Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 Episode 4 Review: ‘Promesse Infrante’

Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 Episode 4 ‘Promesse Infrante’ starts in a promising place — Elliot Stabler in therapy, where he really needs to spend about 24 hours a day for the next…ever — and ends in a really, really awful one. There are enough compelling moments along the way to keep this episode in “good” territory and remind everyone that Organized Crime is the best of the Law & Order franchise. At the same time, though, there are places where the hour fails to meet the high bar this series has easily cleared in the past.

In an episode that sees a “war” between two criminal organizations beginning to unfold, viewers expect violence. Death, even. Unfortunately, on this series in particular, we’ve come to expect far too many people Detective Stabler feels personally responsible for to die horribly. Extra “likely to drop dead” points, of course, if they’re a kid. At some point, constantly returning to that particular plot point starts to be a bit of a stain on the series and an indication that all these creative changes over the years have left us spinning in circles.

Are we long past that point, just getting to it, or still far enough away from it to be able to change the narrative? Weirdly, all of the above. The first two episodes of this new season were excellent, even in spite of us visiting the familiar “Stabler ‘adopts’ someone, person dies” territory pretty much right from the start. So, even this latest take on an old (least) favorite has potential. But someone, somewhere, really needs to start asking why, with so much rich personal material already available through the Stabler family struggles and — God forbid, apparently — plenty of storytelling opportunities for both Bell and Reyes, we keep going for “shocking” deaths that aren’t even shocking anymore. Certainly, that can’t be our only way of pulling these incredible performances out of our cast.

MORE: Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 Episode 1 was worth the wait.

“Difficult promises to keep”

Elliot’s “confession” to Father de Luca is easily one of the highlights of Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 Episode 4. The way the scene utilizes shadows and all of those carefully-positioned profile shots is utterly gorgeous, multiple bits of dialogue contain more than one meaning, and the performances are about as good as it gets. The more Elliot reveals, talking in a very transparent code that screams — “I know what’s going on here, and I know you’re at the heart of it” — the more we see the priest realize this confession is trying to draw a confession out of him. And the more he gets very, very uncomfortable, afraid, even, at some points.

Christopher Meloni does some fascinating work here, as a man who’s both doing his job and unburdening his soul. Yes, Elliot is choosing his words very carefully. And yes, he uses a very particular sort of pointed tone when he’s calling de Luca out. That’s the detective in him talking. On the other hand, look at the beginning of the scene. As Elliot discusses the promises he’s made and failed to keep, Meloni brings so much honesty to the moment. There’s just that slight hesitation before he even opens up about his failure to protect people. Because obviously, those regrets are extremely difficult for him to talk about. He really does feel like he hasn’t kept his word — for so many people! Bunny, the Spezzanos, Rita Lasku…the list goes on and on and on — and there’s a weight to even admitting that out loud.

While it might seem natural to focus on the priest’s face (what we can see of it, at least) as he responds to Stabler, the real point of view here is still our detective’s. His expression is one of extreme discomfort, to the point of nearly looking ill. It’s worth reiterating: This is difficult for him. But that exhale manages to convey at least some sense of a release. The weight of that burden isn’t gone — not even close — but it is a little bit easier to carry after letting it out. There’s a huge difference between this moment and, say, Elliot’s usual refusal to cooperate during the opening therapy scene. (That experience was, uh, a whole different type of uncomfortable.)

Elliot ends his visit to the church with an extremely thinly-veiled threat: “Well, if that really is His plan, then I’m going to do everything I can to stop it. So, I guess we should…add prideful defiance to my list of sins, huh.” He’s still nowhere near as openly combative as we know he can be here, but after the slow way he layers in a little bit more intensity with each exchange, expertly laying a trap for de Luca, this last line is still a shock to the system. It’s like watching a predator lie in wait, hidden from his prey’s view but easy for us outside observers to spot…before he suddenly, chillingly attacks.

…and good luck to that man, both of them honestly, after the way things ultimately play out in Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 Episode 4.

MORE: Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 Episode 2 was way too good for words…but we wrote lots of them.

