. I thought you were gonna unload your weapon on me.
Stabler: You startled me, that's all.
Benson: You never startled before. Look, Elliot, I don't want to push you, and I'll back off if you want me to.
Stabler: I do.[long pause] Back off.
Benson: [Whispers] You have PTSD.
Stabler: [LAUGHS] Uh – ah - I've been on the job 35 years.
Benson: And your wife was murdered right in front of your eyes.
Stabler: Yeah, I think I remember that.
Stabler: Elliot, I'm a captain now, and my job is to take care of my people and to make sure that they're good, and they're solid, and they're together enough to do the work.
Stabler: Okay.
Benson: Okay what?
Stabler: Okay, I'll take care of it.
Benson: Fine. Have you told Sergeant Bell?
Stabler: About the PTSD?
Benson: About where you were the night that Manfredi Sinatra was murdered. I don't know where you were. I only know that you were jumpy, you looked exhausted, you have circles under your eyes, and I am worried about you, Elliot.
Stabler: Thanks for that.
Benson: I didn't mean to be patronizing.
Stabler: No, I know. Uh... It felt good to hear that. Liv, you mean the world to me. I just think I needed to hear you say that. [He moves to get out of her car] Back off.
Oh yeah, Stabler’s a ticking time bomb.
Note: More photos of the cast were added to the opening credits and also added was this introduction (which was already included in the streaming versions of the first episode):
“In the nation’s largest city, the vicious and violent members of the underworld are hunted by the detectives of the Organized Crime Control Bureau. These are their stories.” (Cue the Law & Order sound.)
