Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 Episode 9 Review: ‘Off the Books’

Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 Episode 9 features the return of one of the best villains, if not the best villain, this series has had across its five seasons. (The delightfully evil Julian Emery.) It’s a welcome return, in its way. And that’s because Tom Payne’s performance as someone so entertaining, yet so cold-hearted in all his bright, upbeat glory, is as good as ever. But, well. Unfortunately for the Stabler family, Emery’s latest appearance creates the same dilemma as before. It’s with him that Joe Junior also returns, right by his side, playing both sides of older brother Elliot’s investigation…and eventually playing right into his own, tragic ending. While most of the hour is entertaining enough, it’s that awful, crushing goodbye to Joey that makes ‘Off the Books’ something special.

In short, Chris Meloni is at his absolute best in this hour. Admittedly, Meloni always rises to the occasion, sure. But what he does in those last not-quite 10 minutes, as a man desperately rushing to catch up to his baby brother before he and Emery disappear forever, then as he begs Joey to hold on — to stay with him — and, finally, as he grieves…realistically, I’m not sure quite what the right way to describe the quality is. Perhaps it’s just best to go with a cliche here. Because, well, he really is “better than ever.” Just keeps getting better and better at every opportunity, even.

But how we arrive at that ending matters. As its own story, Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 Episode 9 is compelling enough. (Again, this is especially true of the final parts.) On the other hand. I’m not going to lie and say that an episode that includes such a major loss and looks to be setting up the end of a stellar fourth season’s big arc, didn’t deserve better, somehow. Organized Crime Season 5 has been good — don’t get me wrong! But instead of wasting time on things like baby cop Eli being a baby, I would’ve liked to have gotten back to Joey and Emery before the ninth episode in a 10-episode season. There’s just so much more to explore here. Or at least there should’ve, could’ve, been.

Regardless, the good far outweighs the bad here — and it’s not even close.

MORE: Here’s what happened last time we saw Julian Emery in the Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 4 finale.

“Meet me at the spot”

Parts of Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 Episode 9 gave me the strangest sense of deja vu. Yes, Michael Trotter brings so much emotional weight to everything Joe Stabler Jr. does, creating a character who is so deeply uncomfortable with the things he’s doing for his boss, so very disturbed by the emotionless violence of it all, and extremely devoted to that love for his family. In his final moments, when all he can focus on is making Elliot promise he’ll tell their mom he was clean, there is zero room for doubt that not only does this matter to him, but it’s true as well. And, aside from those places, like that gut-wrenching final scene, where his character can actually be himself, Trotter infuses Joey’s visceral reactions to what’s happening around him, as well as his internal struggles, not only incredibly well but through such incredibly tiny details.

Joey can’t have an overt reaction to anything. If she’s enough emotion for Emery and his thug to actually see him, he’s toast. He knows that. And yet, his reactions are as loud as they are silent killers. Because Trotter is just that good. Those eyes, especially…are that good. Also because Trotter does such strong work, he keeps us guessing right up to, and maybe even including, the bitter end. Detective Tanner’s doubts are our doubts; Elliot’s denials are ours, as well. The same can be said of Randall’s sense of impending doom. And yet. Joey’s hiding something from everyone — not just the good guys — at all times.

Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 Episode 9 does a fantastic job of making us wonder what’s really going on here. Was he actually acting as Elliot’s confidential informant, purposely tricking him for Emery’s benefit, or some undefined third option? I honestly still couldn’t tell you and could only be for sure that he willingly accepted Elliot’s medallion — meaning he’s either colossally stupid in trusting his big brother the cop. Or, he knew exactly what might happen and took the tracker “from Mama,” with the story it was something his mom wanted him to have, as a way to help the NYPD — and his righteous anger in that position of baby brother was as real and relatable as ever.

I’d also argue his late-night visit to Bernie was one hundred percent, truly, real. There was no reason to fake that. Even the nerves as Joey left his little bit of evidence for Elliot to find him seemed believable enough. But…what about the phone call to Elliot at the end of Episode 8? Was that just more of Joey helping his boss move his cop brother “around the chessboard,” just like the call we saw in this hour that had Emery lurking in the background? I honestly don’t know. And it’s so interesting…

But here’s the thing that makes it all feel like deja vu: We have, in fact, experienced much of this before. In my Organized Crime Season 4 Episode 11 review, even, I had this to say:

The truth is, we really don’t know. Is he playing Emery? Or playing his brothers? Both? Either way, to return to our earlier point: That ending is a shocker, on so many levels.

