Whelan may be gone, but he won’t be forgotten. The OCCB will still be coping with Whelan’s tragic death when Law & Order: Organized Crime returns for season 4. Hollywood Life spoke exclusively with Ainsley Seiger about how Jet’s dealing with her grief over losing Whelan.
“I’ll be honest, she’s not doing well,” Ainsley said at the Law & Order: SVU 25th Anniversary Celebration on January 16. “She’s not doing good. But I think that is what is really exciting and compelling to me about this season is we haven’t just ignored that that happened. We are paying attention to it. And it is informing the future of the season and what’s happened so far in what we’ve shot. It’s a lot of fun stuff to play, really complicated and really messy stuff.”
Before Whelan died, Jet told him that she loved him. Whelan’s absence won’t just be felt in Jet’s life, but this will impact the entire team.
“I think what we’re seeing moving into this season that’s been really fun for me has been seeing not only how it affects everyone’s interpersonal relationships within the squad and how it affects them individually… But specifically with Jet and Reyes, who used to be a part of this trio with Whelan, now it is this very sad duo and how they navigate moving forward without him and what that looks like,” Ainsley said.
At the end of season 3 and in the wake of the OCCB’s loss, Stabler took another gig out of New York City. When he returns, Stabler will not be able to seamlessly step back into the same groove with his team.
“I think that’s sort of how he has processed it, at least how I look at it,” Ainsley told Hollywood Life about Stabler’s Irish exit. “His way of processing what’s happened is by not processing it and ignoring it a little bit and pretending if I’m someone else for a while, maybe it’ll go away.”
She continued, “But it always catches up to you. It comes back to haunt you in so many ways. I think that has caused his relationship with the task force to be a little bit strained when he comes back from his gig.” Law & Order: Organized Crime airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. on NBC.