- In the nation's largest city,
the vicious and violent members
of the underworld
are hunted by the detectives
of the Organized Crime Control Bureau.
These are their stories.
[dramatic music]
- I want answers for my children.
You took my wife from me.
- You got it all wrong, son.
- Upstairs is giving us the task force.
- Who've I got?
- Elliot, you're not in charge of it.
- Who is?
- Detective Stabler, nice to see you again.
Our charge is to bust Mr. Wheatley.
He's one of the world's biggest distributors
of illegal narcotics.
- You didn't tell me you were married.
- And divorced.
[gunshots]
I told you I could handle it.
You didn't need to send your goons.
- I would never betray you, Richard.
- You were planning to serve me up to a cop tonight.
♪
- Elliot, you okay?
What just happened?
- I want to talk. I just can't right now.
[dramatic music]
♪
What do we know?
- One-PP got an anonymous call at 10:30.
No mention it was Sinatra.
Six-oh showed up on the scene first, ID'd the body,
and it made its way up the chain to us.
[dramatic music]
♪
Sergeant Ayanna Bell, Detective Elliot Stabler,
Organized Crime Task Force.
Were there any witnesses?
- Nobody's come forward. Not much here to work with.
- Prints wiped clean?
- Victim's wallet was intact,
but we didn't recover a cell phone.
- What about a car?
- Found it on the other side of the tunnel next to Kiddieland.
- He drove himself?
What theory are you guys working with?
- Most likely, mob hit.
- One shell was recovered? - This close, only takes one.
Hand-loaded casing.
Usually guys that hand-pack their ammo,
they're either specially trained military
or fanatic gun nuts.
- Or both.
- They did a hell of a job,
and as usual, the government screwed up.
They just didn't make enough of the damn stuff.
- One of the main reasons we pay for concierge care
is so we don't have to wait for appointments.
I abhor waiting.
- Listen, I feel you,
but before you both end up with hypertension,
let me offer a little saving grace.
[cell phone buzzes]
- You've got to be kidding me.
His ex-wife. - Hello.
- The police just left your house.
Your father was murdered.
- Oh, my God, no.
Thanks for letting me know.
- What did she want?
- I'll tell you about it on the way home.
As I was saying, I have a shipment on the way.
Come over to our house on Wednesday night.
We're having a little vaccination party
for family and close friends.
♪
[jaunty music playing on radio]
♪
- Hey, do you know what the holdup is?
- I don't hear a train coming.
Let me go call in, see if I can find out what's going on.
- All right.
♪
- What the hell?
[dramatic music]
♪
- Oh, oh.
- Ahh!
[groaning]
[dramatic music]
♪
- They came in from both directions,
two black SUVs.
- How many men were there? - Four or five, I think.
- We found this guy on the ground, passed out,
probably from shock.
- What can you tell us about the shooter?
- They were wearing face masks, military like.
- Military.
You find any slugs or shell casings?
- We canvassed the full perimeter, nothing.
They cleaned up good. - Any CCTV cameras around?
- Unfortunately, no.
- We're gonna need all the traffic footage
from every artery leading in and out of this place
from 2100 to 0200 hours.
Maybe one of the cams caught 'em coming or going, huh?
- Who put a tourniquet on that man's leg?
- The shooter.
- Trying to send a message? - Which would be?
- You try to stop us, we'll kill you.
Give us what you want, you live.
- Where were those vaccines headed?
- Harlem Hospital Center.
- Too bad for them.
- It gets worse.
If those vaccines aren't stored properly,
within two hours, they're useless.
- Hey, Liv, it's me.
About last night, I'd appreciate it
if you didn't mention it to anybody
before I have the chance to explain.
Call me.
- Detective Elliot Stabler,
meet Detective Diego Morales from GVSD.
- You wanna translate that for me?
- Gun Violence Suppression Division,
established 2016.
- Learn something new every day.
Hey, welcome aboard.
Morales, we just got the traffic cam footage
leading in and out of the Jersey crime scene.
We're looking for two black SUVs.
- Sprinters, Suburbans, factory, custom?
Any license plate details?
- Well, I had one eye witness with a gunshot in him,
traumatized, and he passed out,
so we're all doing the best we can here.
