Law and order: organized crime season 2 episode 8

The Albanian undercover arc has come to an end!

With the end of his mission Stabler is left with nothing but himself. A terrifying prospect for a man who has buried himself under the guise of Eddie Ashes and doing what he needed to do to get the job done. What happens to him now?

(Full disclosure – I have been Going Through It emotionally so who the fuck knows what this review will become.)

We start where we ended last week – with the K-O’s gym blowing up and Eddie’s kid dying. No one gives a shit that this kid died, BTW, and there’s no explanation as to why or how this kid ended up at the gym after Moldanado drove him to the airport. Sorry, kid. RIP, I guess.

The K-O have chosen to detonate the bomb with a whole bunch of dudes still inside the gym, which means a lot of dead bodies are strewn about when the OC team breaches the doors. Among the dead bodies is the body of the court reporter but not Kosta or Albi. They’ve escaped via underground tunnel. Stabler follows without backup because of course he did. All those cops and he goes alone.

Stabler has a death wish. I bet he was hoping he’d die while undercover so he wouldn’t have to deal with his real life. It would be easier to be dead than to deal with all the emotions he’s been burying for decades (I know how you feel, Stabler!)

After some shooting, Stabler, Albi, and Kosta pop out of the end of the tunnel. Somehow Jet is instantly aware of this and Ayanna shows up 30 seconds later to pick Stabler up and chase Kosta (Sure, show. Whatever you say.) Before we move on we have to talk about Christopher Meloni tearing through the door at the end of the tunnel. I’m assuming it was made of cardboard or this man has a superpower he’s keeping to himself.

They catch Kosta in an action sequence that looks like it’s right out of a movie, but Albi has managed to escape and do what the Boston bomber did when he was on the run – hide in someone’s boat. He breaks into a house, doesn’t murder a kid because of his extremely unlikely Albanian tattoo, and calls Flutura.

I may not have been right about Flutura setting Eddie up by trying to bang him at her house (or I may have been, there’s no way to know) but I was right about something – there is a deep love between Abli and Flutura. It may not be sexual, but it is definitely a deep, unshakable love.

Flutura, who is in a hotel room with Stabler and Ayanna, is the bait OC is using to get Albi. What is clear is that Stabler didn’t tell Ayanna that he fucked Flutura so Flutura spills the beans herself by saying sex with Stabler was like being with a horny alter boy having sex for the first time. I knew he didn’t lay it down the way she’d hoped. It makes sense considering Flutura is the first woman he’s been with since his wife died.

Well, now Ayanna knows that she cannot trust one of her only detectives not to get sexually involved with female suspects so…is that gonna be addressed in any way, shape, or form going forward? (LOL, of course not! No one will say anything, he’ll still be put in positions to sleep with suspects, and eventually he’ll sleep with Angela. Somehow none of that is a massive problem.)

Flutura sees Albi from the balcony and signals to him that she’s been arrested. You can really see the love between Flutura and Albi in this exchange. It’s very well done.

Stabler confronts Flutura on the balcony and poor Chris Meloni has to do this entire scene while staring into the sun. He tells Flutura that he did what he had to do while he was undercover. Except he did so many things he didn’t have to do while he was Eddie Ashes. All he really had to do was sit back, be observant, and drift under the radar. What he had to do was prove he was a good, trustworthy goon who could blend into the sea of faceless trustworthy goons who populated the K-O’s world. What he ended up doing was inserting himself into everyone’s business and drawing a ton of attention to himself. He can’t help it. He’s a big dick-swinging, take charge, “look at me” kind of guy. He always has been. It always, always gets him in trouble and nearly killed (see SVU: Wildlife where he gets shot because he’s one of the worst undercover operatives the NYPD has ever seen.)

Flutura also tells him that she can tell he’s going to miss the “Albanian life.” No, he’s not going to miss the life per se. He’s going to miss having an escape hatch on Elliot Stabler’s life. He’s going to miss being able to pretend he’s someone else. Because that’s what this arc has been about – Elliot Stabler hiding from who and what he really is. With the end of this undercover assignment he has no place to hide. He’s right back to hanging by a thread.

