Written By Peter Blauner and Warren Leight
Directed By Laura Belsey
When a father arrrives home from a business trip to discover his son missing from his bed, SVU suspects the boy wandered off alone because of his history of behavioral problems. The search becomes more urgent when the boy's insulin pump runs out and a dangerous criminal couple, known for their involvement with child pornography, is spotted with the boy. With the boy still missing, detectives try to turn the wife (Rosanna Arquette) against her husband (Mark Boone Junior). Meanwhile, lingering trauma from William Lewis derails Sergeant Benson's current course.
Tropes
- Beleaguered Bureaucrat: The "re-homing" worker that Fin & Rollins talk to in Connecticut seems nice enough but she appears overworked or stressed, with bags under her eyes and a messy desk. This leads her to overlook things like double checking the address of the new parents (they put down the address for Yankee Stadium) and verify the home study form from the government to see if they are legit.
- Book Ends: The episode opens with Olivia having a nightmare of William Lewis saying "Tick tock, Olivia," while holding a clock, and it ends with her sitting in Family Court while a clock ticks loudly.
- Childhood Brain Damage: Of the psychological rather than physical kind, but Nicky lived in an orphanage where no one held him for the first five years of his life, giving him (implied) reactive attachment disorder
. He has screaming tantrums, throws things, bites people, and self-harms by banging his head. - The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: Tom Moore is a doctor who has saved the lives of many babies and even won a humanitarian award for third-world neonatal care. He is so busy with his job that he has no time to care for his adoptive son, Nicky, who suffers from severe psychological issues and has violent tendencies as a result of being abandoned by his birth parents. The primary burden of Nicky's care falls on Tom's wife Lisa, who suffers so much trying to take care of him alone that she ends up giving him away.Tom: Where's Nicky?
Lisa: Now you want to know? Where were you? Where were you? Saving the children of the world?! - Literary Allusion Title: The title of the episode is from the "Monday’s Child Nursery Rhyme", with Wednesday’s child being full of woe (great sorrow or distress).
- My Biological Clock Is Ticking: A recurring theme through the episode is that Olivia wants to have a child.
- Obfuscating Disability: Roger pretends to need a wheelchair, and apparently has been doing so for over fifteen years, as Alexa genuinely believed that he needed one. Seeing security footage of him walking is what finally convinces her to give him up.
- Parental Abandonment: Lisa gives Nicky away to be re-homed because she's overwhelmed by her special-needs child and couldn't think of any other option.
- The other children in Roger and Alexa's custody were all stated to be given to them by parents that didn't want them anymore, with the exception of CJ/Baby Boy Doe/Noah, who Roger allegedly found in a public bathroom. He was lying about that too. He bought the baby from a pimp.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: After Nicky is recovered, Olivia gives one to Lisa at the hospital:Lisa: I know what you're thinking. I was having a breakdown.
Olivia: I'm sure you were. But you call someone. You ask for help. You don't just discard a child.
Lisa: I know that now.
Olivia: Do you? Do you have any idea how lucky you are that your child came back alive? Unharmed? If there were any better options for Nicky, I would, uh, recommend that you don't get him back.
Lisa: It's going to be different!
Olivia: I hope so. - Ripped from the Headlines: The story of Nicky, a special-needs child who is rehomed by his adoptive mother to child pornographers', who in turn try to send him a on plane ride home back to his native country of Georgia, is partially inspired by the 2010 international incident where a 9-year-old Russian boy named Artyom Savelyev was flown back home by his adoptive mother, claiming he has "severe psychopathic issues".
- Struggling Single Mother: She wasn't exactly single, but Lisa Moore was overwhelmed by the responsibility of rearing such a difficult child as Nicky, compounded by her husband always being away at work making him seem like a Disappeared Dad.
- Tantrum Throwing: A more dramatic example than usual. Nicky has psychological issues resulting from his abandonment that cause him to react violently, doing things like throwing objects, biting people and banging his head. He once opened the car door while his adoptive mother was driving at 70 miles an hour, nearly killing them both.
- Villainous Glutton: On top of being a disgusting pedophile, child pornography peddler, kidnapper, and liar, Roger Pearson was caught by the police pigging out in a restaurant with an obscene amount of food on the table. While being arrested, he was more concerned with the wasted food than his own plight.
