After a season that ended in tragedy on "Law & Order: Organized Crime," how will the team, led by Sgt. Ayanna Bell, pick up the pieces after losing one of their own?
That question has been on the minds of “Law & Order: Organized Crime” fans for months, as the show has been on a longer break than usual between seasons due to the 2023 writers and actors strikes.
Now that the strikes have ended and the show has resumed filming, “OC” will return for its fourth season, consisting of 13 episodes, on Jan. 18, albeit without one of the squad’s detectives. Jamie Whelan, who was portrayed by Brent Antonello, died while working on a big case with the team over at the Special Victims Unit, helmed by Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), in the Season Three finale.
In the Season Four premiere, titled “Memory Lane,” Detectives Jet Slootmaekers and Bobby Reyes struggle with Whelan’s absence, and Bell introduces an adviser whose AI technology program could transform the police force. Meanwhile, Detective Elliot Stabler (Chris Meloni) juggles changes at work and home after coming out of a dangerous undercover assignment.
Danielle Moné Truitt, who plays the beloved Sgt. Bell, recently caught up with TODAY.com about the changes on and off the screen for the cast and previews what’s to come in the Season Four premiere.
You have a new showrunner, John Shiban. What is the feel of the episodes and scripts under him, and what kind of energy do you and Shiban have Bell bringing into the fourth season?
The scripts, so far, they seem to be very grounded. He’s new, so he’s trying to take what we’ve done in the last four seasons and kind of make it feel seamless. It doesn’t feel like there’s an abrupt change in what the show is. I think he’s doing a really great job of that. He’s keeping all the characters grounded — very much.
We just went through the loss of Detective Whelan, so all of the characters are dealing with their feelings surrounding that loss and what he meant to them and how they move forward after losing him. I think the showrunner is doing a great job of bringing that into Season Four, to kind of start the show in a place that’s grounded and that feels very real. I appreciate that about our new showrunner so far, and I’m looking forward to whatever else he brings throughout the season.
The actors — we don’t really know what the season is going to entail, as far as all 13 episodes. We get the scripts as we go, so it’s exciting for us, too, to see what’s going to happen in the next episode.
For Bell, her focus this season is very much internal as far as OC goes and dealing with the DEA and dealing with the higher-ups and them kind of trying to stop her from doing her job. She’s really dealing with the corporate side and the bureaucracy of our task force.
Bell always stays true to her character over the seasons, despite changes. How do you maintain that consistency, and why is that so important to you?
I think part of the fun of being an actor is that you get the awesome opportunity to help create and mold and shape your character. Of course, the character of Bell was created before I was cast in the role, but as the actor I’ve gotten to have so much input on how she shows up in our world — what her beliefs are, where she’s from. There’s all this backstory that you do as an actor to make the character grounded and make the character feel real.
So it doesn’t really matter when we get a new showrunner. I think as long as I’m true to who Bell is, I think it’s going to come off in a way where it’s like, “OK, we know this woman.” Sometimes we have to have conversations with the showrunners to say, hey, because I’ve been playing Bell for, this is the fourth season I’ve been playing her, I kind of know how she ticks, what she thinks, what she would say and wouldn’t say. Sometimes it’s like, “Oh, you know, I think Bell would do this and say this.” We have such a collaborative process on our show, which is kind of not normal in a lot of different TV shows. The actors don’t get a lot of input on what their characters do and say. So I’m very grateful for our show being so open to allowing us to have that back-and-forth and to talk about who the characters are, what they want and keeping things streamlined.
In Season One, Bell lost her undercover detective, Gina Cappelletti, and I know that took a huge toll on her. Is she going to sort of tap into what she learned from that experience to help her squad through losing Whelan?
Yeah, I think right now Bell is definitely like the mama bear. She’s very wise. She’s gone through losses in her life with Gina and even Morales (an OC detective who ended up working with the villain in Season One and died in the season’s finale after Bell had to shoot and kill him in self-defense). They’ve gone through losing parts of the team before, and Bell is kind of leading by example. She’s not telling her team to do anything to deal with this situation that she is not doing. She’s in therapy herself. When she goes to Stabler or talks to Reyes or talks to Jet and tells them that they need to get it together, it’s because she’s doing it.