And these vaccines, they need to be stored
in very cold conditions.
If you have any ideas on that, I'm all ears.
I'm gonna check on Wheatley and the old man,
see if they have any warehouses within a two-hour radius
of the heist that are equipped to handle cold storage.
- Why would he care if the vaccines rotted or not?
I mean, black market drugs--
it's not like there's quality control.
- Because image and reputation
is what Wheatley cares about most.
Being clean and smarter and having more bravado
than anybody else.
Morales, contact your CIs and your friends over at GVSD.
Any vaccines come in in bulk,
have them contact us first.
Slootmaeker, I need your focus on this.
- Paper?
- This paper is two years of my work
detailing Wheatley's business in finance.
So follow the money.
All right, come on, y'all.
It's time for y'all to start learning our guy.
Let's go.
Richard Wheatley was one of the original online gangsters.
When he was still a freshman at Columbia,
he developed an illegal open source encryption software
called Mastaba.
- Egyptian for tomb, ergo crypt.
Mastaba's a work of beauty.
- Yeah, if you're looking to turn the dark web
into your personal playpen.
- What's with the "Purple Magic"?
- It's a street drug. - Fully laced opioid.
- Ten times as strong, 50 times as deadly as fentanyl.
Very ugly stuff.
- What's Wheatley's connection to it?
- "Purple Magic" is made from a prescription drug
called Naradol.
Wheatley pushes a ton of it.
The street version is crazy expensive
and manufactured with the kind of precision
that we don't normally see in illegal drugs.
It has a mystique
which screams Wheatley.
- We're dealing with a dangerous man.
- Yeah, smart and dangerous.
- I've never met the smart, dangerous, very bad man.
I'd kind of like an introduction.
- We don't need a warrant.
We're just here to talk to Mr. Wheatley.
- I have to call up to the office.
- Dick!
Dick Wheatley!
- It's actually Richard.
Do I know you? - I don't know, do you?
- Sergeant Ayanna Bell. Can we talk for a minute?
- My father passed away last night.
Now's not a good time.
My daughter and I need to get to the funeral home.
- My condolences. - Thank you.
- Do you or any of your venders do business
with a company called Certazul?
- Dana?
- Sure, we service some of their products.
Certazul is an international pharmaceutical manufacturer.
- Wait, is this about that truck heist
last night in Jersey?
- Oh, you know about that?
- Only what I heard on the news this morning.
Dana, did anyone mention your department meetings?
- No, not that I recall.
- I'm afraid in the world of vaccines distribution,
Contrapos is near the end of the queue.
It's not our primary business.
- What is your primary business?
- As you undoubtedly already know, detective,
Contrapos is a direct delivery service,
licensed and accredited by the American Board of Pharmacists
in all 50 states.
Our mission is to provide
affordable prescription medication
with compassion and transparency.
- Compassion, you sure you want to use that word?
- Izak. - Where you going?
- For more than a decade now,
Contrapos has been a major donor
to the police foundation.
We'd like to help recover those vaccines.
In fact, I'm gonna offer a reward.
It'll be posted within the hour.
- Oh, good.
9:00 p.m. Coney Island, Wonder Wheel.
Where were you last night 9:00 p.m.?
- I was at home, meeting with my ex-wife
about our son Richie's birthday.
He's turning 30 this year, and for obvious reasons,
we can't throw him a party.
- Any idea why your father would be going
out to Coney Island last night?
- None whatsoever. - Really?
'Cause I got a strange feeling you were there yourself.
[dramatic music]
♪
- Extraordinary accusations call
for extraordinary evidence, detective.
- Yes, they do. - Prove it.
- I will.
My job is to catch scumbags.
There's no doubt in my mind you jacked those vaccines,
vaccines that were meant for Harlem Hospital,
for people who need 'em.
The elderly, frontline workers,
folks who can't afford to have a private doctor
show up at their house with a vaccine shot
and a glass of Chardonnay.
I know what you are.
- Do you?
♪
I have to bury my father.
Is there anything else, Detective--
what was your name again?
- You know my name.
♪
That went well. - Hmm.
- Anything?
- I reviewed the footage in and out of Weymouth and Richmond.