Maybe we’ll never know. Or, to return to a point I made up above, maybe the finale will help answer some questions. Perhaps, even, Joey’s tested loyalties changed from interaction to interaction because all of this was so difficult for him. None of these choices are easy. (Understatement!) But, what we do know is this: He swears on his own mother’s life that he’s telling the truth while accepting that medallion from Elliot that ultimately leads to…his own death. Elliot Stabler is about as addicted to guilt as it gets already, so uh. That meetup, in that place, with that “gift” to keep Joey safe…sure provided Detective Guilt quite the fix. Here’s hoping it’s not an overdose.

MORE: Joey staying clean matters, especially after Randall and Elliot went to such great lengths to get him clean last season.

Meloni’s performance in Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 Episode 9 is unparalleled

No, but seriously, y’all. Meloni is such a force to be reckoned with.

Throughout Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 Episode 9 Meloni creates so, so many picture perfect moments. When Tanner confronts Stabler about Joey, pointing out how the “helpful” tip he gave them actually “just took out Emery’s competition,” viewers can experience Elliot’s certainty, as well as his indignation that anyone would dare question his brother, melting away in real time. His fight against his own doubts, and the process by which he loses that battle, is a presence in the scene.

Just after that, as he tries to brush off a relentless and spitting mad Randall — superb work from Dean Norris here, as well — it’s again a matter of Elliot’s frustration and anger increasing in traceable increments. But, of course, it’s the quick turn after Randall mentions the possibility of Bernie finding out and the absolute explosion, hands thrown up in the air and all, as he shouts “I’m trying to figure out as you yell at me!!” that gives the most away. Here, he officially can’t keep lying to himself anymore, and he is so, so, so mad about it. And then, there’s the whisper and the vulnerability while finally admitting to his older brother — and himself — he really doesn’t know what’s going on with Joey.

That ending, though…’Off the Books’ brings Joe Stabler Junior’s joey to its heartbreaking, possibly even inevitable, conclusion. Even if it wasn’t inevitable, the series has certainly tried to prepare us. (But, let’s be real: Being prepared was never an option.) First, we had Joey’s late-night visit to Bernie at the end of Episode 7 to tell her everything he’s done “was worth it” to get back and tell her loved her. Then, there was his phone call to big brother Elliot at the end of Episode 8 to tell him he made his own choices and loved him. Now, in Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 Episode 9, we have Randall and his premonitions basically hollering “this will end badly” at us.

But Elliot maintains some sense of hope, of denial, all along. He knows who and what Emery is, all the things he’s already done, but he still begs the man not to hurt Joe. And then he runs, checks so many places, that even we have some false hope before we see what we’ve dreaded all along. We’ve known what was coming throughout Stabler’s one-man search — Joey, fatally wounded. But knowing doesn’t help — at all! And this is where Meloni just…

Like, he steals his own show from himself, somehow. Is that a thing I can say??? Because I’m saying it.

The agony in Meloni’s voice when Elliot greets Joey with that “hey. It’s me” is bad enough. But what happens next, over such a precious short amount of time, with the unbearable grief seeping into his voice more and more, is just exquisite. The way his face crumples, even as he’s trying to convince Joey to stay with him so he can tell Mama he’s clean himself, is…God, it’s too much. And the sobbing…oof. Just. Ouch.

After, when El’s brother has taken his last breath, and he has already finished crying while leaning over his dead baby brother’s body, Detective Stabler has to take over again. No more big brother, just the cop…but the cop loses, and the brother’s pain breaks us all. Somehow, he answer the standard questions. But he sits there, whimpering, just a total wreck, crying all pathetic-like before finally forcing out the admission that, yes he held his brother.

