WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 2, Episode 15, "Guns & Roses," which aired Thursday, March 17 on NBC.
Detective Elliot Stabler speaks to his court-mandated therapist saying that he's wrestling with a conflict: he knows his undercover mission to bring down his friend Jack Donnelly and his corrupt cop crew is right, but it feels like a betrayal. His father was an old-school cop and as close as brothers with Donnelly's dad. Is Stabler letting his dad down by turning against the old guard? Stabler's cop dad held the stereotypes strong as Stabler reveals he only felt his dad was proud of him once, when he passed down his medal of honor to Elliot. His therapist (again, let's all rejoice Stabler's finally in therapy) tells him she thinks his dad would be proud now.
Defense attorney Bonnie Ellis is waiting for a sex worker, Angelica, to be released following an arrest. She drives her to another location and assures her she's doing the right thing. She assures her that everything is completely confidential though Angelica is terrified "he" will know she's talking to Bonnie. Angelica was right as she walks into her apartment building, only to be met with a gun. She and Bonnie are shot dead.
Stabler's packing for his undercover-as-Stabler role in a different precinct while Jet Slootmaeker hands him a tracking device she rigged for when he was undercover as Eddie Wagner. Lt. Bill Brewster enters and reports Bonnie -- a defender of women in violent situations -- was killed last night along with a young sex worker. Turns out there's a Marcy Killer connection as Angela's last call was from Hugo Bankole, a Marcy Killer. At that exact moment Hugo is meeting with Nova, another cop undercover within the Marcy Killers, to tell her the police are after him and looking to pin the shooting on him.
Stabler walks into his new precinct with his new totally-not-a-cop-gang besties. Some are not so welcoming to newcomers but Officer Tanisha Carling introduces herself and notes he's been given a downgrade. Stabler meets his new captain, Patrick Darnell, who is very vocally not thrilled about Stabler being thrust on him. He doesn't like scandal and he doesn't like Stabler already. He puts Stabler immediately on desk duty, which honestly probably should have happened years ago. But he's invited to play cards with her and her group. Meanwhile, Sgt. Ayanna Bell interviews Bonnie's coworker... but she claims to know nothing about the Marcy Killers.
Jack Donnelly comes to visit his buddy Stabler at desk duty and tells him he was the one who requested Stabler be transferred to Darnell's precinct so they could hang. He pulls Stabler away from his paperwork to drive the wrong way down one-way streets on some shady stop-and-frisk business. Stabler asks Jack about the drugs; he says their in with the Marcy Killers is a little fractured following last week's disrupted trust but he points out other regulars on the streets he sells to. He draws the line at human trafficking, though, as he has daughters himself. Donnelly promises him an even more enlightening ride tomorrow.
Nova meets with Bell and lets her know that Hugo isn't the killer. She also assures her that Preston Webb, the Marcy Killers' number two at the moment, doesn't believe in running girls. Why did Hugo call Angela before she got shot, though? Nova and Bell are suddenly at odds: Bell wonders if Nova's been undercover too long and Nova worries that Bell is seeing things too black and white. Tensions are running high. Meanwhile, Detectives Maldonado and Cho talk to a sex worker, Tina, who turns out to be Maldonado's own sister. She shares some information about a suspicious regular john they should investigate.
The next night, Stabler and Donnelly are out on their unscrupulous buddy cop ride. They cut off a van that Jack knows is carrying drugs and money. The passengers protest there was no reason to stop them and they have no warrant but Donnelly is on a high off this. He lies and says they're working with the FBI and he just needs them to tell him where they got the cocaine from (looking for a new business partner, of course.) He then threatens that the FBI will ruin this poor kid's mom's life if he doesn't talk. Cold-blooded. The kid tips off his suppliers, though, who rush to evacuate as the shady trio come in and clean out their stash, taking tens of thousands of dollars in coke and guns. But someone has remained behind and he shoots Donnelly forcing Stabler and the third crooked cop to call in for a medical bus.
The next day, Stabler brings his undercover bestie some flowers in the hospital as he recovers. He's got a few stitches but he's doing fine. Stabler thanks him for taking the bullet and saving his life and Jack wants to talk shop. Their sergeant is asking questions and this won't blow over too easily. They need to dispose of the guns. Jack tells Stabler to ride with a cop he sometimes works with named Van Aller -- a skittish guy but good for moving guns. Stabler has Jet look him up: he's got a clean record. Cho then enters and says Hugo is tied to Angela, despite Nova's insistence the Marcy Killers aren't traffickers.
