Rick Gonzalez Breaks Down Jason Patric's Debut in "Dark, Aggressive" Organized Crime Episode
Jason Patric's Det. Tim McKenna just made his Law & Order: Organized Crime debut — and Rick Gonzalez's Det. Bobby Reyes had some major issues with him.
Jason Patric just made his debut in the latest Law & Order: Organized Crime episode as Det. Tim McKenna — a former colleague and old friend of Det. Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) — but Stabler's current co-workers weren't impressed.
In fact, Det. Bobby Reyes (Rick Gonzalez) and Sergeant Ayanna Bell (Danielle Moné Truitt) were downright appalled when it came to some of McKenna's tactics to try to get potential informants to talk.
As Gonzalez put it to NBC Insider, both McKenna's approach and the shocking story told in "Red, White, Black & Blue" — Season 5, Episode 6 — made for a “very dark, aggressive" installment of Organized Crime.
RELATED: Jason Patric Is Joining Law & Order: Organized Crime in Season 5
The episode saw escaped drug lord Miguel “El Diablo” Olivas brutally beat to death Assistant District Attorney Anne Frasier, and also kill four detectives.
Stabler and McKenna — who have long known each other from their early NYPD days working on an anti-crime squad — are put on the case. And Stabler also pulls in his fellow Organized Crime Control Bureau detective, Reyes, who's currently out on loan to another task force.
Read on for an in-depth look into the episode by Gonzalez.
“Stabler comes in and says, ‘Hey, someone that we know, a friend of ours, was murdered,’ and that gets Bobby, like antennas are up and he’s like, 'Okay, well, I’m all yours,'" Gonzalez told NBC Insider.
Rick Gonzalez on Det. Reyes clashing with Jason Patric's Det. McKenna
Reyes soon meets McKenna (Jason Patric), a former anti-crime squad colleague of Stabler’s with a "dark past," as explained by Gonzalez. Reyes and McKenna have opposing views on how to handle the case, in particular, how to get information from drug lord Olivas’ girlfriend. After Olivas — who's suspected of personally killing at least 50 people — murdered his most recent victims and escaped, investigators hoped his girlfriend, Lucero (Kiara Liz), would be able to reveal where he's hiding.
“This bloodthirst that the department wants information from this woman... it's like just wolves around her,” Gonzalez said. “They're not really nice to her. They’re not really respectful of her and I feel like Reyes decides to go through a different avenue to get information and help the investigation.”
RELATED: What Day Do New Law & Order: Organized Crime Episodes Come Out?
It's soon revealed that McKenna, who had earlier dealings with Olivas, once gave information to "Olivas’ guys," hoping "that they would take him out."
"But instead," McKenna said in the episode, "they put the wife and his two-year-old daughter in an oil drum and they set them on f---ing fire.”
While the incident still haunts McKenna, he engaged in similar risky behavior to try to get Lucero to talk, by having "friends" in Mexico who owe him a favor capture Lucero's young son and her parents. McKenna then threatened Lucero that she'd never see her son again unless she spilled.
“McKenna has a dark past working in Mexico with the cartels and that doesn’t sit well with Reyes,” Gonzalez said of their dynamic.
RELATED: Why You Recognize Law & Order: Organized Crime's Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
Bell pulled McKenna and Stabler out of the interrogation room after she heard McKenna tell Lucero he essentially had her family kidnapped.
While left alone in the room with Reyes, Lucero tells the detective where Olivas is headed, allowing police to catch up with him and injure him. After being slowed down by the wound, Olivas is later found and captured after Stabler and Reyes track him down.
Regardless of their characters' beef, Gonzalez had nothing but nice words for Patric.
Rick Gonzalez on "awesome" experience working with Jason Patric
"I thought working with Jason was awesome," Gonzalez shared. "He brought an intensity to the episode and to the scenes and to the set that I thought was really amazing... Everything that Det. McKenna brings and what the unit learns about him doesn't sit well with any of us, especially Reyes."
How Rick Gonzalez views Organized Crime’s move to Peacock
With Organized Crime's move to Peacock for Season 5, Gonzalez agrees with what his costars Meloni and Dean Norris previously told NBC Insider about the show now having a "little more edge."
“I was excited about what that move meant because this episode sort of screams like, 'Here we are!'” Gonzalez said.
The Brooklyn-raised actor added that Season 5, Episode 6 of Organized Crime has a “very dark, aggressive" feel.
“The tone of us being on Peacock and having a character like [McKenna] and what that means... I was really excited for that because I knew that those scenes with him were gonna be intense,” Gonzalez said. “I feel like this season was gonna scream to the audiences now that we’re on Peacock just like really strong edge, a strong tone, a darkness.”
The actor explained that the show will not just be darker without purpose.
“We’re dealing with people and subject matter and things that are really heavy in tone and in real life, these things take their time,” Gonzalez said.
The tensions set up in this episode might not be the end of the road for Reyes and McKenna, Gonzalez teased.
RELATED: A Beloved Longtime Law & Order: Organized Crime Detective Just Left the Show
"I think there's gonna be more interaction between [Reyes] and McKenna this season," Gonzalez said. "There'll be some more really great, juicy scenes between him and McKenna that I think people will get a kick out of."
Keep up with Reyes and the rest of the team by watching new episodes of Law & Order: Organized Crime every Thursday on Peacock.