Albi takes his nameless lover to the docs and jumps a bachelorette cruise boat. Stabler and Ayanna catch him and when Stabler has a gun on Abli and his hostage boyfriend, Abli asks if Stabler outed him. Of course he didn’t. And he’s not going to out him in front of all the people on this boat, either.

There are a lot of people on the internet who feel the character of Elliot Stabler is a toxic, abusive, shitty person who should have stayed gone (and as far away from Olivia Benson as he could get.) And those people are entitled to their opinions but I vehemently disagree with that assessment of the character, not only because I don’t find it accurate but because we have so many moments like this moment with Albi that prove that assessment wrong. Stabler could have chosen to do the shitty thing and instead chooses the compassionate one. He chose to help Eddie’s kid (even if the kid somehow ended up back at the gym.) He chose to risk his own life and the outcome of his undercover mission to help Rita the waitress and her son. At the end of the day, under everything including the anger problem from 1.0 (which seems better now), Elliot Stabler is a good man who tries to do the right thing. And like so many of us, he often falls short. But falling short doesn’t make him a monster. It makes him human.

The next morning the Kosta organization is arraigned, including Agnes Bogdani who was arrested for bribing the court reporter. For some reason no one searches this old woman and she pulls a gun from a very obvious pocket in the bottom of her wheelchair. But before Agnes does that, she curses Stabler in Albanian. She doesn’t curse AT him. She CURSES him. I put the subtitles on to see if what she said was transcribed but it just says “speaking Albanian.” It’s a curse! That ain’t good, man! Again, these witchy Old World women. Do not underestimate them and if they curse you, you better take it seriously.

In the hallway outside the courtroom Stabler and Ayanna have a sweet exchange and we learn that Ayanna is a hugger. I love their friendship and I really hope we get more of it going forward.

Elliot goes home to finally shave his beard and step back into the life of Elliot Stabler. Eli tells him that he’s glad Elliot is home, but you can tell by the look on Elliot’s face that he isn’t happy to be home. Now he has to deal with his grieving kids and his ailing mother and whatever the fuck is going on between him and Olivia.

We get an extended shaving scene intercut with flashbacks (one of the ROCKET LAUNCHER which I am very sad he did not fire.) And this is a stripping down of Eddie Ashes and the rebirth of Elliot Stabler scene. I should be emotionally invested. Instead I am too distracted by Meloni covered in shaving cream. I’ve always thought one of the hottest things a man can do is shave his face using shaving cream and a razor so that’s what I’m all about here. It’s ok. God already knows I am not his strongest solider.

I know this review is already really long but I feel I have to mention the EO stuff in the preview as we go into the next arc.

EO and the Wheatley Arc?

I feel I’ve already been pretty transparent about my feelings toward the Elliot and Olivia pairing (recap: I desperately want it to happen but I feel like showrunner Ilene Chaiken tipped her hand with the letter and told us we are not getting them together no matter how much we want it.) Now we’ve got this they’re holding hands thing in the preview. Part of me wants to be like “OMG.” But the other part of me knows that what I’m seeing is not what the internet thinks it is seeing. The internet thinks this is love. I think this is more baiting.

Here’s my theory on what’s going to happen during the December 9th crossover:

• Barba meets Liv to tell her he’s defending Wheatley
• We have a court scene that isn’t as dramatic as the internet is hoping it will be
• Wheatley will either escape OR be found not guilty of Kathy’s murder, which leads us to Elliot and Olivia in the car. Elliot is sad/upset and Olivia grabs his hand as reassurance that it’s going to be ok and also to do more emotional labor for him.

That’s all this is. And I’m not even addressing the fuckedupedness that is Olivia constantly doing Elliot’s emotional labor for him. She’s going to do it again in this episode as she selflessly supports him through the trial while how she might be feeling will be shoved to the wayside like it has been since he returned. Right now Olivia Benson is basically this lyric from Taylor Swift’s 10 minute version of “All Too Well”

A never-needy ever lovely jewel

whose shine reflects on you

“All Too Well (10 minute version)(Taylor’s Version)” – Red (Taylor’s Version)

And she’ll just keep being this perfect never-needy jewel while Stabler does shit like fuck around with Angela. Olivia will be taking care of Elliot’s kids and his mother while Elliot is, I don’t know, chasing Richard Wheatley across state lines and OF COURSE the only person who can help find Richard is Angela Wheatley so they’re on some sort of “all these hotel rooms only have one bed!” road trip. We’ll get shit like Elliot hears someone yell Olivia’s name at their kid and the love theme will play, and as soon as he can he’ll go fuck Angela Wheatley in the rest stop bathroom all while never texting or calling the woman he’s supposedly in love with.