Back at Stabler's new precinct, he's in trouble for going out with Donnelly. His new captain says he's pursuing charges for Stabler's termination but, to the other officers, Stabler's passed initiation. He protected Donnelly so he's in with them as they applaud him. Meanwhile, Maldonado and Cho investigate Leon Popov, the creepy customer Maldonado's sister tipped them off about. Though his car was seen at the scene, it turns out it wasn't him driving: his neighbor, a cop named Van Aller, borrowed the vehicle. Ding ding! Bell tries to call Stabler but he doesn't pick up as he gets in the car with Van Aller himself. Nova does her job and tells Bell where Hugo is, though she swears Hugo didn't do anything. Bell searches his house and finds him hiding inside his mattress. He's under arrest.
Van Aller writes down gun serial numbers as he tells Stabler he's not usually the guy who deals with buyers. He packs up the guns, though, and walks into the building ahead to make the sale. While he's gone, Stabler takes pictures of all the serial numbers he wrote down. Back at the precinct, Bell and Jet interrogate Hugo who swears he was working with Bonnie to try and bring peace to the streets. He plays dumb when Jet mentions Preston Webb. They present his gun and Hugo smirks. It's a setup. A cop took that gun off him at a stop last year. He says he'd called Bonnie to warn her about the corrupt cop who's working with the gangs in exchange for free sex with his favorite sex worker, Angelica. Guess who the cop is? It's no surprise: Van Aller, who's just conveniently returning to the car.
Van Aller gets a call and acts a touch nervous as he goes to drop off Stabler, who tries to coerce him into sharing what's on his mind. Van Aller is upset and doesn't want word to get back to Donnelly: the call he got was from Darnell who said some Internal Affairs Bureau members came looking for him. Stabler says he's been through it with IAB a few times (understatement of the century) and he can help coach him. Van Aller confesses to killing Bonnie and Angelica because Bonnie was asking too many questions. Donnelly doesn't know anything about this, and Stabler promises he'll help Van Aller. Stabler walks into the bar to meet his new cop group friends before going back out just in time to witness Van Aller commit suicide by shooting himself in the head.
Bell speaks with Stabler as he broods by a window. He really believes that Donnelly didn't know about Van Aller's murder of the two women. The gun logs, though, are solid evidence. "Thanks," Stabler says in a mopey voice. Bell's concerned and she knows he's conflicted and a little off. Hugo meets with Preston Webb, telling him about Van Aller's corruption. But Webb's more concerned that Hugo had connections with Bonnie that he was keeping secret. He wonders if Hugo's a Judas and now Hugo doesn't trust Nova. Bell and Nova meet up and Nova tells Bell her arrest of Hugo has compromised Webb's trust in her. Bell assures her she'll win him back and offers Nova a warning: it's easy to let worlds blur when cops are undercover too long.
Stabler deals with his emotions and internal struggles the only way he's ever known how: stuff it down with brown, as he toasts a couple of rounds together with Donnelly at the bar. He says Van Aller had seemed on edge all night but he had no idea why he shot himself. He also passes Jack the cash and gun list that Van Aller had on him, telling him he rescued the incriminating items before the other cops arrived. Van Aller wasn't cut out for this anyway, muses Donnelly. Cops like them have to be of tougher stuff, like his and Stabler's dads. Yikes.
He then shares a story about Jack and Elliot's dads: they were working together when a kid spooked them and Joe Stabler startled and shot that kid dead. Jack's dad then helped him cover it up, shooting Stabler Senior in the leg to make it look like self-defense. That's what the elder Officer Stabler got that medal for, it turns out. The ultimate corruption. "We're just like our dads," Donnelly says, a smile in his eyes and a depression setting in in Stabler's. Back at his new squad room, Stabler gets his gun back as he holds his dad's medal of honor: a new, horrible history in his hands. All he ever wanted was to be like his dad - has he gotten his wish after all, in a twisted manner? The imminent return of his old father figure next episode is not a moment too soon.
New episodes of Law & Order: Organized Crime air Thursdays at 10 p.m. on NBC.