“So you want to join the war”

Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 Episode 4 puts Detective Reyes in an undercover role that goes from zero to about a zillion in seemingly no time at all, only to (possibly?) fizzle out by the end. In the past, whenever Stabler’s had to embed himself in some criminal organization or another, there’s been time for the story to build. He gets in, he pretends to keep his head down (fails), and eventually, he earns some leader or another’s trust. It takes time. Even with, say, the Albanian arc where we were thrown in after he’d been there a little bit, we still have the understanding, as an audience, that you have to earn trust before being included in some of the more tense situations. Reyes, on the other hand…gets jumped in during the day and meets with the “special guest” that same night.

From a story standpoint, the rushed timeline makes sense. After all, things are pretty dire and in disarray right now, and the Camorra clearly have caught Los Santos off guard. Murdering Carlo in broad daylight, in the middle of a courtroom, is more than enough proof of that. On the other hand, one would think the organization’s rough times (to say the least) would make the new leaders more wary of newcomers than ever. But thinking, apparently, is not a thing we do when we watch TV these days.

The other issue with rushing Reyes’ time is that, at least as far as Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 Episode 4 goes, Rick Gonzalez doesn’t get as much to work with as we’d like. That’s not to say that he doesn’t get anything of substance, though — far from it. When the group takes turns beating the crap out of a terrified (alleged) Camorra member the gang picked up off the streets, Gonzalez gives viewers glimpses of Bobby’s sympathy for this stranger in all the little in-between moments. Then, as he makes a spectacle of that sympathy to earn Nico’s trust — and, importantly, get his name so he can report back to OCCB — the quick switch back to being this threatening tough guy is very well done.

There’s also the couple of interactions with Pietro, both when Reyes lets him go during the first shootout and when he notices the kid has a gun pointed at him during the second. Especially during that final scene, Gonzalez really lets the mask slip and gives that kid the most open, honest, “hey, I’m harmless” version of Detective Reyes. But since we’re down to a team of three (plus Vargas), all three of those characters should truly get some time to shine. An undercover stint should be Reyes’ time, but with so much going on, we don’t quite get there. Or maybe it’s that we get there but don’t have the opportunity to lean in as much as we’ve done with Stabler’s many, many faces. Here’s hoping there’s more to come for Reyes.

MORE: We still can’t believe Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 Episode 3 was the last of Jet, especially since Reyes didn’t get a proper goodbye. And yet.

“Welcome, Brother”

Pietro’s death by cop was easy to see coming from a mile away, probably when we saw how delighted he was to see Stabler in Episode 3. If not then, this episode certainly waves enough red flags at us to make the outcome totally predictable. When he shows up to the brewery, wanting to be let in, it’s so obvious he has no idea what he’s asking. He is so clearly an innocent kid. Someone raised mostly away from all of that mess, someone who only wants to join up because he lost a friend whom he considered family and — yes — sees the horrific example set by his older brother.

Throughout Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 Episode 4, Luca Rickman does a fantastic job of showing just how horribly out of place his character is. He gets away with his life during the first shootout scene because of Reyes — an experienced cop — but his terror in that moment is a dead giveaway to how much he really doesn’t understand what following in his brother’s (and dad’s) footsteps means. Not until it’s way, way too late, at least. Adding an extra layer to the tragedy of it all, he’s clearly traumatized by watching others get shot right in front of him, kind of loses it in a private moment with Roman…and then, by the end of the hour, he’s the one who gets shot.

Not only does he get shot, but the one holding the gun is another young boy who’s in over his head: None other than Elliot Stabler, Junior. And wow…this move, to have Eli kill a teen so early on in his training, is either among the boldest this series has ever made or the stupidest. Potentially both. There are far too many echoes of the (very) elder Elliot Stabler’s last moments as a detective before F—ing off and ghosting us for a decade needing to take a step back from his long career for years. We have a young person, shot to protect a loved one and the utterly and completely horrified reactions from those left standing. Even Eli’s barely-coherent justification for what he did rings true to that awful day at SVU back in 2011.

“He was — he was going to…he was — he was going to…” Elliot Senior never said anything like this, but we all knew. Right??

Anyway.

