The following contains spoilers for Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 3, Episode 6, "Blaze of Glory" which debuted Thursday, Nov. 3 on NBC. This article also contains descriptions of assault and violence.
Law & Order: Organized Crime picks up where it left off with a SWAT team led by Sgt. Ayanna Bell and Detective Elliot Stabler. They burst into their suspect Vaughn's mansion -- but nobody's home. Detective Bobby Reyes picks up a boxing glove and has a flashback to his foster father pitting him and Vaughn against each other. Though they were childhood peers, they ended up in very different circumstances. Just then, Vaughn calls Reyes and taunts him while Stabler and Bell find a camera hidden in the chandelier. Vaughn wants that "bald pig who shot Dante," referring to Stabler, and says it's "time to start killing cops." The team sees a bomb and evacuate, but nothing happens. Stabler figures out just in time that the real bomb is actually in the car and they duck and dive as it explodes next to them.
Jet Slootmaekers managed to grab the camera from inside and figures they can track its origin. Reyes wants to go back to the hospital and see what information he can get from Vaughn's accomplice Dante. Bell worries that whatever he gets won't be admissible in court because of his personal relationship to Dante, but eventually relents. Dante's indignant -- he'd never send Reyes to his death. He also says he hadn't talked to Vaughn in years before getting out but they're brothers so they have to follow him. Reyes insists he'll protect Dante from Vaughn if he helps. Dante muses that it's like back in the day as audiences see a flashback of Reyes trying to protect Dante from their foster father's abuse. Dante's done now, though; he won't help.
At police headquarters, Stabler pleads his case to investigate possible police targets. They ask in turn why every time there's police drama, Stabler's at the heart of it -- both in his current role and back in his Law & Order: SVU days. Bell stands up for him but Deputy Inspector Lillian Goldfarb wants to keep things as quiet as possible. Stabler asks Jet to look into who Vaughn's cop connection might be, since he has someone getting him uniforms, supplies, etc. The camera that Jet found turns out to be something from Amazon, so she's not too happy that she risked her life for nothing.
Stabler and Detective Jamie Whelan talk to Dante's lawyer to try and get him to cooperate. She counters that they need to get her client a good deal. Reyes then calls Stabler and casually tells him that they spoke to their foster father Leonard the other day. Concerned that he still is allowed to foster kids, Reyes goes rogue and heads off to Leonard's on a personal mission. Meanwhile, Vaughn takes to shooting down cops on the street in broad daylight from an unmarked black van.
Stabler's quickly on the scene of the shooting. Witnesses say there were three people in the van and, further, the shell casings match those of Vaughn's crew. Jet calls with big news: Vaughn was in the police academy last year but was kicked out over drama about his sealed record. That's where Stabler's undercover specialties will come into play.
Reyes swings by Leonard's house but a kid answers the door instead and lets Reyes in when he shows him his badge. He sees another young boy passed out on the couch with cigarette burns on his back. The first boy has them on his arms. Reyes shares his own scars. He asks if Leonard has hurt and inappropriately touched the boys and promises them that he's here to protect them now. But he then notices the burning cigarette and hears footsteps. He finds a third boy upstairs and then looks out the window to see Leonard driving away.
Stabler and Whelan talk to a cop at the academy. He says Vaughns's record said he was lazy and entitled and has a record of classmates hazing him. Officially that behavior's been shut down but boys (in power) will be boys. When Vaughn heard he was going to be kicked out, he quit instead and threatened that everyone would be sorry. He did have one friend, though: Paul Fink. Stabler looks at his record. In the van, Vaughn and his two men find themselves all over the internet as public enemy number one. The two try to convince Vaughn to lay low. Instead, he shoots them in the heads, determined to carry on his Joker-esque crusade. Bell, meanwhile, calls Reyes who lies and says he's investigating a lead, but he's really tailing Leonard's call. Leonard parks outside of a house, finally, and Reyes follows.
Stabler and Whelan visit Paul's girlfriend Maria, who already knows he's in trouble. "What did he do now?" she asks exasperatedly and tells them he's most likely at the pool hall. He immediately throws a punch and tries to run; Whelan throws a billiard ball that takes him down. Stabler wants to arrest him right then and there but Whelan wants to try Good Cop a little. He says he'll smooth things out with Paul's girlfriend and handle the assault charges if he talks. Paul tells them to talk to a man named Nate Reynolds -- he and Vaughn were tight after the academy.
Nate plays it cool and says he doesn't know Vaughn or Paul. He also digs at Stabler's reputation before railing against the "woke watchdogs" who ratted him out. Whelan thinks he's lying and Stabler asks what he wants to do about it, so he calls Bell. Does she know anything about Reynolds' record? She wonders if he might already be on IAB's radar when she gets a knock at the door. It's Goldfarb -- she has extra manpower for Bell and just wants Bell to keep her lunch appointment. But Bell's got bigger things on her mind.
Stabler's in his element, taking Whelan to do some adventure copping as they tail Reynolds to an industrial plant. He removes tactical gear and weapons out of his trunk and puts them in trash cans -- a dropoff for Vaughn. Whelan wants to take him now but Stabler decides to wait for Vaughn, preferring to put in a call for others to tail Reynolds.
Organized Crime finally goes back to Leonard's house as Reyes enters and draws his gun. When he recognizes Reyes, Leonard acts happy. Reyes asks why he ran earlier and Leonard says he was worried the kids might lie to a cop. When Reyes confronts him about the physical, mental and sexual abuse, Leonard claims that Reyes just believes what Vaughn and Dante told him. "Why didn't you do anything to me? Was there something wrong with me?" Reyes asks, tricking him into confessing. He tells him that he has to stop destroying kids' lives. Leonard is convinced that his facade of white saviordom will protect him, so Reyes contemplates killing him.
Bell interrogates Paul to tell her everything he knows about Vaughn in order to protect himself. He spills about Vaughn's secret apartment where he meets a creepy older guy from time to time; he thinks there's something untoward going on between them. Ah, Leonard again. Meanwhile, someone arrives to pick up Reynolds' dropped gear. It's not Vaughn, though; it's a confused-looking young adult, Harrison. He insists some guy just paid him $300 to park the car there. That's when Vaughn starts shooting, so Stabler and Whelan rush at Vaughn.
It's a tense shootout as Vaughn calls in Reynolds, threatening to rat him out if he doesn't show. Meanwhile, Bell tracks Reyes to Leonard's secret apartment and finds them both. Reyes has Leonard tied up but still alive. He says he couldn't let Leonard hurt any more kids -- and also that Vaughn still comes to this place to be with Leonard. Oh, and Vaughn plans to go out in a "blaze of glory." Just then, Stabler's backup arrives. Stabler shoots Vaughn in the chest but he's wearing a bulletproof vest.
Reyes hurries to the hospital, eager to tell Dante that Leonard won't hurt another kid ever again. But he's devastated to learn that his old friend died from a blood clot. He never got to tell him that they finally could be at peace. Now for the "order" part of the Law & Order wrap-up: they found Vaughn guilty and processed him. Stabler shares a celebratory whiskey with Bell when he gets an unexpected call from Pearl, criminal businessman Teddy Silas' wife, reminding him (and the viewers) that there are bigger problems still unsolved.
Law & Order: Organized Crime airs Thursdays at 10:00 p.m. on NBC and streams on Peacock.