Why ‘Law & Order: Organized Crime’s Rick Gonzalez Says Reyes Is Looking at Stabler Differently After Shocking New Episode (Exclusive)

Spoilers ahead for Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 Episode 6 “Red, White, Black and Blue.”

Det. Bobby Reyes has a bit of a “different” view of his Organized Crime Control Bureau colleague Elliot Stabler after a visit from an old friend brings to light some seriously dark secrets.

Ahead of Thursday’s episode of Law & Order: Organized Crime, Rick Gonzalez opened up to PopCulture.com about how the sudden appearance of Stabler’s former Anti Crime squadmate Det. Tim McKenna (Jason Patric) impacts how Reyes sees his mentor.

Reyes immediately suspects something is off with McKenna when he sees the way he treats the girlfriend of a cartel kingpin they’re chasing, and his suspicion is validated when McKenna confesses to Stabler (Christopher Meloni) that it was his careless actions that led to the death of the kingpin’s wife and 2-year-old daughter.

“I think it made him look at Stabler a little bit different, to say, ‘Hey, what kind of friends are you making that are making these types of decisions?’” Gonzalez told PopCulture. “But I also was careful not to judge, because I think Reyes may have friends that are also questionable, especially having informants and growing up the way Reyes did. So I understood it.”

McKenna’s actions particularly “struck a chord” with Reyes. “Reyes tends to look at those kinds of cops a certain way. So he’s trying to decide: are you [McKenna] that kind of a cop? Piece of s—t, racist cop or whatever, [who] only cares about his collars and things of that nature?” Gonzalez explained. “And is Stabler making friends with these kinds of people? So, who is Stabler? I just think it’s easy for Reyes to do the math.”

Reyes is now taking that information to “see if it comes back later,” but he’s not writing off Stabler. “I think he cares about Stabler a lot. And I think Reyes is smart enough to understand that sometimes you make friends with all kinds of people, and things can get messy with those types of friends,” Gonzalez shared.

The return of such a questionable figure from Stabler’s past comes as Reyes is already reeling from the loss of his “safety net” in his friend and former flame Det. Jet Slootmaekers (Ainsley Seiger).

Jet stepped away from the NYPD earlier this season after an undercover mission gone wrong, and while Gonzalez said Reyes wasn’t necessarily looking to take their “situationship” any “deeper,” he was rattled by the loss of safety and comfort he found with his colleague.

“He’s used to people leaving, people abandoning [him], or just losing people in his life,” Gonzalez explained. “And I think she represents that again.”

Law & Order: Organized Crime streams Thursdays on Peacock.