LAW & ORDER: ORGANIZED CRIME: Danielle Moné Truitt Previews How Vargas, the New AI Tech, Shakes Up the Team

Though the OCCB has cycled through its share of task force members, the current team—Sergeant Ayanna Bell (Danielle Moné Truitt), plus Detectives Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni), Jet Slootmaekers (Ainsley Seiger), and Bobby Reyes (Rick Gonzalez)—are especially prickly about welcoming in any newcomers when LAW & ORDER: ORGANIZED CRIME kicks off its fourth season on Thursday, January 18 (at 10/9c).

Still reeling from the loss of their colleague Detective Jamie Whelan (Brent Antonello), there are mixed feelings when AI expert Dr. Vargas (Tate Ellington) arrives to help them with a revolutionary new technological program—ahead of schedule!—in the season premiere.

For Bell, “I think as a leader, [losing multiple colleagues has] caused her to want to fix it,” Truitt previously shared. “Like, why does this keep happening? What can I do to fix this so that this doesn’t happen again? And I think that’s why she brings in the AI specialist…to try something new. To try a way of policing that might make things foolproof for us. And I think that is how she’s coping with the situation. At the end of the day, nothing is foolproof; even the AI technology is not foolproof. But I think it feels like she’s doing something to make a change; doing something that will keep her from having to experience that hurt again and keep her team from having to experience that hurt again.”

Vargas’ presence is perhaps the easiest sell with the team’s resident hacker. “He and Jet get along like two peas in a pod—that’s right up her alley,” Truitt explains to Give Me My Remote in the video below. “[Jet] was already a fan of his before he started working with the team, you know? So she’s excited about him being there.”

“Reyes can’t stand him—he can’t stand the whole AI thing,” she continues. “He’s like, ‘What is this crap?’…Stabler, same thing. They can’t stand it for different reasons. Reyes is more [asking], ‘What are you doing here? We don’t need another person here. We just lost Jamie, there’s no replacing him. Don’t come in here with your little AI technology trying to act like you’re a part of the team—you’re not a part of a team.’ Stabler is more like, ‘What is this AI?’…It’s an age thing. It’s a generational thing: I don’t want this computer doing my job for me…I’m completely capable of doing my job…[it’s] a bit of a threat to him.”

How helpful Vargas’ program is to the team remains to be seen. But in the meantime, the addition of him changes the energy of the still-mourning close-knit squad.

“[Vargas is] a nerd; he’s fun,” Truitt shares. “He’s funny. He has his weird, quirky sense of humor. He’s very into what he’s doing, To the point where a lot of times we’re looking like, ‘Okay. Calm down.’ So it brings a lightness to an environment…where we’re grieving. It brings a bit of lightness there.”

LAW & ORDER: ORGANIZED CRIME, Season Premiere, Thursday, January 18, NBC

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