Meloni and Nicky Torchia are utterly and completely phenomenal here. Torchia is the perfect picture of the son who’s just shot first and realized the weight of his deeds later, while Meloni embodies the father who’s been there far too many times — and knows what this is going to do to his boy. But let’s not leave Danielle Moné Truitt and Rick Gonzalez out of the discussion. We already touched on Gonzalez and that open way he has Reyes project to Pietro that he’s not a threat. But when Truitt enters the scene, while she has precious little time — way, way too little, actually — to show us how the incident affects Bell, show us she does.

As we know, she and Elliot have become really close as partners (just not that kind of close). And even in that brief glimpse, Bell’s concern for El, for what this means for him as a parent, for what this means for him as a guy who already needs endless therapy, and — yes — for what this means for him as a detective during their investigation is palpable. It’s like its own character in the scene, however short of a time we get to spend with it. That Eli shot a kid to protect both his dad (Bell’s partner) and Reyes (one of her detectives) is just…gutting on a whole new level for someone who has to lead this team. What’s left of it, anyway.

(Are we seriously never going to get to focus on how constantly losing her people affects Bell, though???)

As we know from his confession scene and just from…everything, really, Elliot feels like a failure. A failure as a cop, in giving the Spezzano grandkids a new life…and a failure as a father. He really, really wanted to do better by Eli than he thought he did by the four older kids. But now, the job has come for his youngest, too…arguably, in the worst way of all.

…basically, what a mess.

But hey! Great cast, great work…

…but why. Seriously. Why.

MORE: Perhaps now, Eli will understand why his dad reacted the way he did to his big news in the Organized Crime Season 4 finale.