I'm about to hit up Egg Harbor. - Okay.
Slootmaekers, you got anything?
- Wheatley's deep into hedge funds.
He owns a Palm Beach office building,
condominiums in the Philippines and Dubai,
a couple cryptocurrency investments,
a stake in an organic cosmetics company.
There's a pattern.
- There's a pattern, where?
- To Wheatley's money. I followed it.
He's been investing since he was 18,
always buys big on tech things: cryptocurrency,
blockchain, onion routing--
- Slow down, and in English, what is onion routing?
- Layers of encryption used to communicate anonymously.
Then he bought Nitro Nibbles. - What's that?
- Is that that bizarre ice cream stuff
that comes out of carts in Central Park?
- You can't call it that. The dairy industry will sue.
It's like you can't call oat milk "milk."
- I got it. She's right.
It's dessert, but why?
I mean, all this, this makes sense,
but why would Wheatley buy a dessert company--
what'd you call it, Nitro Nibbles?
- He's got a teenage kid, doesn't he?
That's what rich guys do.
You got a good report card, your daddy took you out
for your favorite treat.
Wheatley buys his kid the whole company.
Yo, Ayanna.
- Y'all, welcome Detective Freddie Washburn.
He used to be my partner in narco.
Well, my senior partner.
- Yeah, and now I work for her.
- Morales, pull up the Mercerville footage.
Start at 0200 hours, and go backwards.
Slootmaekers, give me everything you got
on Nitro Nibbles.
- Uh-oh, think my man here is jonesing for an ice cream.
- You can't call it that. It's dessert.
- All right, what are we looking for?
[suspenseful music]
- Go faster.
- In order to maintain their unique texture,
Nitro Nibbles uses a process known as pelletizing.
- Go down.
- To move the product, they developed
a unique "cold chain" technology
that stores the pellets at negative 85 degrees Fahrenheit
and a patented infrastructure--
- Stop, right there.
- No way, is that a Nitro Nibbles truck?
- Damn right.
- Freezer trucks.
[dramatic music]
♪
- No, don't worry about it, babe.
Tomorrow night. It'll be you and me,
some Mingus, a bottle of Pappy 23...
Okay.
- Who's babe?
- Oh, my God, damn it!
Damn it, Richard, don't do that to me.
- Do what?
You show up at my house whenever you damn well please.
What's good for the goose should be good for the gander.
Whoever he is, he's definitely not worth
a $2,000 bottle of bourbon.
- Shut up, and make yourself a less expensive drink,
and let's talk about Richie's birthday.
- We did last night.
- Come again?
- When your boyfriend Stabler swings by,
chitchatting about this and that,
as he's bound to,
you're gonna tell him that you and I were together
at my house at 9:00 last night
talking about Richie's birthday.
- Uh-uh, Richard, leave me out of whatever mess you're in.
- I wish I could, my love,
but unfortunately, some ex-wives are harder to leave
than others.
- You are such an unmitigated piece of excrement.
- I love when you talk dirty to me.
About that birthday party,
I'm thinking we throw a small, intimate dinner party
for Rich, keep him out of the clubs.
- I guarantee you that's how Wheatley's moving the drugs.
- It just happened to be going through downtown Mercerville
less than 30 minutes after the heist.
- In a Nitro Nibbles truck.
- Certazul vaccines need to be stored
at negative 80 degrees or below
in order to maintain their efficacy.
Nitro Nibbles manufactures a pelletized dessert treat
that's distributed in freezer trucks
that run at negative 122 degrees.
- Why else would Wheatley buy an ice cream company?
- I can't go get you a warrant to raid the factory
unless you show me something that explicitly connects
the stolen vaccines to the company.
- Okay.
- Slootmaeker, you need a warrant
to hack into a company's security cameras.
- I didn't.
I wrote a program that finds all the social media accounts
of Nitro Nibbles employees.
They do a thing where they post pictures of themselves
eating pellets that fell onto the conveyor belts.
[dramatic music]
♪
- Freezer room, this is it.
- Are you ready? - Set.
♪
Someone tipped him off.
- You think?
- Bye, Mom. - Bye, sweet.
Have a good day! - I will.
- Noah! - Hey.
- Lunch. - Oh, thank you.
