Spoilers ahead for Episode 19 of Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 3, called “A Diplomatic Solution.”
The third season of Law & Order: Organized Crime is approaching its finale and crossover with Special Victims Unit in May, but the stakes were already plenty high in “A Diplomatic Solution” as OC’s first episode after a brief break. When a diplomat from India arrived in New York to deliver an important speech, the task force had to go all-out to try and protect her after an assassination attempt. Karen David of Fear the Walking Dead and Galavant fame guest-starred as Diya Laghari, the diplomat, whose actions resulted in a twist ending for Stabler and Co. David spoke with CinemaBlend about the episode!
Initially, Diya’s concerns seemed to extend only as far as protecting and delivering the speech, checking on her assistant after the car explosion, and keeping the peace between Stabler and those in the Indian consulate who weren’t thrilled to have him around. The twist came at the end, when Stabler realized that she was participating in a plot to smuggle stolen technology out of the country and back to India.
The reveal happened after most of the episode featured a pretty solid dynamic between Diya and Stabler, and Stabler ultimately didn’t turn her in for the attempted theft, but instead gave her the opportunity to save escape prosecution in the U.S… while also handing over the technology before she boarded her plane back to India. Stabler still believes that she’ll face some repercussions back in India, and named his choice as “the diplomatic solution.”
It was a complicated end to what Diya originally seemed to think was a straightforward assignment. Karen David opened up about the situation that pushed Diya to make the decision that she did, saying:
I think [Diya] genuinely thought that she was there on one particular task and that was to deliver a speech on behalf of the government, and that was her job. That was her duty, and then somewhere towards the end of the episode, we see things take a turn. She is now put in a compromising position, to say the least, where she now has to try and rectify a very sticky and difficult situation, and also at the same time play the diplomat.
Diya didn’t have a lot of options by the end of “A Diplomatic Solution,” and nobody she could confide in to talk her “sticky” situation out. There was no way she could have guessed that an assassination attempt would only be the beginning of her troubles when she arrived in NYC! This conundrum is part of what drew the actress to the role, as David continued:
This is one of the things that really made me love this episode and wanted to play Diya, because that is such a difficult position [for] a diplomat, who is supposed to be this reliable source, this steady source, to keep the peace, to keep things calm and smooth and running, and how that's all gone to pieces. Plan A of what she thought she was on all of a sudden becomes a completely different, discombobulated Plan B, which she wasn't party to and didn't know, according to her. [She] has to sort of find a way to save face not only for herself, but for her country as well.
Well, she was ultimately able to save face, but only because Stabler decided not to turn her in and came up with a third option. Whether she’ll be able to save face when she gets back to India is an entirely different question. All things considered, Karen David was certainly playing a different kind of character than she did on the late, great Galavant!
The actress had nothing but good things to say about working with Chris Meloni as Stabler, and went on to share her thoughts on whether or not Diya’s earlier interactions with Stabler had been sincere:
When we were approaching this and I was talking to our amazing director and the writers, we were talking about this and I said what was for me really interesting and exciting is the idea that she genuinely didn't know. She was there to do a particular task, and how that plan quickly changed and unfolded and how she had to think fast on her feet [would be] deeply, deeply troublesome and uncomfortable. That would have put her in quite a sticky situation that even just talking about it makes me even feel so uncomfortable, because it does paint her out to be something else that perhaps she's not.
Organized Crime didn’t paint Diya as villainous or weak-willed, but stuck in a very uncomfortable situation with no easy way out. She didn’t sign on to smuggle stolen goods out of the country, and it wasn’t too surprising that Stabler caught on that something was off with her being so protective of her luggage. Karen David continued, and made special note of Stabler’s comment about “a diplomatic solution” right at the close of the case:
We know she comes from a very powerful political family. She is ambitious. But at the end of the day, when you sign up to be a diplomat, you have your duty and obligations to carry out the tasks that will represent your country in the best possible light. I know that wasn't easy for her to be in that situation and to try and get out of it, and to try and put things right in the end. A lot of that was made possible because of Stabler. I love in the end when he says ‘A diplomatic solution,' because it's almost like a slap on the hand, which is so cheeky and wonderful.
Trust Elliot Stabler to find a way to be cheeky in the aftermath of a case that almost went spectacularly wrong! Stabler’s dynamic with Diya was such that it would be fun to see them on screen together again (and Organized Crime was recently renewed), but the odds of her returning to the U.S. as a diplomat don’t seem great after what happened. Karen David shared why Diya was such an interesting character for her to play:
It was very interesting for me to not take the obvious path where she knows right away that 'Oh, I'm here, but it's not really this. It's a decoy for this.' I thought it was far more exciting to play it [as] what if she didn't know and she found out later. I like to leave it up to the viewer and let them come up with their own conclusions too, so it's kind of like those books you're reading as a child where you can choose the ending. [laughs] Option 1 for this [or] Option 2, then go to this page and read. I feel it's like that kind of situation with this episode.
“A Diplomatic Solution” didn’t exactly come to a happy ending for Diya, even if it could have been worse, but Stabler may be on the road to pursuing happiness after a sweet conversation with his mom. She just wants him to be happy, and if everything that we’ve seen from him in the 2022-2023 TV season has accumulated to this point… well, the crossover with SVU and reunion with Benson could be game-changing. Even though the last on-screen reunion was more than a little complicated!
For now, you can look forward to new episodes of Law & Order: Organized Crime on Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET on NBC, and check out a list of questions that fans should be asking after the renewals of the nine Law & Order, One Chicago, and FBI shows. You’ll also be able to revisit Karen David’s episode of Organized Crime streaming with a Peacock Premium subscription!
