‘Law & Order: Organized Crime’: Wheatley Threatens the ‘One True Love’ of Stabler’s Life Before Season Finale

The penultimate episode of Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 1 ended on a heart-stopping moment, when Richard Wheatley, Angela Wheatley, and Det. Elliot Stabler were all in the same room again. This time, that room was a prison cell, and Wheatley revealed he knows of someone else special in Stabler’s life. Stabler and the Organized Crime Control Bureau did arrest his arch-nemesis, but that success did not come without a cost though, as the team learned Det. Gina Cappelletti was really dead.

Despite some hurdles, the team did capture Wheatley (Dylan McDermott) and his team making a deal that Stabler (Christopher Meloni) and Sgt. Ayanna Bell (Danielle Mone Truitt) could charge the crime boss with. While arresting everyone on the subway platform, Wheatley managed to get away on a subway train in a scene clearly inspired by The French Connection. This all delayed the inevitable though, as Stabler eventually caught up with him and arrested him.

Later in prison, Bell confronted Wheatley’s son Richie (Nick Creegan) about Gina’s (Charlotte Sullivan) death. Richie was left in tears, but there was still one more scene in the episode. Angela (Tamara Taylor) was allowed to meet with Richard in a cell with Stabler there. Wheatley played the “laughing villain” act to the hilt, assuring Angela that Stabler couldn’t have possibly taken her act – that she ordered Kathy’s death while grief-stricken by her son’s death – seriously. Wheatley claimed he had plenty of recordings to prove Angela planned every step of Kathy’s death.

Angela told Stabler Wheatley was bluffing and that no tape exists. Wheatley laughed, realizing that Angela must be harboring feelings for Stabler, who stood silently in the corner. “You know you’re not the love of his life,” Wheatley told Angela. “Nor was that poor woman you had brutally murdered.” Stabler cocked an eyebrow. He knew where this was going. “Apparently Detective Stabler is a good, god-fearing Catholic… but – plot twist – there’s someone else. Another woman… who’s the one true love of his life.” Wheatley looked up to Stabler and asked what was the name of this woman, an answer they both know. It sounded like a threat. “You’re both a hot mess,” Wheatley muttered as Stabler and Angela walked out.

The audience knows who Wheatley is referring to as well. All season long, Stabler’s relationship with Capt. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) seemed to be getting closer than it had ever gone before. In “The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of,” Stabler even shockingly told Liv that he loves her during an attempted family intervention. Each time Stabler moved closer to Benson, he ran to Angela, even kissing her at one point. But if Wheatley knows more about Stabler’s close relationship with Benson, what could he do next? The preview for the season finale teased plenty of surprises and an appearance from Benson. The finale airs on Thursday, June 3 at 10 p.m. ET.