- You're welcome. - Bye, love you!
- I love you. Bye.
Hey.
- Hey. - Hey.
- I already drank mine, so this one's for you.
- Thank you.
Thank you, and thank you for meeting me.
- Well, seems like this is the only way
we're ever gonna get to talk.
- Yeah.
- Drive Noah to school every day?
- You know, whenever I can.
Every chance I get.
- You're a good mom.
- So... - So...
- You gonna tell me what happened the other night?
- Happened where?
- The other night when you walked past me
in the lobby of your building,
and you practically jumped out of your skin.
I thought you were gonna unload your weapon on me.
- You startled me, that's all.
- You never startled before.
Look, Elliot, I don't want to push you,
and I'll back off if you want me to.
- I do.
Back off.
[soft music]
♪
- You have PTSD.
- [laughs]
♪
I've been on the job 35 years.
- And your wife was murdered right in front of your eyes.
- Yeah, I think I remember that.
♪
- Elliot, I'm a captain now,
and my job is to take care of my people
and to make sure that they're good,
and they're solid,
and they're together enough to do the work.
- Okay.
- Okay, what? - Okay, I'll take care of it.
♪
- Have you told Sergeant Bell?
- About the PTSD?
- About where you were the night
that Manfredi Sinatra was murdered.
I don't know where you were.
I only know that you were jumpy,
you looked exhausted,
you have circles under your eyes,
and I am worried about you, Elliot.
[dramatic music]
♪
- Thanks for that.
- I didn't mean to be patronizing.
- No, I know.
♪
Uh...
It felt good to hear that.
♪
Liv, you mean the world to me.
♪
I just think I needed to hear you say that.
♪
Back off.
♪
- I'm making a fake profile for you on Lovematch.
What do you want your name to be?
- I don't want a name.
I want to know how this is gonna help us
find the vaccines.
- Jack Carson, you're a real estate developer
building one of the High Line condominium towers.
Doctors are offering the vaccine to their rich patients
at a jacked-up price.
We know they didn't get it legit,
so we scrub your Lovematch hits for rich ladies under 50,
not hospital workers or in any other eligible category,
bragging they just got an appointment.
- Hey, you actually expect me to go on a date
with one of these line jumpers?
- Yeah, and get the name of her Park Avenue doctor
who, out of the blue, came into a supply of COVID vaccines.
- You're taking one for the team, dude.
- Morales just got a bite from his CI at Otisville.
Seems a bunch of white collar criminals
just got their jabs this afternoon.
- Well, unfortunately, we don't have a lead yet
on who serviced these Madoffs.
- Newsflash, the Guardo family's having a meet
this afternoon to choose a new successor for Sinatra.
Seven Knights Social Club in Brooklyn.
We should get some eyes and ears in there.
- Good work, Freddie.
- Hey, let me know if you have a hard time
getting any hits on Lovematch, because this mug,
ladies find it irresistible.
[hip-hop music playing]
♪
- Hello, hello.
Let me know if I can get you anything else, okay?
Mm? - I'm good.
- Okay. - Thanks.
- Hey, what about me?
- Annabella already took your order, you jerk.
[chuckles]
It's your time, Joey.
Go for it.
- Let's get down to business.
Don Sinatra recently talked to me
about the line of succession.
- When our Don wanted to discuss serious matters,
he always talked first to his capos.
- Ah, one of my old man's favorite games.
Telling everybody something different,
then watching them bash heads over it.
You kind of have to love him for it,
a true Darwinist.
[dramatic music]
♪
- Sorry for your loss. - Thank you, thank you.
Thanks, guys.
♪
- Firstly, thank you for your condolences.
I'm devastated.
- It's been a minute since the last time we saw you,
Richie.
- Richard.
My son is Richie.
- Richard.
I know your father would've liked you
to be a little more involved back when he was still with us.
- My father understood that I had other interests.
- So when did that change?
- It hasn't changed. - Bull.
You didn't come all the way down here
just to reassure us you're not making a play.
- A play?
- To fill your father's shoes, Richie--
Richard.
- You know me, Petey.
I love my work.
It's creative and intellectually stimulating.
In the unlikely event
that I was looking to make a career change,
this would not be my first choice.
