Stabler got someone to hack the burner phone and headed to a storage facility that Lenski had visited. At the building, Stabler learned that a hookah spot there was owned by a man nicknamed Raffi the Poet, a.k.a. Rafiq, who was murdered. For some reason, Stabler’s ID was found at the warehouse.
The detective met up with Rafiq’s mom, Angela Wheatley (Bones‘ Tamara Taylor), who shared that her ex passed along his substance issues to Rafiq. After that, Stabler attended Kathy’s funeral, as did Liv, where Stabler’s son Eli was particularly bereft.
Stabler met up with the warehouse owner, a mobster named Sinatra (Chaz Palminteri), who denied having anything to do with the bombing that killed Kathy. We also met Sinatra’s smug son Richard (Dylan McDermott), who was also up to something in Puglia, Italy.
Later, while Stabler was chatting with Angela, someone on a moped fired a gun at them in an apparent attempt on the detective’s life. Soon after, all Stabler could think about was a message he received for someone claiming to know who killed Kathy. Stabler hurried to Coney Island to meet the mystery message-sender.
Also hanging out at the Wonder Wheel were Sinatra and Richard, and by the time Stabler got to the amusement park, Sinatra had ended up dead. Then, we saw Richard at home, and Angela was there as well, where the two got quite cozy.
Finally, it was time to get the news we needed: the friggin’ letter. Sure enough, Liv told Stabler she read it and wanted to discuss it—gasp!—but he was too distraught over finding Sinatra’s body. Talk about terrible timing.
And so the letter mystery ended on a cliffhanger, which did not make us happy. But as least we got plenty of chaotic Stabler-Benson energy, right?
Organized Crime airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. on NBC.
(E! and NBC are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)