Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 3 Episode 18 Review: Tag: GEN

Bell takes things personally when a drug bust turns into a robbery case on Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 3 Episode 18, “Tag: GEN.”

Ayanna Bell rarely gets heated to the point of dropping her professional position as the head of the task force. However, when her community gets targeted, and it seems the NYPD has been ignoring it, she takes it as a failure on her part.

Allowing Bell this opportunity to show her more human side gives this episode more intrigue than the story alone carries. It’s common for the team to go after a low-level criminal working with a higher-level criminal — same song, different day.

You Don’t Mess With Ayanna Bell

Viewers and the NYPD have always known that Ayanna Bell is part of the LGBTQ+ community, but it’s never been the character trait to get focus. About representation, this has been one of the best things about her — we aren’t forced to think about her sexuality at all times, but it’s still there.

However, when a fellow cop gets attacked by a robbery scheme, and it comes out that he was targeted because he is gay, Bell makes her whole identity about being a community member. It gives her purpose for this investigation and allows her to come out of Stabler’s shadow for the first time in a long time.

Law & Order: Organized Crime sometimes forgets that Stabler doesn’t run the whole show — that other team members are just as important. Watching Stabler take a backseat on this one is surprisingly comforting.

Bell uses this opportunity to lead by example and keep her colleague’s personal life out of the scope of the investigation when she dives in. It’s something that we’ve always known about her but rarely get to see — her compassion.

She is always the consummate professional, but in this case, she drops that in favor of showing her heart a bit more. Stabler even has to step in a couple of times to re-center her focus on the case, not just her emotions regarding the relationship between her community and the NYPD.

Fan Service Actually Pays Off

Whenever writers decide to do fan service for their viewers, it almost always comes across as trying too hard. It generally takes the viewers out of the show itself and focuses more on what is known as fandom culture.

However, in the case of Stabler going undercover in a gay bar with a dating profile that calls him daddy — something fans constantly call him — it works in favor of the case. We all know Stabler is as straight as the day is long, but that doesn’t deny his appeal to all kinds of people.

His general body type is very welcome in the queer community, and he baits the perpetrator more quickly than if the team put Jamie or Reyes in. Sure, the other two blended into the scene well enough for the drug bust, but they aren’t enough to capture this particular attacker.

They can’t pull off a rich, handsome, gay man as well as Stabler can. Besides, put Stabler in a tight top any day, and everyone will fall for him.

It’s fan service at its finest, and no one who has followed Chris Meloni or Elliot Stabler for decades is complaining. We all feel it was a long time coming.

A Message of Note

One of the most critical aspects of Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 3 Episode 18, “Tag: GEN,” isn’t the case itself or even the outcome. It’s the deeper conversation about acceptance for people like Bell and Eric within the NYPD. 

Bell questions Chang, who happens to be Eric’s supervisor, about how things are on the streets with the NYPD and the LGBTQ+ community. Chang says it best when she mentions that changes have been made, but there is still a major stigma, especially for men.

This leads Bell and Eric to have a deeper conversation about their role within the NYPD. They both talk about how the color of their skin makes their jobs — especially Bell’s — difficult without adding an LGBTQ+ label to them.

This is an important and timely conversation for this show to address — and honestly, I feel that all iterations of the franchise should address it more. It isn’t a happy or even safe time for members of the LGBTQ+ community, and within the NYPD, it seems that is even more the case.

Perhaps this particular case will push Bell to work toward further acceptance and destigmatize being gay on a larger scale within the NYPD. She has the voice and reach to do so, and this case woke her up to her failings as a member of her community.

 

What did you think of this episode of Law & Order: Organized Crime? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Law & Order: Organized Crime airs Thursdays at 10/9c on NBC.

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