The theme of loss for Elliot Stabler (Chris Meloni) on this season of “Law & Order: Organized Crime” continues to run deep — this time, hitting too close to home.

In the penultimate episode of Season Five , “Off the Books,” Stabler’s work life again overlaps with his personal one when his younger brother, Joe Jr. (Michael Trotter) , returns to town.

Hints of Joe’s presence popped up throughout the season when the family’s matriarch, Bernadette “Bernie” Stabler (Ellen Burstyn), said he would call her . The eldest Stabler brother, Randall (Dean Norris) , was also secretly working with Stabler’s police intelligence colleague Kyle Vargas (Tate Ellington) to track down Joe, whom the family hadn’t seen since he disappeared with a group of very dangerous men he got caught up with in

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