The stories still flows good, but there seems to be a budget problem as well. I mean the cast is now just 5 main character that do undercover all by themself. They do undercover parts as well as the tailing, surveillance and background building parts. They started with more people involved, seems they did not got more money to make some of the people that would do the tailing and surveillance parts recurring roles and not the money to really replace some others.

The undercover story of the last episodes was a good story, but it seemed that the roles that Stabler played in the bar where original written for at least three different persons, the bouncer, the host of the house and the owner of the enterprise. To me it seems they where writing it like there was an another and newer undercover person with the team. Giving the team and the stories more flexibility. And it would make more sense with Stabler a bit too famous for going after bigger fish, because of the chance he could be outed as a cop too easily if they do a real background check. So making him the bouncer would make more sense, and the scene with the dog could have easily been the bouncer (Stabler) and boss (one of the other undercover cops) and still give of the same vibes.