Law & Order: Organized Crime fans still are digesting the letter scene and the fact that Elliot Stabler came close to digging his own grave.
And it all made for some terrific, highly-anticipated TV, plus higher ratings. Boosted by another cross-over with SVU, Law & Order: Organized Crime generated a larger audience Thursday night than it did a week ago for its season two premiere.
The two hours of Law & Order: Organized Crime registered 4.3 million viewers, then 4.1 million. Meanwhile, more than 4.7 million watched Law & Order: SVU. The numbers will go up once streaming is counted.
It all made for a great evening for NBC. Why? The network showed that three hours of Law & Order were more popular than ABC’s lineup of Station 19, Grey’s Anatomy, and Big Sky. All three ABC series premiered their seasons last night.
Station 19, when going head-to-head, surpassed SVU with 4.8 million viewers. Grey’s Anatomy also proved to be more popular than Law & Order: Organized Crime with an audience of 4.6 million. However, ABC’s night took a downward turn with the season two premiere of Big Sky. That audience was only 3.1 million.
Crossovers Made the Episodes, Especially for ‘Law & Order: Organized Crime’
The crossovers involving the Law & Order shows were popular.
Law & Order: SVU only was on for an hour. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and her SVU crew investigated a bar owner who was a serial rapist. However, he also was connected to a case Elliot Stabler was working with Law & Order: Organized Crime. So the rapist ended up going into witness protection, much the chagrin of Benson.
Then, it was onto two hours of Law & Order: Organized Crime. This season, Stabler is undercover as he tries to infiltrate the Albanian mob operating in NYC. But in the two episodes, the series dabbled in its SVU history and the chemistry between Stabler and Benson.
On April 1, when Law & Order: Organized Crime had its backdoor pilot with SVU, Stabler gave Benson a letter. The two hadn’t seen each other in a decade. Stabler, her long-time partner, disappeared with no explanation when he quit NYPD. But to open the series, Stabler was coming back to NYC to help honor Benson at an award’s ceremony. He wrote down his thoughts in a letter. Then when they arrived in New York, Stabler’s wife was killed in the season one opener.
Now, let’s come back to what unfolded Thursday night. Stabler was having dinner with his mob contacts. A woman sprayed something into her mouth, then kissed Stabler. It’s a powerful drug. Stabler is so doped up he can barely speak. He stumbles out of the restaurant and finds his way to Benson’s apartment.
When Benson opened the door, he says: “Drugs, someone dosed me. You need to let me in.”
He told Benson that Kathy, his wife, wrote the letter. She dictated it to him.
Then Benson quoted parts of letter back to him. Did Kathy write: “That what we were to each other was never real and that we got in the way of each other being who and where we needed to be? … And if there was a man in my life, he should be kind and faithful and devoted (what) I deserved?”
Benson, continuing with the letter, said “But in a parallel universe …”
Stabler finished the sentence. “It’ll always be you and I. I wrote that.”