No offense, goombahs.
- Easy, Joey. - I'm here--
I'm here to make a business proposition.
It was actually my father's suggestion.
- Your father's suggestion?
- Well, not strictly speaking.
The last time I saw him,
we discussed how he and, by association,
this organization wasn't adapting quickly enough
to the enormous changes taking place in the world.
I thought it'd be a fitting tribute to him
if I were to extend an offer
to help modernize this organization.
- Minute of your time?
- Go ahead, talk.
- Washburn.
- I'm listening.
- You trust him?
- Unless you have evidence,
don't even say what you're thinking.
- Okay, so let me just say this.
Always right, always loud.
That's a dangerous cop to have around.
- Are you questioning my judgment?
- No, Sergeant, just letting you know
something doesn't smell right.
- [sighs]
♪
[upbeat music playing]
♪
- So how long you been working here?
- Long enough.
- Long enough, long hours.
I'm sure you get hungry.
How 'bout dinner?
- You don't even know my name.
- Well, what's your name?
- We're out of here, Richie.
- Hey, remember me, all right?
I'll be back.
Matter of fact, you'll be seeing a lot of me
around here, best believe.
♪
- Gina.
♪
My name is Gina.
- Okay, Gina.
[dramatic music]
- So what are your thoughts?
- That cocktail waitress? Fire.
- What are your thoughts about what just took place?
You're supposed to be listening and learning,
not picking up the help.
- Do you have any idea how uncool you sound right now?
♪
You want to be the Jeff Bezos of organized crime.
- Go on, I'm listening.
- That's the business proposal.
- Look, Pop Pop's guys take all the risk, right?
They work their balls off,
steal and deal whatever they can get their hands on.
Guns, drugs, gold bars, whatever.
Then it gets distributed through your encrypted network
that nobody is brilliant enough to hack into,
and you just be sitting back,
eating off of everybody's plate,
just like Bezos.
- You may turn out to be your father's son after all.
- Tried to tell you.
- ADA gave us a warrant to place a bug.
Office, not home.
We're gonna need a lot more than what we've got
to get anything in his private residence.
- Copy that, Sergeant.
- We get one device, one device only.
She wants proof positive results in three days,
or she's gonna shut us down. Get it done.
- Copy that.
- Helene?
- Jack.
- Hi.
It's nice to meet you--
- I don't think we can, right? - Sorry.
We don't do that anymore.
Your picture didn't do you justice.
- Thank you. - Oh, I'm just honest.
- Well, shall we?
- Yeah--hey...
I hope you don't take this the wrong way.
- Wow, really?
Just like that? - No--
- So what's your deal? - There's no deal.
- What, I'm too short? - No.
- Not busty enough. - No, Helene--
- I know it's not my personality
because you didn't even give it a chance.
- No, it's--it's--
Look, my name's not Jack.
I don't even do real estate. I'm a cop.
And I'm just trying to find out
who's offering stolen vaccines to their patients
at 50 times the market value.
I saw in your DM that you're getting a vaccination tomorrow.
- You suck.
- I'm not gonna argue that point.
I simply want the name of your doctor.
- Well, it's none of your business.
- No--well...
that's where you're wrong, and--
Look, you as a taxpayer, that's what you pay me to do.
It's stolen vaccines.
They were meant to go to other people.
Vulnerable people, the elderly, your parents, kids...
I'm just doing my job. Do you get my point?
- Dr. Lawrence Valentine.
If you give them my name, they'll know
you're good for it, and they'll fit you in right away.
- Helene, you're doing a public service.
Thank you.
- My phone number's on the back.
I don't really care whether you're married or single.
- You're very attractive, Helene, but--
- But still not your type.
I get it.
- No, I recently lost my wife. I'm just not ready.
- [softly] Oh.
[melancholy music]
♪
Shh, shh.
♪
[smooth music playing]
♪
- Enjoy. - Right away.
- Ready, ma'am? - Mm.
- Here you go. - Mm.
Press that.
- Look at that dress. [laughs]
- All right?
♪
- So what are you into these days, Rich?
And don't say plastics.
- Plastics?
- Sir, are you ready for your injection?
- Plastics. It was a joke, never mind.
