The stakes are higher than ever on Law & Order: Organized Crime with the second arc of Season 2, and it seems like nobody is truly safe from the wrath of Richard Wheatley if they get in his way. Stabler also doesn't appreciate when anybody gets in his way of going after Wheatley, which hasn't always gone well for him. Luckily, Wheatley isn't the only one with some tech expertise on his side, even though Sebastian McClean is a master at the hacking craft. The Organized Crime Unit has Ainsley Seiger's Jet and Wesam Keesh's Malachi to keep up with Sebastian, and Keesh previewed to CinemaBlend the intensity on the way as well as Malachi's feelings for Jet.
The February 24 episode of Organized Crime will mark the show's first episode since NBC's biggest shows went into breaks for the Olympics, and all signs point toward some thrilling episodes. When I asked Wesam Keesh what he could preview about what comes next for his character and the show, he shared:
Shit is going down. It's gonna get really intense the next couple of weeks, so hold on to your seats, as they would say. Yeah, it was a lot of fun to shoot really intense scenes and I can only imagine what its gonna look like. Because sometimes when you're shooting really dramatic scenes, you feel the intensity, and then you watch it. You're like, 'Oh, okay.' They make it more intense, obviously, in the editing, but the scenes we were shooting and everything was just set at a super high level, so I can't wait to see what people think and how excited they're going to be watching it
Law & Order: OC has been intense going all the way back to its explosive backdoor pilot on Law & Order: SVU, and Malachi's hacking skills have helped that intensity increase over the course of Season 2. While his loyalties have been in question at times since he wasn't exactly on the straight and narrow before Jet and Co. recruited him to their cause (whether he liked it or not), he has been a valuable asset. And as it turns out, his arc isn't something that Wesam Keesh was fully aware of going in, including the trajectory of his dynamic with Jet. He shared how much of Malachi's arc he knew from the beginning:
Zero. They hold the scripts tight from week to week, so that's always a fun challenge to kind of make choices the day of, of where you think the character is going, where you think the relationships are going. You can ask the producers this and this, but nothing's really set until the script comes out. So yeah, I don't know much about where the character is going. Second episode, though, that I appear in, where I started helping out the team for the first time, I realized the way they were writing it is like, 'Oh, he's legitimately interested in Jet and it's not just a physical thing or anything like that.' No, he's like, really intrigued by her because she's super knowledgeable about all the technical stuff she deals with. But it's not just that, it's the way she goes about hacking and finding out information that really impresses him. Because it's one thing to be a hacker, and it's another thing to be an incredibly good hacker.
Wesam Keesh may not have known where his character was going or what was brewing between Malachi and Jet down the line of Season 2, but there has been a lot for fans to enjoy! Their interactions have provided some lighter moments on a show that is certainly not lighthearted, and her reactions to his interest have shown off a different side of the character who has been on board from the start.
But will Malachi and Jet's relationship actually turn romantic, with the not-so-small obstacle of him as a criminal and her as a cop? It's not exactly Romeo and Juliet (which could be good for both of their survival odds), and the actor weighed in on Malachi's anti-establishment leanings vs. his "thing" for Jet:
It's a lot of fun. You know, he's definitely anti-establishment in the beginning, and the thing that's keeping him in the game, for sure, is not only his court-ordered parole, community service, to help them out. But he definitely has a thing for Jet and he's growing to like her day by day, more and more.
As the other hacker extraordinaire on the side of the good guys at this point in Season 2, Malachi is actually uniquely placed to acknowledge Jet's skills, and for Jet to know when he's sincere. When I noted that it's been fun to see Jet getting some props from somebody who can actually understand the skill behind her tech magic, Wesam Keesh concurred, saying:
Absolutely. She's such a strong-willed person as well, so that causes some fun conflict between the two of us. I'm trying to break her hard exterior with my charm and amazing hair.
Whatever happens next, it's probably safe to say that things could get worse before they get better if Wheatley has his way. Stabler is facing opposition from the NYPD brass other than Bell as well, for what is perceived to be (not unjustly) a vendetta against Wheatley. Wheatley's days as the main bad guy of the show are presumably numbered, with Dylan McDermott soon jumping over to CBS to play one of the good guys of FBI: Most Wanted, and a new cop is on the way to OC; the question is what kind of damage Wheatley can do before the end of the arc, and what happens to Wesam Keesh's Malachi by the end.
Law & Order: Organized Crime returns with its first episode in more than a month on Thursday, February 24 at 10 p.m. ET on NBC, following the return of Law & Order: SVU at 9 p.m. ET and the premiere of the Law & Order revival that has been a dream come true for creator Dick Wolf for years. For some more viewing options now and in the coming weeks, be sure to check out our 2022 TV schedule.