He is trying so hard to hold it together the way he normally would and fails. Spectacularly. And it is such a spectacular and real, raw performance from Meloni. He could’ve given those scenes the tiniest fraction of the honesty he ultimately brought to them, and they still would’ve been powerful enough. And yet. No partial measures here. Lean in, access the worst, most devastated feeling you can imagine…and dig deeper. That seems to be what Meloni did. And then some. Talk about being a dedicated master of one’s craft.

And let’s not even get into the way he turns so red (his eyes even redder) in the utterly brilliant — and, smartly, silent — scenes where Elliot notifies his brother and favorite daughter. (Or, at least, the fandom’s favorite Stabler daughter. Let’s be real.) Although they don’t quite have the same time to shine that Meloni gets here, Dean Norris and Allison Siko bring a whole new layer of agony to the mix. Just stunning, stunning work. (And my ugly crying would like to thank them for that.)

Finally, the very end of Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 Episode 9 delivers yet another conflicting series of emotions. The grief is still there, yes, but there’s confusion and intrigue as McKenna brings up his “parting gift.” And then, it’s like Stabler’s flipping some sort of switch — turning off some part of himself — before that jaw twitches ever so slightly, giving us the last image of this penultimate episode: Elliot Stabler’s unbridled hatred for the enforcer in that trunk.

MORE: Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 Episode 2 may or may not still be our favorite episode of the season, but Episode 9 probably just blew Meloni’s performance there out of the water. And remember McKenna? We first met him in Episode 6, and Rick Gonzalez teased we hadn’t seen the last of him.

