It was a night full of WTF moments.

The case on Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 3 Episode 20 seemed too insignificant to call the unit in on, and some of the twists were confusing.

But the biggest double-take occurred at the end of the hour. Stabler's imagining things, isn't he? They wouldn't suggest Kathy's been alive all this time. Right?

Kathy was on the top of Stabler's mind all episode long. A suspect asked why he didn't wear a wedding ring, and his mother forgot she was dead and set a place for her.

So it's no wonder that Stabler either fantasized or hallucinated Kathy back into existence.

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This isn't Days of Our Lives; people in the Law & Order universe don't generally pop back up from the dead (except for Alex Cabot, who faked her death to go into Witness Protection.)

Most likely, this is a dream sequence, and it'll turn out that, in reality, Jet's sitting in that seat -- or no one is.

Of course, with Stabler's mother being in bad shape, one of his kids might have come to see him and discuss the situation. Kathleen looks enough like her mother that Stabler could easily mistake her for Kathy.

I'm mildly intrigued by this, but I'm more curious about how the case of the week connects to the bigger picture.

Bell more or less declared the case over while Stabler felt there had to be something more to it because the second victim had no mob ties whatsoever.

There is no point in starting this story if Law & Order: Organized Crime isn't going to finish it. Stabler's hunch will pay off sooner or later.

The final two episodes of the season involve a crossover with SVU, including a visit from Rollins, who left that series in December. But will this case have anything to do with the case Stabler just investigated?

If not, it'll be next season before Stabler picks that case up again -- if ever. By then, fans might have lost interest. So hopefully, it's connected to whatever Rollins is helping Stabler with.

The week's case confounded the Organized Crime unit until they proved that Junior Suarez had sneaked out of prison, with the blessing of his commanding officer, to kill Phil.

No one understood how Suarez's DNA got on that dryer, but there was a simple explanation.

Suarez had a twin. While she wasn't an identical twin, her DNA was probably similar enough to his to trigger a false positive for him. It would have been a great twist if Suarez's sister committed the murders while Suarez was innocent -- or at least couldn't be tied directly to the crime.

That didn't appear to be the case. What a pity!

I wasn't sure if Lloyd's confession was genuine. Although he hadn't been officially arrested, he'd been dragged down to the police station to answer questions, and Stabler kept pushing him to confess.

That confession would likely not hold up in court if the judge was halfway reasonable.

It was interesting how involved Stabler was with this case, considering he didn't want it in the first place.

Stabler: You know what this is, don't you?
Bell: Staten Island, the Florida of New York.

Permalink: Staten Island, the Florida of New York.

Once he got going, he couldn't let it go. Some of that was undoubtedly a way to keep his mind off of the loss of Kathy; his mother had inadvertently opened that old wound when she forgot that Kathy had passed away

.But now, he seemed to fall back into the unhealthy habits he was in when he was investigating Kathy's death. He didn't go home when Bell ordered him to and followed Jet down a hallway to nowhere, leading to the alleged Kathy sighting.

Stabler's mother is more on the ball than anyone realizes. Despite her dementia-related inability to keep track of who is alive and who has passed on, her mind seems sharp more often than not.

She notices details that no one else does, and that sometimes helps Stabler crack the case -- although this time, he gently moved her out of his way.

Since Bernie won't listen to directions (seriously, she broke Stabler's instructions to stay put in record time!), Stabler will either have to keep dragging her to crime scenes or put her in an assisted living facility.

Getting Bernie to move will be a Herculean task. She'll want to be semi-independent as long as possible and to be close to family.

When the family finally moves her into assisted living, it'll be an emotional end to an intense storyline. Bernie has been a big part of Law & Order: Organized Crime for a couple of years, and it doesn't seem right to write her out and bring her back with a plan to put her in a home soon.

I felt like the thing with her putting out a plate for Kathy had happened before.

Has it, or did I dream that?