Organized Crime – Season 3 Recap

When he comes home to New York, Detective Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) has just endured a personal tragedy. His wife, Kathy (Isabel Gillies), was killed by her boss; their son, Richie, was freed but murdered by his own father; and Stabler himself has been caught in the crosshairs of a dirty cop. Despite all of these trials, Stabler is still determined to stay in the law enforcement field and continue his investigation.

While investigating and bringing down the Albanian mafia, Stabler must also deal with the aftermath of his personal tragedy. He’s still haunted by the fact that he framed his wife for murder, but he’s also struggling to make sense of how he could have been so careless in the wake of that event.

The Season 3 Recap: Organized Crime & SVU

After a decade of working in Rome, Elliot Stabler (Christophermeloni) returns to New York to face a case that hits close to home. The resulting investigation will have serious repercussions for Stabler and his family.

Besides the personal repercussions, Stabler will have to deal with his own moral dilemma as he struggles to navigate his relationship with Ayanna Bell (Malin Akerman), the ADA assigned to the Wheatley and K-O trial. She’s been shunned by her colleagues at the OCCB, but she remains steadfast in her quest to bring the corrupt Congressman Kilbride to justice.

As Stabler and the OCCB search for the person who ordered the hit on her, they meet with a criminal informant and have him clone Sirenko’s phone to help them catch him. However, their plan will put them at risk if they find out that Sirenko is part of a dangerous drug and sex trafficking operation.

The storyline arcs for Organized Crime tend to be longer than those of SVU and OC, with each involving multiple episodes. This method allows the series to build a compelling storyline throughout the season, unlike its predecessors, which often concluded in one episode.

This gangster series differs from the other shows in the franchise by having a more authentic focus on real-life gangsters and mafia members. The show also examines racial tensions in America and how they affect the police department.

While Stabler’s fight to solve the case is the surface-level drama, the real drama is how the characters interact with the ongoing conversation about race in America. It’s encouraging to see a blockbuster hit series make a concerted effort to meaningfully address America’s wake-up call regarding systemic racism.

The Season 2 Recap: Law & Order

The second season of the Law & Order spinoff focused on organized crime and its relationship to the NYPD. The series reunited a number of characters from the original series, including Angela Wheatley (Miranda Otto) and her son Rafiq, who was murdered by an officer. As a result, Angela felt a need to fight back against the injustices she saw her son endured, which led to a complex, emotionally charged arc.