More on Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 Episode 9

• I loved picking up right where we left off, if for no other reason than to get just the tiniest bit more of that father/daughter stuff between Elliot and Kathleen. Mind you, Daddy!Elliot is a terrible liar as he tries and fails to convince Kathleen everything’s fine…but Siko and Meloni are so much fun to watch together.
• Speaking of Elliot Stabler and lying: “Dad…be careful.” “Always.” My dude. Always?! Please. More like never!
• WELCOME BACK TOM PAYNE. I WISH YOU HAD MORE TIME WITH US.
• And yes, I’m still bitter about Prodigal Son. Anyway.
• Hm. Speaking of evil: Of course he’s out here quoting Margaret Thatcher. F— her.
• “Are you asking me because you don’t know? Or are you just trying to make me look stupid?” He genuinely thinks you’re stupid, Joe-Joe.
• “When does this useful idiot become useful?” “Do you have a brother who’s a New York cop? One who we can move around the chessboard as we see fit? No. So, shut the f— up.” Joey was always disposable to him just like everyone else.
• Vargas nerding out over finding that phone and struggling to pour himself a coffee as he tries to keep up with Stabler is so funny. I love these bits.
• Also love this: “Wait. Julian Emery. Why?” [Insert Stabler glare here.] [Insert scared nerd face.] “…ok.” A comedy! Stop the show right there so it doesn’t get painful!
• Every single time Elliot has to, like, talk around Joey being a C.I., either with McKenna or Tanner, is so good. Have I mentioned Meloni’s good at his job? Probably not enough!
• “Yeah, the internet. It’s really high speed these days.” And full of ads and AI slop that waste all that power.
• “Like, next-level opioid crisis on steroids addictive.” Uh. So, not great!
• “That would compromise my C.I.” “Oh. And who would that be?” “…like I said, that would compromise my C.I.” He is…impressed at the audacity here.
• Kathleen is tired. And…oh, ok. She got the “bad liar” genes from her daddy. Poor thing!
• “Kathleen. Don’t lie to your uncle.” In which fun Uncle Randall suddenly becomes tough Uncle Randall. Too real. Oh, oh, oh. And Kathleen looks so guilty, and at a loss, and upset when she doesn’t have answers about Joey’s phone call for him.
• I love this pairing and would like more of it, please and thank you! Almost as good as Kathleen/Daddy Elliot or Kathleen/Future Stepmom Liv!
• Olivia Thirlby continues to be a great addition to this cast. Loved the snarky delivery on “ah, yes, the C.I. with no name.”
• No but why does El play with the little stirry straw for his coffee like that? It’s distracting.
• My heart dropped right out of my body when they revealed Emery at the end of that call. I really thought he’d caught Joey there and was about to, eh, basically do what he wound up doing at the end of the episode.
• Also: “Don’t worry about me,” in hindsight, makes me think Joey really was working for Elliot and planning on dying — just maybe not how and why he did — all along.
• It’s the way Meloni just cuts in with the “I’ll call her back” and Ellington just…pivots, mid-ramble, and exits the scene for me.
• Sorry, not sorry (and no offense to Thirlby!), but I would’ve preferred that argument with Bell.
• “Never should’ve told him where I worked. Buzz him in.” Love the exhausted to death, “one more F—ing thing,” sort of tone on this delivery.
• “I’m trying to figure out as you yell at me!!” “I’m not yelling! You’re yelling!” No, seriously. I LOVE THE BROTHERS STABLER. (And yes, I am absolutely yelling that.)
• God, it’s almost like he’s pleading with Randall to put his doubts to rest for him when he’s finally open and vulnerable about everything.
• “The moves he’s making don’t make sense. And you know how he is. It’s always gotta be harder with him than it needs to be.”
• “I’m the big brother, I’m here, I’m going to help. What can I do?”
• Emery actually having a soul, and even showing some regret over having to disappear on his son, got to me.
• Ok but are the Stablers super rich? All those eggs!
• Obligatory “Ellen Burstyn is a gift” moment! OMG that like “ick” face when Bernie talks about biting into eggshells and is all “bleh.”
• …but is the symbolism too much with the eggshells? I mean, everyone’s basically walking on eggshells around Bernie. After all, they can’t let on that something’s up with Joey because she’s just been in the hospital. Hm.
• …did they really have to go with burning toast?? I genuinely was afraid it was going to be a sign something was wrong with her.
• Love the little wordless conversation between Kathleen and Randall when that phone rings, though.
• HE GETS TO HUG HIS BABY BROTHER.
• “Come on, El. I’m clean. Six months.” “I didn’t ask if you were.” “Yeah. But I know that look.” They were so real for putting this exchange in the episode.
• He looks…amused? Fond? Almost proud, maybe? While Joey’s going off on him???
• “I swear on Ma’s life.” And I cannot fathom him doing this if he knew he was lying.
• “Come home. When it’s over with, come home.”
• “My brother’s got to come home in one piece.”
• Narrator: Exactly zero people would go home in one piece after watching Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 Episode 9.
• “Let me guess: You were an altar boy.” And his big brother was cute as a carrot. What about it?
• No but the light moment right before…everything…was a choice. (A good one! But also an attack on me, personally.)
• “You’re my best friend, Joe-Joe. I don’t say that enough.” He’s so F—ed in the head, I really think this is genuine.
• Joey knows he’s going to die the second Emery clocks that tracker, huh.
• In the scene where Emery’s getting ready to kill him, Trotter really sells Joey’s sense of betrayal. Pain. So much pain.
• “I mailed it, El.” What.
• Nailed? Mailed? Huh.
• “Stay with me.” Kill me now.
• What if I just wrote “pain” a few thousand times instead of all the other words?
• It’s super sweet, and spot on, for Tanner to sit silently beside Stabler in his grief and not try to do too much or whatever. But uh, also, WTF. Bell and/or Reyes absolutely should’ve been here for something like this. Benson, too, honestly.
• “You should go be with your family.” “Yeah.” THE HIGH PITCH. HELP.
• He doesn’t even wash the blood off his hands! It’s there, visible, when he talks to Randall and Kathleen. Even if he tries to wash it off, he’s always going to see it there anyway, huh.
• The way he fiddles with his keys for something, anything, to focus on other than what he’s saying???
• And seriously: I LOVE that they gave us that whole sequence without the actual words. Brilliant.
• But um. Bernie?! How is she going to deal? And how long will they lie to her to avoid the inevitable, especially considering she’s already in a fragile state?
• Elliot rubs at his tear-filled eyes. I decide that’s a great idea and do the same.
• “Let’s go for a ride.”
• I’m scared.

Agree? Disagree? What did you think of Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 Episode 9 ‘Off the Books’? Leave us a comment!

The season finale of Law & Order: Organized Crime will stream Thursday, June 12, on Peacock.