Tonight on NBC Law & Order Organized Crime returns with an all-new Thursday, April 17, 2025 episode and we have your Law & Order Organized Crime recap below.
In tonight’s Law & Order Organized Crime season, 5 episode 1 called, “Lost Highway” as per the NBC synopsis, “Stabler goes undercover as a big rig driver to expose an international smuggling ring.
As he settles into his new identity, he gets to know the “working girls” and a pattern of disappearances emerges.”
Tonight’s Law & Order Organized Crime season 5 episode 1 looks like it is going to be great and you won’t want to miss it.
So make sure to bookmark this spot and come back from 10 PM – 11 PM ET for our Law & Order Organized Crime recap. While you wait for the recap make sure to check out all our Law & Order SVU recaps, spoilers, news & more!
Tonight’s Law & Order Organized Crime recap begins now – Refresh the Page often to get the most current updates!
Detective Elliott Stabler has dealt with all kinds of criminals. Some of them have even been cop killers. Stabler lost a lot of people in both his professional and personal life because of the job. The only thing that fazes him was if women and girls are being harmed. His wife was killed because of her connection to him. His son was almost framed for a crime he didn’t commit. His brother was assisting with a case and has since disappeared overseas. Stabler threw himself into work like nothing happened.
Tonight was somehow different. Stabler had a lot on his plate. His youngest son was becoming a cop. They were going to have a barbeque at the house to celebrate. Stabler didn’t want to miss it. It was probably the healthiest decision he’s made in years. It’s also why he tried to turn down an assignment. Bell wanted him to go undercover again. Stabler told her to send Reyes. Bell replied that Stabler might want a moment to himself what with everything going on. And when that didn’t work on him, she mentioned that women were being trafficked.
The feds reached out to Bell’s unit for assistance with an investigation. They were looking into trucking company. They wanted to form a task force to finally get enough evidence against the company to shut them down. It was believed that they were smuggling drugs through a Native American Reservation. The reservation was so large that it stretched from the United States all the way into Canada. Most of it wasn’t even developed land. The feds also couldn’t go on the land without permission.
They had to get permission. The Chiefs from the reservation gave it. Only the feds didn’t seem to care that trucking company was trafficking women. There were also rumors of underage girls. Bell used that to get Stabler to accept the job and go undercover. She didn’t know when she sent one of her own that Special Agent Bruce Shepherd couldn’t be trusted. He was more interested in stopping the drug pipeline than he was about the actual victims. He also tried to control everything about this investigation.
Shepherd was willing to leave Stabler with no out if they got enough evidence. Bell’s unit called him reckless. They looked into Shepherd. There had been another task force to stop the trucking company. It got shut down after an agent died while undercover. The whole situation told Bell that Shepherd wouldn’t look out for her people and so she worked around him. She got Stabler a phone. They stayed in communication with each other. Stabler hid the phone where it couldn’t be found. He hid it under a truck.
Stabler was easily hired by the company. He used his old alias for when he worked at the honey farm. He claimed he just got out of prison because of his work at that farm. His past history of being a criminal was what got him the job. That and the good word from someone acting as informant. The company was run by brothers. There was one brother to keep the trucker in line. There was another brother running everything. There was also a brother to keep the girls in line. Stabler found out the company were supplying their own hookers. The ladies work out of a motel that the company owns right next door to their office.
Stabler quickly learned that the company was also using these girls as gifts. They gifted them to people they want to get in business with. They were also willing to gift them to serial killers if that’s what it took. After Stabler went in undercover, he noticed that girls disappear sometimes. There was one young girl who hasn’t seen her mom in a while. The young girl’s name was Bunny. The others all said that Bunny’s mom would never have left her. Bunny thought the same. She waiting for her mom to come back.
Their faith that the woman was coming back reminded Stabler of his past. He used to work in Sex Crimes after all. Stabler knew when something wasn’t right. He made contact with his team. He gave them a photo of the missing girl. He also told them about Bunny’s mom. They went looking for the missing girls. They ended up finding out about the serial killers. There were at least eleven men killing women and girls on the 1-90 expressway. They usually killed hookers who’ve been arrested numerous times.
The ones that were smart enough to know not to move to a second location. Not that far away from Steve. Steve was the one put in charge of the girls. He was the one that was supposed to be protecting them and there was no way that many girls were stupid enough to be moved and he didn’t stop it. Steve was giving if not selling these girls away. Stabler’s friends tried to warn him only it took time. Stabler couldn’t be seen checking a phone. He tried to stay under the radar while he was undercover. And he risked all of that when he stepped in to help a woman.
Stabler had heard one of the girls screaming from the motel. He went rushing in with a bat. The john said he had the hooker for the next hour. One of the brothers also came in. He told Stabler to stand down. Something Stabler couldn’t do. It wasn’t in his DNA. He beat the john up. The guy was someone that the trucking company wanted to go into business with and the only reason Stabler wasn’t killed because the john’s boss didn’t like his men getting drunk on the job. He killed his own man for being too messy.
Stabler met the man in charge. He knew what he looked like. He also spotted the accent. It sounded French and he might have been Canadian. The trucking company was running drugs for a biking gang. No one wanted to lose out on expanding their respective businesses. The deal was going ahead in spite of Stabler and Stabler getting rid of a body helped smooth things over with the trucking company. What he did also earned him the trust from the girls at the motel. They knew he was one of the good ones after that.
Stabler eventually found out about the serial killers. She told him that she suspected their pimp was selling them and gifting them. He was already dreading what came next when one of the girls asked him about Bunny. Bunny suddenly went missing. She doesn’t go to school. She lives at the motel with them. She also used her backpack to buy stuff that she then sells back to the johns. She only had the money to buy the stuff because she’s been stealing wallets for a while from some of the truckers.
Bunny tried to steal from Stabler. He didn’t mind. He was known as a good guy after all and so one of the women made Bunny give him his wallet back. The girls also turned to him when Bunny wasn’t found. Stabler went to the boss. He asked about Bunny. The guy claimed she most likely wander offered, but Stabler saw Bunny’s backpack in the guy’s office. He knew instantly that she had been sold. He then broke cover because he couldn’t hold back his rage. He attacked the company owner. He attacked the second brother. He got Bunny’s location and he rescued her.
Unfortunately, one of the other brothers saw him peeling out of the office. He followed Stabler. He saw that he rescued Bunny and he tried to kill Stabler for it. Stabler fought the guy off. He got Bunny into his car. They were heading to a safe place when the brother known as Vic caught up to them. He hit their car with his truck. The car flipped over and there was no telling if both Stabler and Bunny survived.
The only thing that mattered to the feds was that Stabler broke cover right before a big drug deal.
THE END
