WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 2, Episode 11, "As Nottingham Was to Robin Hood," which aired Thursday, January 13th on NBC.
Governor Teddy Garcia is giving a press conference regarding the escaped dangerous criminal from last week, Sebastian McClane, the hacker who is being secretly bolstered and sheltered by one infamous Richard Wheatley. Angela Wheatley, Richard's ex-wife and on-again partner in literal crime, is by Richard's side as he says that Detective Elliot Stabler made him realize how much he still loves Angela -- he plans to remarry her. He also shares with McClane that he also plans to take down New York. McClane scoffs and says revenge isn't in his cards anymore. Wheatley, though, tempts him with money and a chance to cripple the too-powerful institutions that prey on regular folk. McClane turns him down, still, and Wheatley threatens to use his connections to send him back to jail. McClane, though, says he rather likes the new governor, since he does seem to uphold progressive values. He leaves Wheatley's protection and the two part ways on bitter terms, Wheatley confident he'll come back -- and that Angela will remarry him, despite her refusal.
Back at the precinct, a series of escalating hacks around the city are being investigated but none of them bear the signature of McClane. Jet Slootmaeker and the hacker Malachi exchange a few flirty words. Meanwhile, Stabler and Sgt. Ayanna Bell interview McClane's family, but they say they haven't had any contact with him in years, even before he broke out of jail, and that he never really cared enough for them. Bell calls Jet and asks if McClane had any other connections but Jet says he doesn't have many relationships, that he prefers to like humanity as a concept rather than on a personal level. Stabler is bothered by something the mom said that mirrored a phrase from Wheatley on a recent podcast. If there's one thing Stabler's going to do, it's connect the Wheatley dots.
Meanwhile, a massive Mr. Robot-esque hacking event is initiated, with a Discord serve encouraging large-scale hacktivist chaos: ATMs go wild, street lights break down, credit card numbers are stolen, school districts are threatened. Wheatley, rebranded as a cybersecurity expert, meets with the governor and tells him this is the beginning -- that other hackers are taking up the mantle of McClane and to expect a series of escalating attacks, public and personal. Just then, the governor's phone shows signs of being hacked while Wheatley offers to debug and protect it.
Bell and her team confer with the governor and, to Elliot's dismay, Wheatley, figuring out a game plan for moving forward. Stabler questions Wheatley's every word, asking if he knows McClane and revealing he learned the two of them shared a prison bus. Stabler, always eager to play his hand, tells Garcia that he's already sitting right next to the criminal mastermind: Wheatley. The governor cuts the feed.
Wheatley leaves the governor's office and Stabler, from a distance, tails him through the streets. Meanwhile, McClane, freshly cleaned up in a suit and tie, nervously enters a bank and approaches the teller, saying he wants to make a deposit. He makes pleasant small talk with the teller and asks her for a favor: he needs to open an account of $200,000 in cash but not in his name, instead he wants to open an account for a ten-year-old girl. The teller recognizes him as McClane and, though she wants to help him, pushes the panic button instead. McClane runs.
Bell and Stabler talk with the teller he talked to and she says he told her he wanted to take care of this account before he went back to prison: the account he wanted to open, it seems, was to be for the daughter of the federal officer who accidentally suffocated in the vault during to McClane's heist. Stabler enlists Jet and Malachi to reach out to McClane and set up a safe meeting. McClane messages that he's willing to make the exchange and then turn himself in.
Jet and Malachi go to the meeting spot and McClane calls on a payphone. He says he's leaving the money but he wants to meet with Kesha Jones, the young girl, and his mother in person. Stabler comes to help negotiate. McClane says he wants $200,000 in a crypto account in Kesha's name. Once he verifies the money is in Kesha's account, he'll peacefully surrender outside of her house that night. As Jet and Stabler talk, a man casually knocks over Malachi and drops off a bag of McClane's cash.
Back at the Stablers' apartment, Elliot's aging mother, Bernadette, is alone when she hears ominous whistling approaching. Scared, she calls Elliot and says that someone's here with her in the garden and she's worried. Stabler just parked outside of his house and he sees Wheatley walking to his own car with a large pizza slice. He confronts him and threatens to kill Wheatley if he ever comes near his family while Wheatley cockily smirks it off and says he knows Elliot's been following him. Stabler goes inside and his mom, worried about Stabler's obsession with Wheatley, voices her concerns for him: that his light has died and he's closed himself off. She asks him not to let Wheatley ruin him.
Stabler goes back to work only to learn that the Feds have taken over the McClane case and they don't even know if Kesha got her money. Later that night, McClane keeps his word and shows up to Kesha's police-surrounded house. He's let inside by Mrs. Jones and apologizes for his actions having killed her husband. He's clearly overwhelmed by his guilt, still, and he presents Mrs. Jones with the crypto account he opened in Kesha's name. He knows it won't bring back her husband but he hopes it eases some of her burdens.
He walks out of the house, hands up, and is willingly arrested. But the Feds stop suddenly and shouts of "it's a bad transfer!" can be heard. In a different black SUV, it's revealed that one of Wheatley's men infiltrated the arrest and, rather than taking McClane back to jail, they're following the boss's orders and knock McClane out by placing a chloroform rag over his face.
Wheatley meets with Governor Garcia at his house that night to tell him that he's hopeful they're closing in on McClane. He casually brings up Stabler and the oh so tragic loss of his wife. He says he's concerned that Stabler will lose his focus on what's right thanks to Kathy Stabler's death. He plants the seeds that Stabler is an overzealous and unstable cop, at odds with the reformed police department Garcia is trying to rebuild, so clouded with rage towards Wheatley, his eternal white whale. And, to be fair, many of Stabler's actions and stalking tendencies don't dispute Wheatley's words.
A drugged McClane wakes up in Angela's care, who tells him Wheatley wants McClane to work with him, not for him. She warns that it's impossible to get away from Richard -- she knows, she tried. She says she knows Wheatley is dark and McClane is not, but he should consider that he could make things right for the impoverished and disenfranchised on a larger scale by working with Wheatley. That gets to him and he tentatively accepts.
The squad gets a hit on the car McClane was last seen being dragged away from, drugged. Stabler says they won't let Wheatley slip through their fingers again, then, when questioned, self-corrects to say "McClane." Obsessions, obsessions. Angela sets McClane up to go meet Richard, then calls him and says she did her best with McClane but now it's up to him. Stabler and Bell arrive a little too late to Angela's house -- she says McClane collapsed on her porch and then stole her car but they just missed him. As Stabler and Bell head to find him, Stabler calls back to "keep working on that limp," knowing now that Angela has been faking a neurological decline.
They tail McClane to a building and Wheatley calls Elliot to gloat that he's got both Angela and McClane while Elliot has nothing. McClane then meets with Richard as Bell and Stabler close in. Stabler gets eyes on them first but Bell can't see anything. Power to the whole building then cuts off as all the lights go out and McClane and Wheatley fly off in a helicopter.
New episodes of Law & Order: Organized Crime air Thursdays at 10 p.m. on NBC.