‘Law & Order: Organized Crime’ Finale: Dylan McDermott Promises a ‘Cat-and-Mouse Game’
Finale
It’s the showdown eight episodes in the making: On Thursday, we learn if Det. Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) can bring down his nemesis, Richard Wheatley (Dylan McDermott, above). The suave CEO of a digital drug company is also the brutal boss of an underground cartel and the man who arranged the car bomb that killed Stabler’s wife, launching the latest L&O spinoff, Organized Crime.
Here, McDermott explains why he was born to play this “delicious role.”
Wheatley really is a character ready-made for you.
Dylan McDermott: Yes. I grew up in the world of organized crime. My mother’s boyfriend was a bank robber, and later, when I moved to New York, mobsters were around when I waited tables and bartended.
What makes Wheatley tick? He killed his own father, a mob boss, on a Ferris wheel!
Richard was scorned by his father for being overweight as a child. That formed a permanent scar in his psyche and made him a sociopath. Richard will do more horrible things [before the season ends].
As we enter the finale, is he panicked about Stabler and the Organized Crime task force stopping him?
It’s a cat-and-mouse game, but Richard is a malignant narcissist. He believes that he is the smartest person in any room, anywhere in the world, so of course he thinks he can beat Stabler. He’s not afraid of anything.
Virginia Sherwood/NBC
Is it a special kind of fun to get into the mindset of someone who feels all powerful?
That is the best thing ever. There’s a scene [in the May 20 episode] with Chris in a coffee shop, and Richard took over [my body]. It was like, “Oh, s–t, I’ve got to get out of the way because he has literally elbowed me out!” That’s the high I get from acting. I don’t know what’s going to happen.
Law & Order: Organized Crime, Season 1 Finale, Thursday, June 3, 10/9c, NBC
