Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 3 Episode 20 Review: Pareto Principle

All is not what it seems with the latest task force outing on Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 3 Episode 20, “Pareto Principle.” From start to finish, this episode takes the viewers on a journey through various crime syndicates.

What starts off feeling like a simple robbery ring quickly turns into something more organized and connected. The Feds are correct to bring Bell and Stabler in on this case despite it seeming a fool’s errand at the start.

Unfortunately, the excitement and payoff for such a complicated episode fall way behind the mark. This leaves us scratching our heads and wondering where the writers are trying to take this one.

Sure, I Know A Guy

In the end, the case turns out to be a murder-for-hire ring within the walls of Greenhaven prison. Sounds captivating, right? Wrong.

The number of times Law & Order: Organized Crime has pulled corrupt law enforcement officers out of its hat is too many to count. Truly, the show is only on its third season, and we are seeing “bad” cops yet again. 

The task force’s whole purpose is to deal with corruption and the dark underworld, but whenever an officer of some kind is involved it’s like the creativity goes out the window. The corruption always follows the same vein — the officer in question is greedy or has bills to pay in which their yearly salary isn’t enough.

So, they call upon the lowest of society, which they are tasked with arresting or guarding, and use their power of influence to create a lucrative situation for themselves. It’s so tired that it feels like the show simply recycled parts from its previous corruption story.

Sure, law procedurals rarely dive into groundbreaking storytelling. However, what has always been great about Organized Crime is that it gives new life to cop stories. It isn’t just detectives arresting the perps anymore.

Except when it comes to stories that we’ve seen a million times over the last few decades of television. It’s as if the writers know this type of story is tried and true therefore they don’t have to spice it up any to make it original.

Stabler’s Personal Struggles

One of the things I haven’t held back on with Law & Order: Organized Crime is how well it has written Elliot Stabler’s character growth. This episode’s only redeeming quality is his continued personal story.

This time we dive deeper into the more heartbreaking side of dementia. Mrs. Stabler forgets that Kathy is dead so she makes a plate of dinner for her.

This seems small and innocuous at the moment, but at the end of the episode, we start to see just how much that small slip-up is affecting Stabler.

It might be that he hasn’t slept much in the past 24 hours, but my money is on his mom’s mistake has brought Kathy back to the surface for the first time in a while. He’s worked really hard to find himself in a place where he goes to Olivia’s and tells her how he feels about her.

So, for him to be hallucinating the presence of Kathy — in the hospital gown she died in, mind you — means he’s slipping into territory he’s not fully equipped to handle. Sure, he’s done quite a bit of work on himself, but grief is a nasty beast that grips you tight when you least expect it.

With his mom’s health slipping, Stabler is bound to be feeling as though he’s losing everything he loves and cares about in his life. The big question is will these feelings push him back toward Olivia again?

The crossover with SVU starts next week, so it’ll be interesting to see.

 

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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