Her having that experience, and her having to navigate losing a CI, her having to navigate having to kill one of her own teammates in Season One, I think she has a lot of wisdom. And I think she does a great job of encouraging the team members to focus on their mental health and to deal with these things so it doesn’t lead them down a path that they don’t want to go.
I’ve been rewatching Season One on Peacock, and it’s funny watching you and Chris because I forgot Stabler and Bell got off to such a rough start. You would never know that now seeing you and Chris and where Stabler and Bell are at now. How has your relationship evolved since you began working together in that first season?
Oh, my gosh! Season One we were kind of butting heads a bit, and I think that makes for great television. It’s just cool the way they’ve kind of flushed out our relationship on screen. And it makes me happy that they have a bond — that you could tell they’re just really good friends. I think part of friendship is telling your friends the truth. You can’t truly be friends with someone if you’re afraid to get on their bad side, if you’re afraid to hold them accountable. I love that they have that kind of relationship. I love that they’re still like, Bell is like, “Yeah, you’re my friend. You still need to respect the fact that I’m your boss at the end of the day.” I think this season you kind of see Stabler be a little bit more respectful of the position that Bell has.
As far as me and Chris are concerned, when I first started on the show, everything happened so quick. It was so abrupt. I was like, “Oh, my God, what!” One minute I was doing distance learning with my kids because it was during COVID, and then the next minute I was coming to New York to start this job all the way from California. I was nervous and just kind of a wreck, and he was so patient and just very warm and knew that all this was happening so quickly.
In real life, Chris is kind of like a dad to me. He is 20 years older than me. So on set, he’s like the dad of our group. We’re all looking to him to lead us, and he’s a great leader. He’s a great No. 1. He treats people with respect, and we have a lot of great conversations. We’ve gotten to have personal time together to talk about each other’s families. We talk about things that we’ve experienced and gone through. We’ve talked about industry stuff, we’ve talked about stuff that’s going on in the world with race and trying to understand one another a little bit more. We definitely have a difference in our race, we have a difference in our age, we have a difference in our gender. We have a lot of cool things we get to talk about just as personal people, and so I really, really, really appreciate that.
In the Season Four premiere, Bell brings in an adviser who brings an AI technology program that could change police investigations. How does the squad receive him after the losses and shake-ups they’ve experienced?
They are not happy. Well, Jet’s happy, of course. The women, we’re like, “Yes, let’s move. Let’s try things a little differently. What we were maybe doing in the past wasn’t working. Maybe if we would’ve been using this kind of technology, Jamie (Whelan) would still be with us.” That type of thing.
I’m just excited to try a new way of policing that can hopefully keep my team safe. I think at the end of the day, Bell is just concerned about — she doesn’t want to keep losing people. Bell and Jet are right on it, but, of course, Stabler and Reyes are not having it. They’re not liking it very much. I think for Stabler it’s more of — he’s older, he’s done things a certain way his whole career, and this is another reminder that the ways he’s been doing things are not that effective. I think that’s hard for the older generation to accept. Then Reyes, I think he’s just frustrated with the loss of his friend. Just having a new person so soon, I think it rubs him the wrong way.
I know it’s a shorter season: What are you most excited for the fans to see? And what is your drink of choice for premiere night?
I’m just excited for them to tune in every Thursday like they have been in the past. It’s nice after the strike just for us to be back working and back to giving good television. I’m excited for this journey. I don’t know where the script is going to go. I don’t know where the story's going to go. We’re experiencing it right before you guys are, so I feel like we’re all going on the journey together.
There’s also a character that comes on the show that’s like my frenemy, kind of like a little archenemy. I can’t wait for their commentary about Bell and these people always trying to mess with her. Leave Bell alone!
And then my drink of choice: Let’s see, I will probably do whiskey. We’re going to do it in remembrance of Whelan. In the hood, they take a 40-ounce, and they pour some out for the homie. That’s what they do in the hood. So I’m going to drink whiskey for Whelan.
