That was different.
Although Richard Wheatley turned out to be behind Eli’s legal troubles, Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 2 Episode 9 wasn’t about organized crime at all. It was about Elliot’s fragile relationship with his equally fragile son.
To no one’s surprise, Mia’s death turned out to be part of an elaborate set-up to frame Eli for murder, but that was hardly the point of the episode.
In some ways, Eli’s dilemma reminded me of Law & Order: SVU Season 10 Episode 8, in which Elliot struggled to accept that Kathleen was bipolar.
That particular episode marked Bernie’s first appearance, and now she’s a regular who will hopefully get over her guilt and support Elliot and Eli through resolving Eli’s mental health struggles.
Anyway, as now, Elliot found it nearly impossible to accept that one of his children had a severe mental health issue and dealt with the whole thing by raging at people.
And in both cases, the kids ended up in legal trouble that, among other things, interfered with Elliot being able to be there for them while they were going through their mental health challenges.
Hopefully, now that Eli is at home and surrounded by family, we’ll get more of Kathleen’s perspective on this.
After all, she accepted treatment after Bernie talked her into it, overcame her problems, and now is a productive member of society. So if anyone can see both sides of this issue, it’s her!
Eli: Dad? I’m sorry I didn’t go to the verdict. So it was a hung jury?
Elliot: I don’t want to talk about that.
Eli: Is there gonna be another trial?
Ellliot: Wheatley’s ex-wife is going to testify again. She’s getting better so she’ll be a better witness.
Eli: I just want it all to stop. I don’t want to think about it anymore. It won’t bring Mom back.
Eli’s going to need a ton of support, not only because he just got out of a mental hospital following a suicide attempt, but because Wheatley’s case has fallen into that black hole of unwinnable cases. And as much as Eli wants the whole thing over with, that’s going to hurt.
In addition, it’s now clear that Eli’s mental health problems make him an easy target for Wheatley, one that the mobster is intent on exploiting. So with Wheatley’s newfound freedom, Elliot and his family will have to figure out how to protect Eli from further harm.
I wasn’t surprised that Wheatley tried to set Eli up, though.
Elliot: What have we got?
Olivia: The cops found Mia. She had ventricular hemorrhaging.
Elliot: She was suffocated?
Olivia: Elliot. I think she was murdered.
From the moment Eli met Mia, I was suspicious. He didn’t know for sure she wasn’t an undercover cop. It was also highly likely that she could be working for Wheatley. I didn’t expect her to die, but I thought she might try to claim that Eli raped her or otherwise get him in trouble.
The double whammy of her dying at all and not being an overdose was a twist, but not a shocking one. She had to die somehow or other, and I guess making it clear it was murder landed Eli in far hotter water than giving her the drugs she killed herself with.
Mia’s death seemed like a plot point to raise Elliot’s awareness that his son needed help, though. It was so plot-driven that I didn’t expect the real killer to be interrogated once he was found.
I figured that would be the end of that, and we’d move on. But instead, Organized Crime surprised me by having him confess his connection to Wheatley.
The biggest twist had nothing to do with the case per se. It was Angela’s revelation that she’s totally cured and is working with Wheatley again!
Tamara Taylor is an amazing actress, full stop. Her ability to play a brain-injured person was only topped by the reveal that she was playing someone who was only pretending to be brain-injured.
Organized Crime got me good there. I never saw that one coming!
Angela would do anything for her kids, so it makes sense that she’d feel forced to rely on Wheatley to protect Dana now that Dana has been implicated in the murder for hire.
Of course, Wheatley was the one who accused Dana of setting it up, so relying on him to protect her might not be the best idea.
This could go in so many different directions once the series returns in January!
The other big story here was Elliot and Olivia’s ever-evolving relationship.
Elliot: Thank you for being here. Again.
Olivia: Elliot –
Elliot: I want more balance in whatever this is.
Olivia: How about we call it a friendship?
I’m not sure why Olivia accompanied Elliot on the trip to New Jersey to get Eli. She’d just finished telling him that she was tired of this being a one-way street and that Elliot was all about taking her help and never about what was going on in her life.
It seemed like NOT jumping in the car with him to rescue his wayward son would be an excellent way to start enforcing some boundaries.
Then again, Olivia feels close to Elliot’s kids and would do anything for them, so maybe she thought she needed to put her annoyance at Elliot aside for Eli’s sake.
If so, it backfired because Eli wasn’t happy she was there. I’m curious about how he feels about Olivia’s presence in their lives and if he blames her for his parents’ marital problems before Kathy’s death.
In any case, Elliot DID need Olivia. He kept going off on cops and medical personnel, and without Olivia there to calm him down, he wouldn’t have gotten anywhere.
Your turn, Law & Order: Organized Crime fanatics.
What did you think? What do you hope happens when the series returns?
Hit the big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know!
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Law & Order: Organized Crime airs on NBC on Thursdays at 10 PM EST/PST. The next new episode will air on January 6, 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 Twitter.