More on Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 Episode 4

• Absolutely in love with the entire therapy scene, especially this doctor calling Elliot out on the “not married” detail. And his face when she does. It’s like, yes, that bothers him. And it bothers him that it bothers him.
• “Stress does not aid in the healing process.” Ok, first of all: Why is this show coming for me? Second: Check out that clenched jaw and awkward look on Zaddy’s face.
• “Detective Stabler, to be sure of oneself is a powerful attribute…it can be a dangerous one, too.” “Mmhm. Well.” And his smug little head tilt and forced grin. Amazing.
• First obligatory I LOVE THEM moment for Bell and El in Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 Episode 4: That phone call after the therapy session? Like, her FACE when he talks about needing to do more sessions. Forget that Oprah shrugging gif. Ayanna Bell is superior!
• Also: “Your silence speaks volumes.” “Yeah. Well, I mean, you need it. You have a lot on your plate. More than you care to deal with.” TELL HIM.
• Oh, man. That tense “we haven’t spoken” confrontation with Roman at the funeral. Obviously, the showdown near the end is even better, but this does an incredible job of setting us up for what’s to come. Great work from Alberto Frezza, who has the difficult job of going up against a Meloni who’s extremely comfortable in these types of scenes here.
• “I’ve been hearing an awful lot of amens today.” “My grandmama used to say you can’t hear enough.” “Yeah, smart lady.” No, really. LOVE THEM.
• “Do you think my CI is involved?” “Do you?”
• Narrator: Yes. He does think that, but he most definitely doesn’t want to.
• “You want to be like Sal here?” Oof. Considering they’re both dead by the end…OUCH.
• Ok but. That interrogation scene with the third altar boy, David. Bell and Stabler have such great rhythm here. It’s so obvious the kid’s not involved/way too nervous to be one of the Camorra. But they both give just enough “stern cop” energy to keep him talking. Then, there’s the way Bell has that visible spark of interest and sits up to lean in when David says his mom doesn’t like the new priest. Master class in making the most of every moment from Truitt, even when she doesn’t get the deep emotional material to work with.
• “She said that she’d rather see me in purgatory than jail.”
• This whole exchange: “You can only do what you can do. God will see to the rest.” “Yeah? Well. He’s been dropping the ball lately.” “You’ve lost your faith.” “There are children dying on the streets of this parish. Being turned into killers. Explain to me how that’s part of His plan.” Just…go all the way off. The way this meets the moment in real life, too…GO OFF.
• “Well, the way I see it, sh— is f—ked up out there. And it’s not getting any better with me sitting around here holding my d—k.” Again, this meets the real-life moment in more ways than one. Plus, love hearing our guys’ filthy mouths…right as I have to censor my own. (THE CRUELTY).
• Elizabeth Mastrantoio, just killing this role yet again.
• It feels icky to say this? But the sequence that runs Los Santos’ “war” prep in parallel with the Camorra’s is…kinda cool? Very well done to show the similarities, the differences, and the complete senselessness of it all.
• …but do we think Nico was actually Camorra? Putting that violent attack in juxtaposition with Roman, lining up his soldiers and shooting them in their bulletproof vests one by one with not a glimpse of fear from anyone other than Pietro…kinda makes that bit unclear.
• WTAF kind of man shoots his little brother in the chest, vest or no, and then tells him how he’ll “never be alone”?
• Meloni once again doing an expert job of playing an Elliot Stabler who’s friendly, yet pointed about his conversation…right up until he goes in for the kill.
• “My son and his girlfriend were with me” is a great delivery.
• “Tell me about Roman.” *sips espresso* Iconic.
• “I think you’re worried about your grandchildren.” The way Mastrantoio’s face starts to fall!
• “…I think you should be.” And then it’s, like, dread and horror.
• Bell out here, looking like that, with her disinterested mask…and then, she lets some emotion through when she hears about Nico.
• “You? With me.” It’s the gesturing for me.
• “Look: I know you feel like you need to protect this woman because of your history together? But don’t keep me in the dark.” “I wasn’t.” Except my dude looks and sounds like he not only was but isn’t a fan of being caught.
• “She’s smart.” “Yeah.” “And ballsy.” “Yes.” “And dangerous.” Their timing is just. So. Unbelievably. Good.
• “So, you don’t think he’s here from Naples doing God’s work.” Her sardonic AF chuckle, though.
• “If you’re asking me is Antonio here to be his eyes and ears, I don’t know.” “But you suspect.” “I suspect everyone.” MOOD.
• That exchange with Elliot, Eli, and Eli’s FTO at the “brain spray” scene? So tense, so awkward, way too much fear on Eli, and such a glare from Elliot after his boy leaves.
• Looking forward to “poster boy for rage” going after that man with an “I told you so” after how this episode ended. (If it doesn’t wind up in canon, the fandom knows what to do.)
• “Godd—nit. another kid.” Should be the name of this series at this point.
• “Is he suggesting that I shove this…” “He said you’d figure it out.” I LOLed…and very much appreciate the way the camera stayed with Reyes’ reaction for longer than one might normally expect.
• “And you brought your brother into this f—king mess! Do you have any idea who you are dealing with? You know, the cops know about Father de Luca? The man is a fool. And so are you.” GET HIM GRANDMA.
• “Everything will be ok.” Narrator: No. Not even close.
• This old man still knows how to make an entrance, huh.
• Again with Meloni and Frezza showing us how acting is done. Brilliant display of two predators, circling each other like this, with all that tension and the threats that aren’t really threats. You can also feel all that history between the two men in the room with them.
• “You mean the part where you made my family turn on each other? Or when you took us away from our home?” “Well, I was thinking about the part where I gave you a chance at a new life in America, and you f—ing blew it.”
• So, like. Is that it for Reyes’ undercover “arc,” or do we think he’ll still be spending time with the Los Santos crew?
• …and seriously, not even a one-liner about the Jet exit for Reyes, huh? Ok then. That mess with those two characters was always going to be exactly that — a mess — but with her gone…big yikes. What a disservice to both characters to throw that in last season, then give them nothing for closure here. Let’s put on clown makeup and keep expecting him to get to say something, anything on the subject. At any time, though the best time was last episode. This one at worst.
• That smug line about Elliot saying he wished he had “more time” is going to come back to haunt him, huh. It very much looks, for all the world, like he knew Los Santos was coming and even used them to come target Roman. We know that’s not true, but considering Roman’s very distorted sense of history and what’s now happened to his brother — at the hands of Elliot’s youngest son, no less — …help.
• If you can’t get one Elliot Stabler to kill a kid, get another! (Bad philosophy actually, folks.)
• FFS. JFC. FFFFFFF.
• God, and what is Isabella going to do now???
• This is so, so, so, so, so messed up.

Agree? Disagree? What did you think of Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 Episode 4 ‘Promesse Infrante’? Leave us a comment!

New episodes of Law & Order: Organized Crime stream Thursdays on Peacock.