Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 3 Episode 8 Review: Whipping Post
Jack Ori
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Wait... what?
On Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 3 Episode 8, Bell took a promotion and the city disbanded the Organized Crime unit.
If that happens, it would be the end of the series. So somehow, the unit has to stay intact. But how are they going to get past the resistance from 1PP?
Bell's insistence on keeping this secret was an annoying distraction from an otherwise compelling hour of television.
Stabler: I knew about the promotion and that you're disbanding the unit.
Bell: Wait... you already knew?
Stabler: You work with a bunch of detectives. What do you expect?
As Stabler pointed out, she works with a bunch of top detectives. Everyone was going to figure it out sooner or later, especially since Bell suddenly seemed to be in a rush to close the Silas case after a closed-door meeting with her superiors.
The walls are thin, too, so they probably all overheard bits and pieces of the conversation. Plus, Reyes got info from a contact. Did Bell really think no one would look into this?
And what did she gain from snapping at Jet all the time? It only made Jet more suspicious. Bell doesn't know it yet, but she's pushing Jet right into that position in Italy with Leonetti by treating her like this.
Could the next chapter of Organized Crime involve the whole team heading to Italy to work for Leonetti? That would be an interesting change of pace!
Benson wouldn't follow Stabler there, and the entire team would be in a new place where the only semi-familiar face is Leonetti's.
This might be great professionally, but it would be a disaster on a personal level. Stabler might give into temptation and sleep with Leonetti since he's an ocean away from the "true love" he can't bring himself to admit he has feelings for.
It would also piss off the segment of the fanbase that ships Bensler hard. If, artistically, this story is best for the show, so be it. You can't please everyone all the time.
But if there's another way to move forward despite Bell's promotion, it might be better to do it that way. There's something to be said for not alienating a big chunk of your audience, after all.
Leonetti appears to be on the up and up, at least for now. She disappeared into the night after realizing Stabler will never love her the way he loves his mystery woman (presumably Benson.)
She showed up out of the blue and disappeared just as quickly. She may not be Benson's romantic rival for Stabler, but something tells me we haven't seen the last of her either.
She's offered Jet that job twice now, so Bell had better stop being so hard on Jet for no reason.
At least she helped investigate the mob behind the attack on Pearl.
Leonetti and Stabler had dealt with this mob before, so there was a legitimate reason for her to be involved in this storyline.
She was able to provide Stabler with information and assist with interrogating Luca.
While her inclusion in this storyline made sense, there's no reason for her to remain on the canvas. Her departure also made sense.
She has feelings for Stabler, and he doesn't return them. This isn't Days of Our Lives, where characters regularly torture themselves by working closely with someone they're attracted to and suppressing their real feelings until they lose control.
Instead, Leonetti made the mature decision and bowed out.
What was with Stabler's hesitation about her leaving, though? Does he want companionship and a connection to Kathy? Or is he running away from his feelings for Benson by attaching himself to Leonetti?
This is why writing his family out was a bad idea. His mother should be putting her two cents in, and so should his kids, but they're conspicuously absent this season.
The case was a nice change of pace. Instead of working against Teddy, Stabler was supposed to be working with him. Neither one trusted the other, which led to a compelling dynamic.
Stabler's final scene with Luca was strange. I'm not Catholic, so I didn't fully follow what he was doing, but it seemed like he was giving Luca his last rites. Can non-clergy do that?
That encounter moved the story along. Silas Sr. is in the wind after Luca fingered him in Pearl's poisoning, and hotheaded Teddy is in jail after attacking Luca.
In retrospect, it's unsurprising that Teddy's father poisoned Pearl. He never fully trusted her, didn't think Teddy could make good decisions, and was overly eager to get his hands on Pearl's share of the company.
Teddy's Achilles' heel is his love for Pearl. He'll do anything for her and attack anyone who tries to hurt her. But what will he do now that he knows his father was behind her attack?
He didn't want to hear it when Stabler told him, but that could have been tough-guy posturing in front of a cop. Teddy seemed deeply upset by the news, no matter what he said.
Stabler's warning that Silas Sr is dangerous might have gotten through to Teddy. Teddy's comment that they were going to name the baby after his father felt like an admission that he no longer felt any loyalty to him,
What did you think, Organized Crime fanatics? What will happen to the unit now that it's supposedly being disbanded? Are you sorry to see Leonetti go? What do you think Teddy will do now that he knows his father tried to kill Pearl?
Hit the big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know your thoughts! And 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. The fall finale airs on December 8, 2022.
Jack Ori is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. His debut young adult novel, Reinventing Hannah, is available on Amazon. Follow him on X.
