Just when Amanda Rollins thought she was out, the Dick Wolf Cinematic Universe pulls her back in.
The former SVU detective played by Kelli Giddish shows up in Thursday’s Law & Order: Organized Crime to help Stabler and Benson figure out who is behind a website Bell deems “Uber Eats for violent crime.” The hour, which kicks off the crossover that will continue with both show’s season finales next week, also contains a boatload of emotional processing for Benson, Stabler and Rollins. Read on for the highlights of “Shadowërk.”
‘JUST NOT THE RIGHT MOMENT’ | Before we get to Rollins, there’s a major ‘EO’ conversation that needs to take place: After all, the last time we saw Elliot and Olivia together, she was near-passing out after they almost kissed in her kitchen. At the end of the Law & Order: SVU episode that preceded this Organized Crime, Benson summons Stabler to meet her in the dark in front of a municipal building. And the way these two have been so warped by their jobs, I think they may actually consider that a semi-romantic location.
“The last time we saw each other, that was a bad time for me,” Olivia starts. “Worse timing for me,” El responds, but he’s smiling. She chalks up his actions that night to “wanting to make me feel safe,” and he agrees that the immediate aftermath of her intense, BX9-related trauma was “just not the right moment.” But the scene really feels like it implies that there WILL be a right moment at some time down the line, no?
Anyway, then Benson gets to the real reason for the meet-up: She’s pretty sure that her latest rape victim was assaulted by the guy Stabler and the Organized Crime team are investigating for the homeowner’s association lady’s death. “OK partner,” Stabler says with a grin, and just like that, the band is back together (again)!
ONE-STOP SHOP | Once OC gets underway, El brings Liv up to speed on the HOA woman’s death, which segues into his confession that he hallucinated Kathy in the interrogation room last episode. She gently prods him to deal with his trauma before it deals with him, but he quickly asserts that he’s not a victim. “But you are a survivor, and sometimes that’s just as hard,” she says. Stabler can’t turn the conversation back to the murder fast enough, and the look that Liv gives him — loosely translated, it’s “You’re doing exactly what I thought you would do, and it’s frustrating, but it’s also funny, and damn, I know you so well” — is perfection.
Stabler, Benson and their team figure out that both the HOA woman and Maria Varga from the SVU case were victims of crimes committed by people hired off a shadowy crime-for-pay website called Shadowërk. Or, as Bell calls it, “Uber Eats for violent crime.” With Jet’s help, Stabler intercepts a Shadowërk assassin before he can do the job, which in turn gets them closer to the site’s creator — who seems to be working via a server in Ohio, and who is facilitating crime all over the world.
Stabler knows they need help figuring out what makes the site’s creator tick, so he grabs a cup of coffee with Rollins after one of her lectures. She’s pretty pregnant. (“Does Liv know?” “Word on the street is that Carisi wouldn’t keep his mouth shut.”) As they discuss the current case, Rollins lights up as she considers a rudimentary criminal profile of the site creator, and Stabler calls her out on it. She confesses she’s bored with her new gig. “I love the students, but I do miss the feeling of solving a good mystery,” she says. But she hasn’t said anything to Carisi about it, nor Liv. “You, of all people, should know how she reacts when people leave her,” Rollins says. Zing! (Side note: I also love the way that Elliot rolls with her comment. HE KNOWS WHAT HE DID.) He asks her to work up a formal profile of the site creator, and she agrees.
A STEP AHEAD | FBI Agent McCrary helps them Stabler and Bell get an electronic surveillance warrant… and then the federal judge who granted the warrant shows up on Shadowërk: There’s a handsomely paying hit out on her. Though the team rushes to protect her, she’s shot in her car before they can get to her. Stabler and Benson converge on the crime scene, where he tells her he wants to bring in help from the private sector. Enter Rollins! Liv is surprised to see her friend and former co-worker there, but she listens as Rollins explains that they’re looking for a disaffected white guy in his mid-20s who has “weaponized anonymity, and he’ll do anything to keep it.” And that’s it — see you next week!
Now it’s your turn. What did you think of the episode? Sound off in the comments!