Do you have a plan? A business idea?
- As a matter of fact,
I had a business meeting this afternoon.
Yeah, me and Dad, down at the Seven Knights Social Cl--
♪
- Handle your brother.
- Excuse me.
♪
- Excuse us.
- Hey, what are you doing?
- Dude, are you serious? - What are you talking about?
- Seven Knights, Richie.
You know that Dad doesn't exactly broadcast
the fact that Manfredi Sinatra was his father.
That's not smart.
- I don't care. - Oh, you don't care--
- I'm proud to be his grandson.
- Well, that would be really bad for Dad's business,
and therefore really bad for all of us,
if that were a widely known fact.
- Jesus, Dana.
Have a little respect, huh?
He literally just died.
- Okay.
Let's get something straight.
Pop Pop was a murderer, a racist,
a misogynist, and a thug,
and the whole world became an infinitely better place
the second that he took his last breath,
and more important than that, he didn't even love you or me,
and do you know why?
- I know what you're gonna say. - Do you know why?
- And it's not true.
- Because we're Black.
And despite that Godfather "family comes first" crap
that those mob guys hold so dear,
race came before family with him.
Don't forget that.
[dramatic music]
♪
- [whistles a tune]
- Sergeant Bell, we're in.
- No!
No.
Kathy.
Hey.
- Dad?
- No.
- Hey.
Dad, wake up.
- Hey!
- What's that? What is it?
What's up?
- You were just-- you were shouting,
having a nightmare about Mom.
- Did I freak you out?
- I'm okay.
- Yeah.
- Hey.
We're gonna be all right.
[mournful music]
♪
[crying]
♪
[suspenseful music]
♪
- Have you tried the cocoa swirl kind?
It is everything.
- You are never gonna guess who showed up
at the Seven Knight Social Club last night.
- Do tell.
- Dr. Valentine will come in to talk to you in a minute,
Mr. Carson.
Then I'll be back to give you your shot.
[dramatic music]
♪
- I've seen a lot of women your age
with the same symptoms.
The technical term we use is menopause,
but if it makes you feel any better,
I can write you a prescription for--
- Dr. Lawrence Valentine?
- What is this? - NYPD.
Excuse us, ma'am.
Dr. Lawrence Valentine, you are under arrest
for the possession of stolen goods
and the illegal acquisition and administration
of the COVID-19 vaccine.
[upbeat music]
♪
- Excuse me, we've been waiting all morning for our shots.
- Bet they cost you a lot of money, too.
- Where are you taking our doctor?
♪
- Sergeant Bell, didn't the governor make it illegal
to jump the line?
- You know what, Detective Stabler?
I believe he did.
- Which would make them all in violation.
- Yep.
All right, folks, you're all under arrest.
Line up on the wall.
- Come on.
Line up.
♪
- Jerk chicken looks festive.
- Uh-uh, you're gonna want the Carolina fried chicken
and waffles, trust me.
- Waffles? It's dinnertime.
You really eat that? - You're damn straight.
And mac 'n' cheese,
and ribs, and a side of greens.
You want me to order for you? - Sure.
- Detective, I think we had a very productive work day.
- And I think I'm about to say something
that might cost me my job.
- Then don't say it.
- Well, there's no respect without honesty, so...
The night he was murdered,
Manfredi Sinatra reached out to me,
claiming to know who killed my wife.
He told me to meet him
on Coney Island at the Wonder Wheel.
- Stabler--
- I'm the one who found his body.
- Don't. - I called it in anonymously.
- Stop. Stop talking.
I know you are not about to tell me
that you took his cell phone,
because if you told me that, I would have to arrest you.
- Copy that.
[dramatic music]
- But if you did take it,
I know you gave it to Slootmaeker,
told her to get every bit of evidence off of it,
so we can nail the son of a bitch
who did this to your family.
♪
- You guys good? - I'm great.
- We're good.
- Ready to order?
- Yeah.
We'll have the fried okra and the fried alligator.
- I'll have the waffles. - Mm, smart man.
♪
- Thanks, Carl.
I'll see you on Sunday.
- Eli!
Get inside, get inside!
[dramatic music]
♪
Who are you?
♪
[siren wailing]