Elliot Stabler is back in the thick of things.
Law & Order: Organized Crime kicked off Season 2 with Stabler on a dangerous undercover assignment that’s only going to get worse.
Wheatley goes free as Stabler goes deep
As The Man With No Identity kicked off, Richard Wheatley (Dylan McDermott) had almost all charges against him dismissed thanks to the info he gave the feds on other parts of the underworld. He gloated to Bell as he dryly asked where Stabler was.
At the docks, a pack of men was watching a container being unloaded with Reggie (Dash Mihok) upset when some cops showed up. When a motorcycle pulled up, Reggie realized these weren’t real cops but a robbery. A fight broke out with a bearded Stabler getting out of a car to help Reggie and his gang just as the real police showed up to arrest them all.
Bell explained to Chief Kirkpatrick and a board that she had the operation handled with the harbor cops as they wanted to bust the Kosta Organization smuggling in cocaine. Sgt. Brewster (Guillermo Diaz) protested that his narcotics unit had been tracking the Kosta Organization and no one cleared this with them. It’s stated Brewster and Bell once worked together with the implication something went badly.
Bell explained her cop is undercover and helping get closer to Reggie. In lockup, Stabler was identified as “Eddie Wagner,” with Reggie vouching for him to someone else as “Eddie Ashes.”
Stabler told Bell the deal had been set with some bribed harbor cops, but something went wrong and worries this makes the Albanians more paranoid. Bell is concerned, but Stabler insisted he’s fine.
After the charges were dropped, Stabler went with Reggie to meet Reggie’s uncle Albi (Vinnie Jones), who had one of his thugs punch Reggie several times in a boxing ring.
Stabler gave Reggie advice to box back with Albi wondering who this stranger was. Stabler assured Albi they’d get his money back, with Albi having his thug punch Stabler as “a taste of what happens if you break your promise.”
The hunt for a corrupt cop is on
Stabler was on the phone talking about “bluebirds,” which was a code word to enter the OC headquarters with Jet firing off her usual wisecracks. Jet helps discover one harbor cop, Beau, has spent money on girlfriend Sheri and figures he was involved in this with Bell and Jet finding Sheri and her new car.
Reggie brought Stabler to his home to meet his mother, who suffers from having been shot in the head years ago. The woman spilled a drink from Stabler to “read the grounds,” and Reggie relates her words on why Stabler doesn’t “tell the person you love how you feel.” The mother whispered something to Reggie, who told her not to be so suspicious.
Reggie and Stabler scare another cop into giving up Beau’s location in a cabin. After they left, the cop called Bell to admit he couldn’t tell which of the pair was the undercover officer. Bell was meeting with a recovering Angela who was ready to testify against Wheatley for Kathy Stabler’s murder.
Stabler and Reggie attacked Beau, beating him down until he admitted he was just the middle man for a dealer named “Red Bull.” Stabler punched the guy once more as “no one likes a dirty cop.”
Stabler met his son Eli who told his father not to feel guilty over what happened to Kathy. Next, Stabler met with Bell who identified Red Bull as Lance Flowers, a member of the Marcy Killers, a powerful street gang.
A dangerous alliance is forged
Elliot and Reggie stole some cocaine from two women, one named Reilly, to bring to Albi. Realizing this is his cocaine, Albi declares war on the Marcy Killers.
In jail, a gang member named Hugo was upset to hear Lance had stolen from the Albanians and that a “Mr. Webb” had to know. He used a hidden cell phone to call Webb (Mykelti Williamson) who was meeting Congressman Kilbride (Ron Cephas Jones) with Webb not happy with Lance.
Bell and her wife Denise (with their newborn son) talked about Kilbride, with Bell wary of trusting the man. She was interrupted by Stabler warning her of the Albanians about to go to war. Albi was whipping his troops up while Bell and Brewster were ordered to head up a joint task force to stop this conflict.
It appeared as if the Albanians were heading to Marcy Killers territory with the cops prepared to go in…only for Albi to get a phone call to call the whole thing off.
At a party, leader Jon Kosta (Michael Raymond-James) was celebrating his daughter’s engagement while Reggie relays his mom warned him that “Ashes” had grounds “filled with misfortune.” Also, Albi’s wife, Flutura (Lolita Davidovich) asked Reggie, “who’s your friend with the sexy buns.”
Suddenly, Webb arrived with Flowers and Reilly to return the stolen drugs. Kosta was ready to shoot Flowers, but Webb suggested that they were better off working together rather than fighting each other, with Kosta agreeing.
Stabler gave Kosta a drink, with Kosta telling Albi he wasn’t sure he could trust this man with Stabler watching the dangerous gang he was now a part of.
The premiere clearly set the stage for bigger storylines to come as the only thing worse than two powerful drug gangs going to war is them working together to put Stabler in the middle.
Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 2 airs its next episode Thursday, September 30 at 9/8c on NBC.