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There are few things more exciting for a “Law & Order” fan than an iconic character coming back to the franchise. Thanks to “Law & Order: Organized Crime,” we’ve been blessed with the return of former SVU Capt. Donald Cragen (Dann Florek) in Season Four.
In January, Florek told TODAY.com at the red carpet event for the 25th anniversary of “SVU” that he thought “Cragen was a father figure to a lot of people in the show.”
“But, for some wonderful reason, I think Dann Florek was kind of a father figure to a lot of the people and the actors,” he said about himself.
Cragen served as the captain overseeing Detective Elliot Stabler (Chris Meloni) and partner Detective Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) for years at the Special Victims Unit on “Law & Order: SVU.” In the March 21 “OC” episode, appropriately titled “Sins of Our Fathers,” he meets up with Stabler, who left SVU over a decade ago and returned in 2021 to work organized crime, to advise him during an Internal Affairs Bureau (IAB) investigation.
Cragen was also in the previous episode on March 14, “Original Sin,” and connected with Stabler’s current superior, Sgt. Ayanna Bell (Danielle Moné Truitt), to confirm Bell’s suspicion there is something “hinky” happening with Stabler’s IAB case. Internal Affairs had to open an investigation into Stabler after he threw a witness’s son, who had a gun, down a flight of stairs, in an effort to protect his team. The son ended up firing the gun, and the bullet hit Bell, sidelining her from duty. The incident also led to Stabler’s suspension pending an IAB investigation for assaulting a minor.
Cragen informs Bell that Stabler’s IAB investigator, Detective Moses Warren, has a connection to Stabler’s late father’s ex-partner, Detective Gus Hanson.
In Season Two, Stabler looked into a shooting his dad, Detective Joe Stabler, was involved in that resulted in his father receiving a Combat Cross. The elder Stabler was shot in the leg after he and Hanson got into a confrontation with an unarmed teen. Stabler later pieced together old clues and realized his father staged the shooting to cover up for the fact that his partner initially shot the unarmed teenager. He confronted Hanson about the shooting and the framing of an innocent kid.
Cragen tells Bell that Hanson was Warren’s rabbi, and Hanson recently killed himself.
“Warren blames Elliot for what happened to his mentor,” Cragen explains.
During a one-on-one interview with Stabler in Episode Six, “Beyond the Sea,” Warren referenced Stabler’s father — who was also suspended during his police career — despite the investigation being about Stabler, saying he has “a pattern of behavior not unlike your father’s.”
“What are we doing now? Are we here to talk about me or my old man?” Stabler responded.
“I’m not my father,” he added.
Stabler continued dodging his IAB meetings and left another one early after his team had a break in another case he was unofficially working on on Long Island tied to a serial killer.
By the time we get to “Sins of Our Fathers,” Stabler has realized the Long Island police chief, Meredith Bonner, with whom he has been working the case, is in over her head as her brother, Eric Bonner, and father, Clay Bonner — also the town judge — are at the center of it. She had to shoot and kill her brother in the last episode in order to save Stabler, whom Eric had taken after Stabler figured out Eric was the one killing innocent girls all over town. As if that wasn’t enough, Stabler also told Meredith Bonner that his team determined the remains of one of the victims likely belonged to her mother. Stabler and Meredith Bonner ascertain that her father most likely killed her mother.
Meredith Bonner confronts her father and tells him they know what he did and that he is “done.”
Clay Bonner hasn’t been acting alone, however, and returns to his group of men and explains the recent attention from the press will go away.
Not long after, trouble follows Stabler, who meets with Cragen at the local diner.
He thanks his old boss and friend for making the trek and guesses Bell sent him.
Cragen confirms this suspicion, adding, “She thinks you’re not taking this IAB investigation seriously enough.”
Stabler responds that the investigation is out of his control, to which Cragen advises him to “stop pissing off” the people evaluating him.
Cragen then explains to Stabler how Warren is tied to Hanson and that Hanson died six weeks ago.
“Gus Hanson and your father were dirty cops,” Cragen says, adding Warren probably doesn’t realize this.
“Now I know you don’t want to hear that right now,” Cragen continues, “but you have got to accept it.”
A dejected Stabler expresses concern the truth won’t be enough to help him during this investigation.
“Warren is one man. You’ve got an entire army,” Cragen explains. “Everybody is fighting for you — except you.”
At that moment, masked and armed men storm inside the diner, telling no one to move. Stabler stands and tells Cragen he’s going to need a distraction.
“They’re after me,” he tells him.
Stabler puts his hands in the air and gives himself up, telling the diner patrons the men are there to kill him.
As the men approach, Cragen, who isn’t far behind Stabler, pretends he’s having a heart attack and folds over the table.
Cragen’s distraction works, and Stabler grabs a pot of coffee and slams it into one of the armed men and tackles him to the ground. The other guy flees from the diner.
“Heart attack?” Stabler says to Cragen.
“I thought it worked,” Cragen responds.
To no one’s surprise, the men who stormed the diner were sent by Clay Bonner, who eventually has one final showdown with his daughter and Stabler.
Meredith Bonner is able to talk her dad out of taking his own life in front of their eyes, and eventually arrests him.
Back at OC headquarters, Bell, who also met with Warren and told him the truth about Stabler’s father and Hanson, gives Stabler his badge and gun back and officially welcomes him back to active duty.
“Not that you were ever really gone,” she jokes, before embracing him.
Stabler returns home and sees his older brother, Randall (Dean Norris), who recently came back to town to help him care for their mom, Bernie (Ellen Burstyn). After a family dinner gone wrong a few episodes prior, Randall revealed to his younger brother, and everyone else at the table, that their father used to beat their mother. He also warned Stabler not to do anything stupid like their dad did when he also got suspended. Randall didn’t elaborate further at the time when Stabler asked what he meant and instead said, “That’s a saga for another night.”
That night finally arrived when Randall and Stabler sipped beers together and discussed where their mother would live.
Randall then presses Stabler to tell him what’s going on with their other brother, Joe Jr., whom Stabler has suspicions about being involved with drugs. Stabler deflects and instead asks Randall to tell them about their father.
Bernie enters the room and encourages Randall to tell him.
“I want to know — I need to know,” Stabler says.
“He killed himself,” Bernie answers.
“He was found in the garage with the engine running,” she adds.
Bernie leaves Stabler with an old quilt she made for him, and Randall moves to sit beside a stunned Stabler.
“We’ll need the good stuff for this,” Randall concludes.
“Law & Order: Organized Crime” airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET on NBC after “Law & Order: SVU” at 9 p.m. and “Law & Order” at 8 p.m.
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