LAW & ORDER: ORGANIZED CRIME Post-Mortem: Dean Norris and Michael Trotter on Filming that Intense 'Semper Fi' Intervention - Give Me My Remote : Give Me My Remote

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LAW & ORDER: ORGANIZED CRIME Post-Mortem: Dean Norris and Michael Trotter on Filming that Intense ‘Semper Fi’ Intervention

April 11, 2024 by  

Organized Crime Joe Jr Semper Fi spoilers

Credit: Screencap/NBC

[Warning: This post contains spoilers for the Thursday, April 11 episode of LAW & ORDER: ORGANIZED CRIME.]

After confirming that Joe Jr. (Michael Trotter) was holding drugs (and a ton of cash) in his hotel room, the Stabler brothers decide to hold an intervention on the Thursday, April 11 episode of LAW & ORDER: ORGANIZED CRIME.

Randall (Dean Norris) pretends he needs to use Joey’s bathroom in his hotel…only for Joe to discover Elliot (Christopher Meloni) is waiting for them.

“I think what you’ll see is a shift in mindset,” Trotter told Give Me My Remote ahead of the episode. “He thinks it’s going to be one thing and it winds up being something completely different. And the transition between the two is the recognition that they, in his mind, betray him.” 

Joe initially tries to deny it all—claiming he’s holding the drugs for a friend—but the brothers won’t be deterred. Joe then gets angry as he can’t get them to believe him (and it feels like Elliot is just working him for a case), and tempers flare.

“Obviously, it was an intense scene,” Norris tells Give Me My Remote in the video below. “And Michael was fantastic in it.”

“Yeah, it’s definitely intense to do,” Trotter adds. “I think I was pretty hyped up early on and maybe going a little too far with it. But settled into it. You’re trying to be in the service of the writing and the material. Namely, how do actual addicts respond when something like this happens? There’s a lot of hurt and there’s a lot of inability to sort of see the problem that is so obvious to the ones that love them. And it’s an ultimate betrayal they don’t. It’s just very, very difficult for them to feel anything else than, ‘You guys don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve got this under control and this is completely unnecessary, and frankly, shame on you.’ And that’s the balance.”



Randall and Elliot ultimately aren’t able to get through to their brother, and Joe leaves his room in a rage, refusing to accept help…and without any funds to get away.

“[The intervention] sets [Joey] off on his path; Randall is set on his path,” Norris says. 

Unfortunately for the family, Joe then heads to his mother, Bernie (Ellen Burstyn), who has a stash of emergency cash. But when she tells him she actually spent it, he starts to spiral…until he spots a signed baseball he knows he can sell.

With now Elliot undercover, trying to get to the source of the drugs, that leaves the mess on Randall’s shoulders. “I think he’s like, ‘You know what, I’m the older brother and I’m gonna follow this through,’” Norris previews. “And I think you’re gonna see some really interesting ways that happens in the next few episodes.”

The very different environment the Stabler brothers grew up in—with Randall and Elliot having each other (and their sisters), in addition to the turmoil of their parents, whereas Joey was by himself—will also play into the siblings’ dynamic as the season starts to wind down.

“He left for what he thought were good purposes—he thought he was going to try to save the family,” Norris points out. (Randall tried to save Bernie from Joe Sr. by sending her bus tickets so she and Elliot could leave home; she didn’t use them.) “But it didn’t didn’t work out. I think he plays tough on the outside, [but] the desire to reconnect with his family is really what’s driving Randall at this point.”

But will Joe be able to receive that, if and when Randall finds him? “I think he feels a little bit left alone,” Trotter says, noting that while Joey idolized Elliot, it was more like a famous sports star versus because of direct experience. “He didn’t have [the] childhood that they did and trying to find a way to sort of insert himself into a family history that is complicated. It’s traumatic..the layers continue to sort of get peeled back up and you start to see more and more. It’s him sort of struggling through his addiction and through his business choices that you’ll come to see later in the season. I think it’s all stemming from a place where he kind of did his childhood alone. And I think there’s a sadness to that and he doesn’t necessarily know where he fits in the family.”

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

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