Det. Elliot Stabler’s younger brother Joe Jr. came out of hiding to deliver a dire warning to his family.
Over the last few episodes of Law & Order: Organized Crime, Detective Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) has put himself in danger by going undercover to infiltrate a militia of former Marines in order to find the source of heroin that’s been linked to his younger brother, Joe Jr.
In a shocking twist at the end of Season 4, Episode 11, that trail now seems to be leading directly to Joe Stabler (Michael Trotter).
Just how deeply Joe is caught up became apparent when the youngest of the Stabler brothers confronted the eldest, Randall (Dean Norris), in a bar to stave off his family’s investigation of his connection to a heroin ring.
Stabler’s brother Joe Jr. warns his family they could get “hurt”
Joe, who’d been MIA since splitting after his siblings confronted him about finding drug paraphernalia in his hotel safe, approached Randall at the watering hole. “Where have you been? I’ve been looking for you,” Randall asked.
“I’m not here for another reunion,” Joe Jr. warned. “I’m here to tell you to stop looking for me… You’re going to get yourself hurt.”
As Randall tried to figure out what Joe was talking about, the younger sibling warned again, “I’m telling you. Leave it alone.”
Joe brought up the fact that his two brothers had broken into his hotel room, and that Randall had also broken into the wine warehouse where he works.
Of Joe’s place of business, Randall shot back, “A cop was killed there. Did you know that? Listen, Joey, what have you gotten yourself into?”
Joe insisted that he knows what he’s doing. “Drop the manhunt, I got it under control,” he said.
“You never had anything under control your entire life,” retorted Randall.
But the situation is apparently much bigger than a family drama. “Randall, for your safety, for Elliott’s, for mom’s, back off,” Joe Jr. warned.
The danger implied in that threat turned out to be real in the cliffhanger that ended Episode 11: Joe Jr. was revealed to be the right-hand man of the powerful arms dealer responsible for the murder of a member of Detective Stabler’s own Organized Crime Command Bureau squad.
Since viewers were introduced to Stabler’s brothers earlier in Season 4, it’s been clear that Joe was keeping secrets from the rest of the family. After Detective Stabler found heroin residue on foil in the bathroom garbage in his home after a family dinner, testing traced the drug to an area of Afghanistan where Joe Jr. served while in the military, before he was dishonorably discharged.
That was enough to spur Elliott and Randall to break into their younger brother’s hotel room, where they discovered the drug paraphernalia and rolls of cash in a locked safe. Rather than admit to his addiction and what other activities he was caught up in, Joe Jr. stormed out.
The failed intervention spurred Stabler to bring the heroin intel to his colleagues in the NYPD’s Organized Crime Control Bureau.
A stamp of a one-eyed skull on the product matched the insignia of a special ops command of Marines, which led Stabler to a militia of former Marines led by Angus Boone (Stephen Lang), run out of his mother’s (Lois Smith) honey farm on Staten Island.
Going undercover to infiltrate the group as an emotionally damaged ex-Marine named Hank, Stabler soon found himself digging the grave of a murdered detective from his own team, Samir Bashir. He also crossed paths with an ATF agent who was also undercover on the farm, deep in an investigation into Redcoat, the arms dealer behind the heroin distribution.
Randall did some digging of his own in Season 4, Episode 10, breaking into the wine warehouse where Joe works and getting arrested for trespassing. While at the OCCB office after being bailed out, he was informed that there were traces of Bashir’s blood found at that very warehouse.
Who is Redcoat?
Considering Season 4, Episode 11 is titled “Redcoat,” it made sense that viewers finally got some answers as to the nature of the shadowy figure responsible for Bashir’s murder.
Julian Emery, a.k.a. Redcoat (Tom Payne), surfaced long enough to meet with Angus and “Hank” on a private jet to clear the air after his failed attempt to kill off the leader of the militia that had worked as enforcers for him.
While Angus seemed angry about the hit that was put on him, Redcoat flashed his upper-crust British charm.
“No need for the drama,” Emery said, “you reneged, I reacted, and quite admirably I might add, I apologized, so let’s move on.”
Stabler, still undercover as Hank, confronted Emery about murdering a cop. The criminal mastermind dismissed the incident as merely “unfortunate.”
Emery also rebuffed Angus’ attempt to pay off the loan that is handcuffing him to Redcoat’s operation, and instead offered to cut ties after one last job. Angus agreed to those terms.
But there was one last piece of business: Redcoat revealed that Angus had a mole, a government agent, in the midst of his militia.
Stabler’s forced to blow his cover
Upon returning to the honey farm, Stabler was forced to break cover to save the life of the ATF agent, Trisha (Rivera Reese), who is sentenced to be executed as traitor when her real identity is revealed.
Before making his move, Stabler managed to send a message in Morse code to the OCCB team surveilling the house, using the fuse box and a porch light.
As the police and ATF descended on the farm, Stabler drew a gun on Angus to save Trisha’s life. Tensions mounted with the militia members ready to die in a gunfight for their leader, but Stabler appealed to his fellow veteran’s honor, convincing him to give a stand-down order.
Confronted by the “traitor” who betrayed him, Angus later gave an emotional confession during his interrogation by Stabler.
“I was born searching for a cause to fight for, that’s the spirit that I inherited, and I found that cause in the military like so many of us did,” Angus said. “And when they didn’t need us anymore, I looked around and you know what I saw, a lot of broken people lost men and women with no purpose, with no support.”
So, he fell in with Emery.
“I saw what the money could do, what it could build, what it could provide, a sanctuary, a place to heal, a place to be accepted,” said Angus. “So, I just kept digging deeper and deeper.”
That money, though, came at great cost for Angus as one of his own got hooked on heroin.
“Angus, we have a common enemy, we have a common cause, help me before I lose one of my own to this,” Stabler pleaded, referring to his troubled younger brother.
Angus agreed to tell the OCCB everything he knows.
But it seemed that Redcoat had at least one more ace up his sleeve heading into the final stretch of an exciting season. At the close of Episode 11, Emery ordered a hit on Angus in prison, boarded his plane, and accepted a light for his cigar from a trusted enforcer — none other than Joe Jr.
Keep up with the drama by watching Law & Order: Organized Crime Thursdays at 10/9c p.m. on NBC or stream episodes the next day on Peacock.