News broke last week or the week before (what is time?) about some dinner that Chaiken, Warren Leight (the SVU showrunner), some writers, Mariska Hargitay, and Christopher Meloni had to talk about where EO goes from here. Chaiken gave an interview about it in which the following exchange occurred:

TVLINE | Within that very collegial, familial discussion, did everyone seem to be on the same page? Were there kind of different points of view on where it should go?

It wasn’t as if we had, you know, extremes of difference. I mean, we all agree in principle, and we all have different thoughts about how it might treated as story. And that’s the fun of it and the fun of following out all of these ideas and seeing which ones feel the most worthy.

https://tvline.com/2021/11/11/law-and-order-organized-crime-season-2-episode-8/

Here’s the problem with this. Warren Leight, the guy who has been SVU’s showrunner for seasons? He actively hates the idea of Elliot and Olivia being together and has publicly compared anyone who wants them together to people who deny climate change. (Receipts below)

So to hear that everyone at the dinner was “on the same page” regarding the Elliot and Olivia pairing, that means that everyone was on LEIGHT’S page because it’s the only one he has.

I really want to go back to the time when I believed that these two fictional characters were going to get together. I was fully prepared to cheer them to the end and be the biggest clown in the EO circus. But now? Now I’m just disappointed and I feel stupid for ever hoping for something as silly as the joy we often find in fiction. You would think that my life experiences would have taught me to never hope for anything, but my worst quality is that I have a nearly limitless well of hope and I will always find a way to hope for something that I know will just end in disappointment. I’ll even do it when it’s small meaningless shit like watch a TV show and root for the characters to get together. I am truly the world’s largest idiot.

Extra of the Week Award:

Look at this queen shooting her shot!

Random Observations:

• No, but seriously – why did Eddie’s son go to the gym after he knew “Eddie” was actually a cop? Why not go back to the OC’s black site/headquarters if he wanted to talk to Stabler?
• If the K-O can create an explosion that large did they really need the services of arsonist extraordinaire Eddie Ashes?
• Stabler shoots ones of the K-O goons who was shooting at the cops from the roof. This is his NINTH shooting. Thirty-three percent of Stabler’s shootings have occurred since he returned.
• Jet’s eye makeup!
• I really miss the days when Stabler used to kick down doors.
• Flutura says she was “such a fool” for wanting Stabler. Don’t be so hard on yourself, honey. 99.99999% of people who see this man want him (see also: the MVP extra of the episode.) You’re no exception.
• I hope Albi’s nameless boyfriend has been screaming along with the lyrics to “All Too Well” since the second Red (Taylor’s Version) dropped.
• Last review I made a list of recurring plot points that happened in both the first season and in this arc. Let’s add “Scene where Stabler, the bad guy, the bad guy’s wife (who Stabler is romantically involved with) have to interact under a great deal of pressure” to that list. Because the boat scene with Albi, Stabler, and Flutura is just the interrogation scene with Wheatley, Angela, and Stabler dialed up to a 12.
• I honestly thought Flutura was going to take the gun from Albi and turn on Stabler and Ayanna, thus dying in a hail of bullets. That did not happen.
• Does Stabler own a California King? Because that bed is HUGE
• The flashbacks were an odd choice
• I love the coffee mugs Ayanna and Denise have in their apartment
• Nova is moving up in the Marcy Killers and she reports to Ayanna that Congressman Kilbride thinks he’s cultivating Ayanna as an asset who will have his back if needed.
• It looks like one of Kosta’s daughters is carrying a Guess purse at the arraignment, which is surprising. You’d think a mob princess would be carrying Gucci or Louis Vuitton.
• After Ayanna tells Stabler to shave his beard, I feel like Stabler’s line of “I kinda liked having hair on my head. Even if it was on the wrong side.” was an ad-lib from Meloni. I have nothing to back that up.
• Reggie really did get sent to Alaska. Or maybe Nebraska?’
• Why am I watching this show?

Style Corner: