LAW & ORDER: ORGANIZED CRIME: A Rita Lasku Refresher

LAW & ORDER: ORGANIZED CRIME kicks off a new arc with the Thursday, February 22 episode, “Missing Persons,” and at the center of the mystery is a young woman from Elliot Stabler’s (Christopher Meloni) past: Rita Lasku (Izabela Vidovic).

In the hour, Rita goes missing, and Stabler—who is currently suspended from the NYPD, pending an IAB investigation, after disarming the kid who shot Bell (Danielle Moné Truitt)—has to figure out where she may have gone…and who might have her.

Though viewers heard Rita leave Stabler a voicemail in the season 4 premiere (asking him to call her back, if he could), the bulk of her storyline was in season 2 during the Albanian arc.

Here are the highlights from her first run on the series…

Rita made her debut in season 2’s second hour, “New World Order.” Elliot, undercover as Eddie Ashes, and Reggie (Dash Mihok) visit the diner where she works as a waitress…and Reggie relentlessly hits on her. (Elliot also leaves her a tip, despite Reggie insisting they don’t do that.)

Elliot and Rita bond after he orders a Monte Cristo sandwich. She can’t pronounce it, explaining she’s only been in America for four weeks. He tells her it’s like the book. Later, she starts calling him Mr. Monte Cristo.

When Elliot and Reggie are at the restaurant, trouble follows them—there’s a shootout and Elliot saves Rita’s life.

After a few more visits to the diner, Elliot brings Rita a copy of “The Count of Monte Cristo” book. But he becomes concerned when she stops coming to work; he asks a coworker to let her know that Mr. Monte Cristo is looking for her.

As Elliot continues his investigation into the Bogdani and Briscu families, he discovers Rita’s passport in Flutura (Lolita Davidovich) and Albi’s (Vinnie Jones) home. But even after his realization that Flutura is involved in possibly traffickings young women, Rita remains missing—Elliot searches a house where the girls were stashed and finds Rita’s copy of “Count of Monte Cristo,” but not her.

Ultimately, OCCB and SVU work together on a joint undercover operation at a party and manage to get proof of how the young women were being trafficked. Elliot spots Rita, who is horrified he might be a bad guy. But when the teams ambush the event, chaos breaks out…and Rita is taken from the house in a car.

Elliot chases them down by motorcycle and saves Rita. She’s skeptical he’s a good guy until he reassures her he’s a cop—and he tells her son, Gabriel, is safe, and waiting for her in London. The two will have British passports and be able to be free. She thanks Elliot, now calling him “Officer Monte Cristo.”

(And, if you want to rewatch it yourself, Rita is in episodes 2×02-2×05 of ORGANIZED CRIME, which is now streaming on Peacock.)

LAW & ORDER: ORGANIZED CRIME, Thursdays, 10/9c, NBC

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