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All About Law & Order: Organized Crime's Undercover Detective, Bobby Reyes
The Season 3 addition is an investigative chameleon and a game-changer for the Organized Crime Control Bureau.
Law & Order: Organized Crime is always a wild ride as Detective Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) and the Organized Crime Control Bureau topple NYC's most insidious criminal networks.
The OCCB expanded in Season 3 with a new undercover detective, Bobby Reyes (Rick Gonzalez). Bobby took his undercover position seriously, even introducing himself to his new coworkers by disguising himself as an electrician working in their office before revealing his true identity.
RELATED: What to Know About Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 4
Reyes is efficient, tactical, and innovative — an amazing addition to the team. Check out his Law & Order: OC evolution below.
When did Detective Bobby Reyes join Law & Order: Organized Crime?
Reyes hit the ground running in his debut episode, Season 3, Episode 2 ("Everybody Knows the Dice Are Loaded") when Stabler and the OCCB were going after the Silas family. The team knew they'd need an exemplary undercover investigator to get a sneak peek inside the Silas network, so they recruited Reyes.
Reyes was transferred to the OCCB after excelling in his undercover assignments with the Narcotics and Anti-Crime units.
Reyes introduced himself in a hilariously appropriate way by eavesdropping on the case details while dressed as an electrician visiting the precinct. None of the OCCB detectives suspected a thing until Reyes revealed himself to be their new hire. Reyes proceeded to don countless undercover personas for the OCCB as their chameleonic ace-in-the-hole.
Bobby Reyes and the Silas Family in Season 3 of Law & Order: Organized Crime
One of Reyes' first assignments for the OCCB began after Stabler became suspicious about the mysterious death of a man protesting the construction of a Silas Casino. After going undercover as a club employee and construction worker, Reyes helped Stabler conclude that the civilian didn't die in an accident. Instead, they discovered that he had been murdered by a hired criminal who they apprehended in Season 3, Episode 3 ("Catch Me If You Can").
But the OCCB still needed to prove the Silas family was behind the hired hit.
RELATED: Everything to Know About Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 3
In Season 3, Episode 4 ("Spirit in the Sky"), the OCCB coaxed a confession from the hitman, which landed him in prison — but he didn't implicate the Silas family. Reyes then volunteered to go undercover as an inmate to convince the hitman to work with authorities.
Reyes' assignment didn't go as planned: He had to throw himself in front of a shank to save the hitman's life after Silas' cronies set him up. But Reyes used the moment of sacrifice to his advantage and successfully gained the hitman's trust.
The murderer ultimately took Reyes' advice to work with authorities and, with his cooperation, Stabler and Sgt. Ayanna Bell (Danielle Moné Truitt) identified several higher-ups in the Silas organization.
Bobby Reyes' Dark Past on Law & Order: Organized Crime
But the Silas organization wasn't the squad's only investigation in Season 3: The also went after the Robinhood gang, a malicious group of criminals that posed as NYPD officers. Reyes, it turned out, recognized a few of their top members.
Reyes revealed in Season 3, Episode 5 ("Behind Blue Eyes") that three members of the Robinhood were his former foster brothers and, while he hadn’t seen them in years, he believed the events of their childhood led them down the Robinhood path. Through a series of flashbacks, it was revealed that Reyes and his foster brothers were raised by an abusive foster father, Leonard, who periodically abused all of his children.
In Episode 6 (“Blaze of Glory”), Reyes believed his Leonard was likely still actively abusing his children and visited his childhood home to see if his suspicions were correct. Reyes found multiple children at home, many with cigarette burns similar to the ones his foster dad had inflicted on him. Before he could confront Leonard, though, he'd fled the scene.
Reyes was determined to get to the truth and, despite numerous calls from Sgt. Bell and Jet Slootmaekers (Ainsley Seiger) to help with the active Robinhood investigation, Reyes chose to track down Leonard.
RELATED: Organized Crime Duo Jamie Whelan and Jet Slootmaekers Just Teamed Up
After successfully cornering his foster father and putting a gun to his head, Reyes learned that Leonard was also connected to Robinhood. He gave Sgt. Bell a call, who arrived to interrogate his foster father further about his involvement, helping resolve the larger case and the ongoing abuse of the children in Leonard's care.
Bobby Reyes and Jamie Whelan
As Reyes settled into his surroundings at the OCCB, he soon became close friends with his fellow Season 3 recruit, Jamie Whelan (Brent Antonello). Whelan and Reyes worked on several cases together and, while Reyes stuck to undercover, Whelan was more keen to run into the action to see justice served. Whelan's dedication to the job and passion for putting away perps defined his policing until the tragic end.
While going after the insidious man behind a revenge-for-hire website in the Season 3 finale ("With Many Names"), Whelan was horrifically shot right in front of Reyes. Reyes did everything he could to help Whelan after he went down. But after realizing the perp was also in critical condition, Whelan sent their only medic to the criminal to make sure he would survive until court and punishment.
Whelan was paralyzed as a result of his sacrifice and eventually pled with Reyes to relieve him of his suffering via euthanasia, but Reyes refused, encouraging his friend to hold on to hope. Reyes was even more devastated after realizing Whelan's father was able to go through with his son's request to relieve him of his misery, resulting in Whelan's heartbreaking death.
What happened between Bobby Reyes and Jet Slootmaekers?
Whelan's death rocked the entirety of the OCCB, and the team struggled to find their footing after the sudden loss of one of their own.
Season 4 of Law & Order: OC picked up several months after Whelan's murder and, in the premiere ("Memory Lane"), fans were gobsmacked to learn that Reyes and Jet had started hooking up after the two shared a steamy kiss at Jet's apartment despite the fact that Reyes was a married man with children.
In Episode 2 ("Deliver Us From Evil"), viewers discovered that the two detectives had actually hooked up for the first time after Whelan's funeral and that things at home had been rocky for Reyes as a result. The affair proved to be Reyes' least successful undercover mission as he'd started sleeping in his car.
In Season 4, Episode 3 ("End of Innocence"), tensions in the OCCB reached a fever pitch after Reyes and Jet's affair became obvious to their colleagues. Bell and Stabler told both of the detectives to get it together.
While Jet was eager to end their affair, Reyes struggled and at one point physically assaulted a suspect, alarming his fellow detectives. He was relegated to desk duty as a result, a new low for the OCCB's undercover specialist. The incident led Reyes to the conclusion that the affair was toxic, and he asked Jet if they could start over as friends. She told him she'd like that.
Find out what happens next by watching Law & Order: Organized Crime on Thursdays at 10/9c on NBC and the next day on Peacock.
Originally published Nov 4, 2022.
