Organized Crime’ Ends NBC Run With More Stabler Family Drama & Emery Cliffhanger

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 4 Finale “Stabler’s Lament.”]

Organized Crime is ending its run on NBC—the drama moves to Peacock for its fifth season—with a case that’s personal to Stabler (Christopher Meloni): His brother, Joe Jr. (Michael Trotter), is embedded with the big bad, Julian Emery (Tom Payne). So when better to throw in another emotional Stabler family dinner?

Stabler starts the episode in a very contemplative state, at Kathy’s grave. “I sometimes feel I don’t know where I am. It’s as if the world and everything in it has become unrecognizable. Kids, grandkids, my brothers, ma, unrecognizable,” he admits. “It’s like I’m in a world that’s changed, and I’m trying, but… I know how to do my job and all the things that come with that. It’s all the other stuff, the stuff that makes up life, I’m just lost. It feels like the world’s just spinning so fast and I’m barely hanging on, watching everything I once had and loved, still love, fly away. I’m really glad I spoke with you today.”

The Organized Crime Control Bureau is waiting for Emery’s shipment, and with Joe on the inside, they have some insight into when it will arrive. Meanwhile, Emery’s testing Joe—leaving drugs in his room, which he brings to Stabler—and having him have dinner with him and his son (at separate tables), during which he tells him he’ll help unload the shipment the next day.

Speaking of family dinners, the Stablers gather and Eli reveals that he’s signed up for the police academy. Stabler is none too happy when he finds out—imagine how he’ll react when he find out his son’s girlfriend is pregnant—and insists it’s a mistake and he doesn’t want him to get killed. When work calls, Stabler points out that that’s what being a cop looks like.

Emery’s shipment then arrives, and the team watches a livestream of his auction as he uses some sort of bio-weapon (later discovered to be a nerve agent that can cause a mass casualty event) on a former employee who betrayed him (“I don’t tolerate disloyalty”). When they move in on the warehouse where they think he is, however, he’s nowhere to be seen; he’s played them. Furthermore, Joe learns that Emery’s planning to leave town—taking Joe with him and leaving behind a man who has been cuffed to a briefcase of the nerve agent. The OCCB does track them to an airport, thanks to Joe getting his hands on Emery’s kid’s handheld game and sending a message, but Stabler, with the cops and ATF under fire, can only watch as his brother sees him, then boards the plane before it takes off.

The good news: The nerve agent is secured. And, when he runs, Stabler and Bell chase after Sam’s murderer, ultimately killing him in the shootout. The bad news: All they know about where Emery (and Joe) are going is Cuba. Oh, and it’s on the plane that Joe finds out that he is now the new delivery man and Emery has a backup plan and briefcase of nerve agent, to which the youngest Stabler brother is now cuffed.

Then, to Eli’s surprise, Stabler reveals he knows Becky’s pregnant but wonders why his son didn’t tell him. The episode ends with Stabler at Kathy’s grave to tell her the news.

What did you think of the finale and where it left Stabler, Joe, and the Emery case? Will you be watching Season 5 on Peacock? Let us know in the comments section, below.

Law & Order: Organized Crime, Season 5, TBA, Peacock