Somewhere in NYC, a guy with a homemade bomb sneaks outside a mosque and spray paints outside a church.

Bernadette is praying but can't remember what "who art" means in the Lord's Prayer. Stabler prays with her.

Inside the church, people are also praying in parallel with Stabler and his mother.

The spray painter has written DIE MUSLIM PIGS and runs away as the mosque blows up.

Stabler hears about the bombing on the news while on the way to work. He stops and calls his brother to tell him Mom wants to see him.

He also finds Reyes in a car all night. Reyes claims everything is fine.

An officer from Hate Crimes comes to see Stabler. His wife was in the mosque. He thinks the crime wasn't a Hate Crime.

Bell doesn't want to step on Hate Crimes' toes. The captain there is Naz Shah who is a frenemy of Bell. Bell rejects the case. Stabler recognizes that he's a veteran. After the offier leaves, Stabler says that was odd. Bell says there's already enough people investigating this case. Anyway, it's time for the Ai briefing.

Varga keeps annoying eveyrone with his acronyms. They have to do an incident report based on AI doing a 3D reenactment of an old case. The AI claims Tweaker wouldn't have been shot if Stabler did nothing about the truck going onto the sidewalk. Stabler says he's gonna go be unreliable now and goes to check out the mosque against Bell's orders. He talks to Bashir again. He has a CI with deep ties to the community. He says there's a new criminal element tied to Kabul -- maybe the Taliban. This is all a gut call and he has no idea why this would be. He doesn't think the kid in custody had anything to do with the bombing. He's known his mom forever. She's a rabbi across the street. Stabler wants to talk to Asher.

Asher's mother doesn't want to talk to the cops. She's tired of this. If there were explosives, she would know because she cleans his room. She claims Asher has no friends.He's been isolated since his father died. Stabler asks to talk to Asher. She says she knows her son is troubled but she is sure he is innocent.

Asher says two guys hired him to paint graffiti on the mosque. He says he thought if he did it he would cause less damage than other people. He doesn't remember where he met the two guys. He was wasted at the time. He says it wasn't a bombing. The imam was shot. He heard it. He says he knows the killer used a silencer from video games.

Stabler talks to Jet and then goes to see ME Warner (!) He gets distracted while she is talking by his memories of Kathy's murder. She says that unless he has a casing or intact slug she can't say conclusively that the victim was shot. Stabler hgus her. She asks what this is for? He says it's an apology. He got her message after Kathy died and he never reached out.

Bashir says the imam was like a father to him. Stabler asks how tall the Imam was and asks him to stand where the Imam was. He says forensics was looking for a firebombing so they wouldn't have searched for the bullet.  He finds the casing.

Shah calls Bell and complains that Stabler talked to her suspect without permission and that'll ruin the case. Bell asks Jet where Stabler is. He's getting his brother, surprising Bell and Jet.

Randall says he took Eli fishing, which Stabler knew nothing about. Randall says Stabler is just like their father and always on the job. He says Eli has a girlfriend who is way out of his league. Stabler hasn't met her. Randall says it's a shame no one taught Eli to fish as he has the knack

Vargas can't say Jet's last name and annoys Reyes. He whispers to Jet he wants to talk to her. Jet says not now. She snaps at him loudly enough that Bell hears. Jet says this wouldn't have happened if they hadn't gone to Jamie's memorial.

Jet calls and Randall feels a need to say Stabler's cases are all big. Stabler says Mom wants to go to long-term care. Randall offers to help pay.  His therapist suggested it. Stabler snickers. Randall is unhappy about that. He is unimpressed by the outside of the apartment.

Randall comes to see Mama Stabler. She recognizes him and asks where he has been. How is Angela? He's b een divorced two years. She repeats she always liked Angela.  She says he is always flirting with the nurses. He says that wasn't him. That was Dad. She misses Angela.He asks what she needs him for. She denies having said so.

Meanwhile Stabler comes to see Bashir. He wants to meet the CI. Bashir has a crying baby that Stabler picks up and comforts.  He explains he had five kids.  Bashir calls Stacy. She's the CI. Stabler shows them photos of the two men that hired Asher to tag the mosque.

Some guy asks for a cop to help him with a tire and hits him over the head with a tire iron before taking his uniform and sneaking into the hospital to mess with Asher. He puts something in his IV....

The cops at a press conference say Asher is the prime suspect in the bombing despite his death. Stabler looks at security footage and sees the fake cop kill Asher. They discover the abandoned patrol car and Bashir calls to find out who it belongs to. They find the dead cop in the trunk.

Bell meets  Shah and informs her this is her case now and she won't work together. Stabler updates her about Asher's murder.

Bashir says he talked to Stacy and she's at Rabbi Klein's sitting shiva.

Rabbi Klein is praying when the doorbell rings. Stabler shows up. Stacy has dates and times for when the men met at the mosque. Rabbi Klein slaps Stabler for not helping Asher.

Jet has found info about the suspects' cell phones. She has identified them but they are both online right now. A phone comes online just then. They get a hit using the AI -- a warehouse in South Queens.

The cops break into the warehouse while Vargas and Jet watch via the AI feed into the bodycam. They find a dead guy in a back room. Tey also find a bomb.Bashir looks upset. Stabler tells him to do his job.

Jet says the phone is still pinging. They realize it's being used to detonate the bomb just as it goes off. Stabler and Bell are okay.

Stabler comes home. He sists outside and his brother shows up and says Ma was worried when she heard the car. Randall wants to go in. Stabler asks how it went with Mom. Randall decides to be sarcastic. Stabler refuses to say he's glad to see Randall as they go in.