Elliot Stabler is going to be heading deep undercover on Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 2...and it may not be a fun ride.
NBC has released the first promo for the new season of the hit installment of the iconic franchise as Christopher Meloni’s Stabler takes on a dangerous undercover assignment that could put him and his team in the crosshairs of a deadly gang.
Stabler’s return to Law & Order
The Season 12 finale of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in 2011 ended with Elliot Stabler being forced to shoot a teenage girl when she stormed the squad room to take revenge on her mother’s killers. The Season 13 premiere revealed Stabler had quit the force, unable to continue after that.
That was the last seen of Stabler until a crossover in April of 2021 that kicked off the new Law & Order: Organized Crime series. It opened with Stabler rocked when his wife, Kathy, was mortally wounded in an attack he thought was targeted at him.
Stabler soon joined a new Organized Crime Bureau unit under Sergeant Ayanna Bell (Danielle Moné Truitt). He targeted Richard Wheatley (Dylan McDermott), a corrupt pharmaceutical CEO tied to organized crime, who Stabler thought was behind Kathy’s death.
It turned out Wheatley’s ex-wife Angela (Tamara Taylor) was really responsible, having been tricked by Richard into thinking Elliot killed her son. The season ended with Wheatley arrested and Angela fighting for her own life in a hospital bed.
Now, Stabler has to move from Wheatley to a new and more dangerous case.
Stabler’s undercover assignment in Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 2
As revealed in TV Guide, the first arc of Season 2 has Wheatley behind bars (McDermott will recur this year), but this paves the way for the powerful Kosta organization to take up the drug trade in New York City.
Stabler will be going undercover as arsonist “Ashes” to get close to boss Jon Kosta (Michael Raymond-James). He’ll work at a gym run by enforcer Albi Briscu (Vinnie Jones) by befriending young Reggie (Dash Mihok).
The trailer opens with Stabler summarizing how crime in New York has changed as “the old-school wiseguys are gone. But the bullets…the bodies… it’s still the same.”
Stabler is told he’s going undercover with Bell informing him how the Albanians “are run like a multinational corporation.” Stabler is shown on the phone, reporting how the gang has “short tempers, military-grade weapons, they’re going to war.”
Bell warns Stabler it’s dangerous while he intones “I’ll be fine,” even as he’s shown taking a punch in a boxing ring. He’s also handed a rocket launcher by Briscu, which seems to shake him.
Meloni also popped up on the promo for Season 23 of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as a bearded Stabler comes to help Olivia Benson when the latter is in a car accident.
The Kosta storyline will be the first of three eight-episode arcs for Season 2. The second will have Mykelti Williamson as a kingpin, while the third will feature the return of Wheatley.
Stabler will also deal with a visit from his estranged mother (Ellen Burstyn) while wrestling with feelings for Benson.
The promo shows the action and drama will only increase in Season 2 of Law & Order: Organized Crime, with Stabler thrust into more danger than ever before.
Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 2 premieres Thursday, September 23 at 10/9c on NBC.