Working with the Albanian mob isn’t for the faint of heart.
Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 2 Episode 6 featured a tongue removal so gruesome it was hard to watch and an assassination that might have been as much about getting revenge on Reggie as anything else.
And with Lewis revealing that he knows Stabler isn’t Eddie Wagoner, a bloody fate could be in store for the undercover cop, too!
Organized Crime has always been more gritty and intense than the rest of the franchise, and this story was no exception.
Given how ruthless and violent the Albanian mob is, Stabler needs to be far more careful than he’s been so far.
Meeting with Bell in public places like the laundromat where he could easily be overheard and regularly going both to the squad room and to his real home don’t seem like good things to do when Stabler is trying to convince the mob he is on their side.
And the fact that K.O. members keep getting arrested since he appeared on the scene should tip Kosta off to what’s going on here.
Kosta has no qualms about doing whatever he feels like to send warnings or get revenge, and Stabler’s had way too many close calls already.
And now, with the real Eddie’s son hanging around the mob, things are sure to get even messier.
Stabler: Look, not every kid needs to be like his father.
Lewis: Oh, I don’t want to be like my father. My father is a sociopathic ass. I don’t know who you really are, but I want to be like you.
The question is, why did Lewis show up and attach himself to Stabler? Did he sincerely think he was Eddie initially, or is he a plant whose job is to determine who “Eddie” really is?
Organized Crime took a risk asking Stabler to take over a real person’s life instead of creating a brand new persona for him.
After all, what happens if the real Eddie shows up or the mob looks into him and finds him living elsewhere?
Either of those could be bad news for Stabler, and now he’s dealing with the real Eddie’s son demanding answers, too.
The kid could genuinely have been looking for his dad and figured out that Stabler was something else, but it seems more likely that Kosta found the real Eddie’s son and hired him to find out who this guy was claiming to be Eddie.
Kosta has never fully trusted Stabler, and he enjoys playing mind games, so I wouldn’t put it past him.
Of course, since Kosta cut a guy’s tongue out for no apparent reason, it doesn’t make sense that he would keep “Eddie” around if he’s suspicious of him.
I half-expected Reggie’s assignment to be to kill Stabler since he didn’t want to divulge what he’d been asked to do!
Kosta likely got Reggie arrested on purpose, too, but there’s the question of why.
If Kosta thinks Reggie is the rat or suspects Stabler and blames Reggie for bringing “Eddie” into the organization, this might have been his way of getting rid of him.
Bell said as much, suggesting that the mob will let Reggie go down shooting.
Will Reggie survive a night in jail, or will the K.O. take him out? He’s not the brightest guy in the organization, and it might be too easy for the cops to get him talking.
I wish Stabler hadn’t been part of his arrest, though. Reggie may be slow, but he’s not THAT slow, and it may dawn on him that Stabler helped arrest him.
The whole tragedy could have been prevented if Teddy Garcia had listened before the last minute.
Bell tried to warn him repeatedly that the mob was after him, but Garcia was too invested in “not seeming intimidated” and refused to work with the cops. Had he made better choices, Reggie might not have had the opportunity to kill Diane.
Both the Garcias were naive to not think about proper security when Teddy was running for governor in a highly charged political climate.
Even without the K.O. wanting revenge for Teddy saying he would squash them if elected, there was a risk that someone would try to kill one or both of them. At the very least, they should have had trained security with them at all times, and Diane should never have gone out alone to sign for a package.
Her tragic death was made even more so by Garcia’s awareness that he could have prevented it by listening to the cops — or at least warning his wife earlier about the potential danger.
Despite the horrific nature of what Reggie did, I felt sad about his arrest. I’ve enjoyed his friendship with Stabler.
That’s always the problem with undercover operation stories. It humanizes the villain when a cop gets close to him, and then instead of rooting for the bad guy to fall, I always end up rooting for him to find a way out of the criminal lifestyle before it’s too late.
And Reggie was far less malicious than most of the Albanian mob, too. He was more or less a simpleton who did what his family told him and now is likely the only one going down for Diane’s murder unless Stabler can hurry up and prove a conspiracy.
Finally, Nova’s appearance in Kilbride’s office is bound to make Bell suspicious.
Nova’s been working to get Kilbride all along, but Bell doesn’t know that. Brewster still isn’t telling her anything, and that is going to cause problems sooner or later.
Your turn, Organized Crime fanatics! Hit that big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know what you thought.
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Law & Order: Organized Crime airs on NBC on Thursdays at 10 PM EST/PST. The next new episode airs on November 4, 2021.
Jack Ori is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. His debut young adult novel, Reinventing Hannah, is available on Amazon. Follow him on Twitter.