Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 3 Episode 10 Review: Trap

What is with these missed crossover appearances?

Law & Order Season 22 Episode 10 could have easily linked up with the Silas case. And Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 3 Episode 10 dealt with a different Bronx gang than the one that messed with Benson on Law & Order: SVU Season 24 Episode 10.

The gang Stabler dealt with is compelling, but come on!

The kidnapped woman story could easily have been a one-and-done, but Whalen’s in too deep with the gang now.

He keeps getting into these dangerous situations, but is he really in over his head? Whalen’s responses are building street cred for him, which helps the skeptical gang members begin to trust him. As an undercover officer, that’s exactly what you want.

Whalen didn’t have much choice but to lose Reyes. He would have put both of their lives in danger if he didn’t. He had distrusting gang members in the car that wanted him to prove his loyalty and driving skills, and one of them threatened to shoot at Reyes.

Bell was pissed about the earlier incident, but Whalen built his credibility there too. Ordinarily, cops shouldn’t go around punching each other (or anybody!), but that caught the attention of the guy Whalen was trying to target. He probably wouldn’t have got that number if he hadn’t done that.

Bell’s understanding of undercover ops always seems to leave a lot to be desired. Half the time, she wants to pull the plug the second things get dangerous, even though doing so would out her undercover as a cop and lead to more danger, not less.

And this time, she was upset that Whalen did what he had to do to maintain his cover and win his targets’ trust.

Now that the cops have rescued their kidnap victim, theoretically, they could abort the mission, but that would be a phenomenally terrible idea.

Whalen is in too deep at this point. He’s stuck in a moving vehicle with the suspects, so it’s not practical to end the mission now, and he’s worked too hard to gain their trust to back out any time soon.

The gang has been terrorizing the city, although we haven’t had much of an explanation of how yet, so Whalen’s work with them will help keep the streets safe and be worth it in the long run.

Stabler: I have my doubts.
Bell: Why? He’s just like you, leaps before he thinks sometimes.

Bell’s observation that Whalen is a younger version of Stabler was more or less on point. Whalen seemed to be acting on instinct most of the time, even if he was in a situation that called for nothing less than how he behaved.

Nobody will be happy that Whalen lost his tail. Still, hopefully, someone will see the bigger picture rather than worrying excessively about Whalen acting more like a gangster than a cop.

It’s not clear what the endgame is here. Tino and his wife are safe now — who is the Organized Crime Unit trying to take down, and what do they believe the gang is up to?

They already know from Tino’s statement that the gang is involved with drug trafficking, but they could have left that aspect to Narcotics and focused only on rescuing Tino’s wife. It feels like there’s a bigger story here than what we’ve gotten so far.

Stabler’s contact in the South Bronx might provide a clue. The man refused to give the cops any info because he feared for the lives of his family.

Could trying to undo the gang’s hold on neighborhood residents be part of what’s going on with this story?

Did anyone else wonder if Bell’s new boss was involved somehow?

The man randomly showed up minutes after Stabler met with Tino and returned to the office to brief Bell. That can’t be a coincidence!

Something about him seemed fishy. He was far too much of a smooth talker to be exactly what he appeared.

He also played way too small a part in the episode. He introduced himself to Bell and Stabler and then promptly disappeared. Something is up with him, but what?

Lillian’s disappearance is also suspect, considering that she said that Bell would regret turning the promotion down the last time they met.

Bell doesn’t understand the politics here, but they are definitely present, and it feels like there’s some sort of dark agenda at play.

Finally, this whole Stabler psychiatrist thing is confusing.

Stabler was resistant, and Bell pushed him to talk in therapy, but we already did this on Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 1. Stabler spent the better part of that season resisting the idea of getting PTSD treatment, eventually giving in.

He saw that therapist regularly for a while — what happened to her? And why was Bell talking as if Stabler had never seen a therapist before? Did she not know about the first one?

Your turn, Organized Crime fanatics. Hit the big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know your thoughts.

Don’t forget you can watch Law & Order: Organized Crime online.

Law & Order: Organized Crime airs on NBC on Thursdays at 10 PM EST / PST.

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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.

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