This recap contains unmarked SPOILERS, per policy. You Have Been Warned
Police attend the death of a jogger named Andy Corvo from a sudden heart attack. They then find another body: Anna Brisenio, who was murdered. Briscoe and Green discover that she was using the social security number of the deceased Marcela Celaya. On the way to interview Anna's husband Rafael, Briscoe and Green encounter a crime scene where a man has been run over and killed by his wife Carla Perazzo. The detectives arrest her. Later, they run a background check on Rafael, and find that his real name is Rafael Celaya. His alibi is false, so he is arrested.
While stopping to use a public bathroom, the detectives find a message on a mirror from a woman saying she was being kidnapped. She left her business card so she could be found. The missing woman, Hannah Mayer, is heavily pregnant so finding her is a priority. Her father believes her husband has murdered her. Meanwhile, Rafael insists his brother Reynaldo killed Anna. Reynaldo was Marcela Celaya's husband, and he has just been released from jail for her murder. He is arrested and charged. Carla Perazzo is the next case in front of the arraignment judge. She pleads guilty and says she killed her husband because she was sick of him pressuring her to get breast implants.
Reynaldo reveals Marcela and Anna are the same person, and she faked her death ten years ago so she could frame him for her murder and run off with Rafael. Reynaldo insists he can't be prosecuted because of double jeopardy laws. After some more investigation, the detectives conclude that Rafael killed Anna/Marcela. The brothers wanted Reynaldo to look guilty because, or so they believed, he couldn't be tried again. Rafael confesses to the murder.
Briscoe and Green find Hannah alive, and her baby is delivered safely. The kidnapper is a disturbed woman who is unable to have children, so she planned to take Hannah's baby. The detectives then receive a call about Andy Corvo - the autopsy shows he actually died from poisoning. Andy's husband admits to killing him for the life insurance, but it's proved to be futile since state law doesn't recognize their same-sex marriage. An exhausted Briscoe and Green question whether marriage is worth it. Their day is not over yet, as they now have to go out to a suicidal person threatening to jump.
This episode contains examples of:
- All for Nothing: Andy's husband killed him for a life insurance policy that he can't collect on because their marriage wasn't legally recognized.
- Always Murder: Even the presumed heart attack victim at the beginning was actually murdered. The one subversion is Hannah; she was kidnapped for her child, and the kidnapper never had any intention of harming her.
- Awful Wedded Life: A Running Gag throughout the episode is that everyone who is or has been married has experienced this.
- Baby Be Mine: The kidnapper's motivation is that she can't have children of her own.
- Batman Gambit: Reynaldo and Rafael come up with a scheme to kill Anna/Marcela as payback for her dumping the former for the latter. Since Reynaldo already went to jail for her murder, he legally can't be prosecuted under the Fifth Amendment's guarantee of avoiding double jeopardy (or being charged for the same crime twice), so he takes the fall for the scheme while Rafael, the real killer, walks off Scott-free. Unfortunately for them, Briscoe and Green figure it out and ruin the whole thing.
- Black Comedy: Most of the humor in the episode comes from humor related to the murders. A judge, for example, declares "I admire her restraint" after being told that a woman ran over her husband multiple times with her car.
- Contrived Coincidence: The detectives just happen to stop at the one public bathroom in all of NYC where a kidnapping victim has scrawled a message on the bathroom mirror. They also just happen to come upon a woman murdering her husband before a dispatched patrol car gets there.
- Day in the Life: One of the rare Law & Order episodes to use this format.
- A Deadly Affair: Played straight with one of the murders. Subverted with another where a wife kills her husband because he wanted her to get breast implants, not because he was cheating on her. Also subverted with the kidnapping case. Both the detectives and the victim's father assume the victim's husband killed her because he was having an affair and didn't want the baby. Instead it turns out she was kidnapped by an unrelated woman who wanted the child.
- Dead Person Impersonation: Subverted. The detectives think Anna Brisenio was impersonating the dead Marcela Celaya; it turns out she's the same person but faked her own death.
- Delusions of Eloquence: Carla Perazzo, the woman who murdered her husband, uses unnecessarily long words and quotes endless references to philosophy and mythology for no apparent reason.
- Didn't Think This Through: The jogger's husband didn't think to check to see if the state of New York would recognize their marriage before he killed him, so he ends up losing everything due to this oversight.
- Fake Boobs: A woman kills her philandering husband because he insisted that she get some.
- Faking the Dead: Marcela Celaya faked her own death to frame her husband for her murder and run away with his brother.
- Inheritance Murder: The reason why the one jogger poisoned the other. Unfortunately for him, New York won't recognize his marriage to the deceased, meaning it was All for Nothing.
- It's All About Me: When Green points out to the kidnapper that the mother of the baby would also think babies are a gift, the kidnapper responds "She could have others!"
- The Kindnapper: Hannah Mayer was kidnapped by a seemingly sweet, pleasant lady who had no intention of harming her and just wanted her baby. When Hannah goes into labor suddenly, the kidnapper even willingly lets the police in so they can get medical help.
- Latin Lover: A bartender refers to this stereotype with regard to Rafael Celaya, and Green calls him out on it.
- Love Makes You Crazy: Well, either that or
- Love Makes You Evil
- Ripped from the Headlines: One of the cases the detectives catch is based on the David Lynn Harris murder. Another is very loosely based on the Laci Peterson murder.
- Screaming Birth: Justified since the pregnant woman has been kidnapped, almost certainly hasn't been given any painkillers, and is likely very frightened due to the aforementioned kidnapping.
- Seen It All: The judge who hears Reynaldo's and Carla's pleas for murder. Briscoe and Green increasingly demonstrate this trope throughout the episode.
- Smug Snake: Reynaldo Celaya when he lays out his plan to either walk free for double jeopardy or be able to sue for false imprisonment.
- Straight Gay: The jogging couple at the beginning of the episode. One poisoned the other.
- Talking Down the Suicidal: The episode ends with Briscoe and Green running off to save a jumper, though Briscoe quips that he might join the jumper.
