Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 3 Episode 16 Review: Chinatown
Jack Ori
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After a month-long hiatus, Law & Order: Organized Crime needed a case that was worth the wait. They delivered.
Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 3 Episode 16 introduced a new gang and some different conflicts for the unit as they tried to investigate.
It ended with a twist -- the villain isn't who it seemed it would be, and now Stabler's again on a mission to get justice.
Jet's promotion was a blink-and-you-miss-it moment. She didn't get more than a second to celebrate before a gunshot rang out!
I'm not sure what her new duties are, but she deserves them after being kidnapped and nearly killed, only for the suspect she was starting to fall for to be murdered in jail.
I hope her promotion will help her be part of the action in this new case! So far, she's doing computer stuff again, though she did get out in the field with Whalen.
The case also gave us another side of Thurman -- or at least it seemed that way at first.
He asked Organized Crime to take the case so that his friends could get justice, but he didn't seem to care whether they caught the actual shooter or called the case closed despite clear evidence that the killer was at large.
Bell: DI Thurman was here when the shooting happened. He called us in. This is an Organized Crime case.
Chang: And this is Chinatown, Sergeant. Things work a little differently here.
Did he know Bell and Stabler would butt heads with Chang and Lin? I wouldn't put it past him to call Bell to the scene to humiliate her when she learned she wasn't in charge of the case after all.
Chang turned out to be more of an ally than anyone expected.
She and Bell have parallel personal lives -- they both lost their marriages to their jobs -- and she's more than willing to help the Organized Crime Unit out.
They need her expertise and ability to gain the trust of other Chinese people. No one is willing to talk to the non-Chinese cops, so the case will go cold FAST without a Chinese liaison.
So is this Lin's idea of an olive branch? Sending you down here to say the kid who ran from us isn't credible?
Bell
It's not just the residents who don't trust the cops -- Captain Lin didn't either.
Time will tell if it's simple distrust of outsiders or something more nefarious. His raid resulted in finding a gun he used to accuse Uzar of a shooting he didn't commit.
That's suspicious. What's going on here?
Organized Crime did a bait-and-switch with this introductory episode, leading to a phenomenal twist.
Most of the hour focused on gang rivalries, with the unit trying to determine which gang ordered the hit and why. It turned out that Jennifer was the intended target, not her politician husband, but that wasn't the biggest surprise.
By the end of the hour, we'd been introduced to the real villain. Michael arranged for Jennifer to be shot so Stephen would drop out of the race. He's probably affiliated with one of the gangs.
None of that was apparent until the last few minutes of the hour; while viewers were focused on the people running the gangs' daily operations, Michael hovered in the background, seemingly a minor character.
Stabler's pursuit of Michael should be fun, but did he have to warn him?
Michael: Are you here to endorse my campaign?
Stabler: No, no. I'm here to have a heart-to-heart with you and make a promise.
Michael: About what?
Stabler: You and I both know you are behind the attempted murder of Jennifer Lee. That's the heart-to-heart. Now here's the promise: I will bring you down for it.
Gang leaders like Michael aren't fazed by threats to take them down. If anything, Michael will see it as a challenge.
Doesn't Stabler want the element of surprise on his side? Confronting Michael this early seems like a bad idea.
They can't place undercovers when Michael knows he's under investigation, and Michael can take action to throw the detectives off his trail or intimidate witnesses.
It might have made Stabler feel good to inform a mob boss that he was going after him, but what constructive purpose did it serve?
Despite that misstep, this will be a compelling battle.
The cops have made little to no progress in getting Chinatown residents to trust them, and we don't know yet how deep the corruption goes.
Michael was a chief donor to Stephen's campaign -- did Stephen and Jennifer know he was involved with trafficking?
Probably not; they don't seem like the kind who would tolerate that! Still, his LLC seems like it's all kinds of shady.
Michael probably has friends in the local precinct. Lin could be one of them.
Michael's undoubtedly made himself untouchable, making the Organized Crime unit's eventual victory that much sweeter.
I'm curious about who else might be working for the enemy.
I doubt Chang is compromised, but you never know. Organized Crime is fond of operatives who disguise themselves so well that you don't have any idea that they're playing the cops til it's revealed.
Gang leaders always have friends in high places. They need to if they want to survive.
Stabler and Bell might have to expose a lot of corruption to stop Michael's trafficking scheme.
What did you think, Organized Crime fanatics? Did you realize Michael was up to no good before the reveal? Was Stabler wise to warn him? What do you hope happens next?
Hit the big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know.
Remember to watch Law & Order: Organized Crime online whenever you'd like.
Law & Order: Organized Crime airs on NBC on Thursdays at 10 PM EST / PST.
Jack Ori is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. His debut young adult novel, Reinventing Hannah, is available on Amazon. Follow him on X.
