The following contains spoilers for Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 3, Episode 15, "The Wild and the Innocent," which debuted Thursday, Feb. 23 on NBC.
Detective Elliot Stabler has been taking on increasingly immersive undercover missions on Law & Order: Organized Crime, far beyond the series' initial premise of his return to Manhattan. When the show brought Stabler back into the Law & Order universe, it was the murder of his wife Kathy that compelled him. In the hunt to bring Kathy's killer to justice, though, he always remained Elliot Stabler and never took on a new identity.
But after the takedown of villain Richard Wheatley, following a coordinated citywide blackout, Stabler suddenly was suddenly a part of a media frenzy. He was giving interviews. His name and face were splashed across the news. The Wheatley coverage was, to the Organized Crime civilian, inescapable. If there was one thing made clear, it was that Elliot Stabler is a cop. But since then, Stabler has gone undercover even more -- and surprisingly keeps being able to.
Why Law & Order's Elliot Stabler Is No Longer Believable Undercover
How does Stabler keep getting away with being undercover? At this point, it feels like a a running gag. Fresh off his media exposure from the Wheatley case, Stabler dove right into a big undercover mission to take down the Kosta Organization, even befriending a criminal with a heart of gold(ish) named Reggie. Following that successful stint, he went undercover inside the NYPD to suss out corrupt cops in the Brotherhood, earning him even more commendations -- and more public notoriety. In fact, Stabler's name and face were so exposed that his priest came to check on him, because Stabler was trending so much in the news.
But did that stop Stabler and his famous face from going undercover again? Of course not! In Season 3, he again went undercover as a crime lord to take down the vicious Eamon Murphy -- a man whom Law & Order: Organized Crime painted as exceedingly clever, careful and two steps ahead of the police. And in Season 3, Episode 15, "The Wild and the Innocent," he had another brief undercover jaunt in order to infiltrate a biker gang. Somehow, multiple high-level career criminals have never recognized Stabler, despite him being possibly the most publicized cop in New York. There is an overwhelming amount of tongue-in-cheek absurdity in the name of good TV.
How Law & Order: Organized Crime Can Work Without Stabler Undercover
The irony of Law & Order: Organized Crime's predicament is that Stabler doesn't need to be the character going undercover. While he may be the show's central figure, he has a whole task force full of capable detectives who have never been nationally profiled in public media. Season 3 has expanded on the roles of supporting characters Bobby Reyes and Jet Slootmaekers by allowing them, too, to go undercover. The other Organized Crime detectives' undercover missions have not only propelled the show forward, but allowed their own character arcs and interpersonal relationships to be far more fleshed out. The series undercover theme doesn't need to stop at all -- in fact, it's really fun! -- but the responsibility to take on fabricated lives should lie with anyone other than Elliot Stabler.
Stabler has had a lot of fun being unhinged in the show's first two and a half seasons, even with Organized Crime making a concentrated effort to not repeat Elliot's borderline police brutality behavior from Law & Order: SVU. But if his character growth is to continue the way viewers hoped when he got a show of his own, it's good time for him to take on more of a leadership role and stop playing pretend. Not only will it be good for his mental health, it will preserve Organized Crime's believability.
Law & Order: Organized Crime airs Thursdays at 10:00 p.m. on NBC and streams on Peacock.