Written by Jonathan Greene and Robert F Campbell
Directed by James Quinn
When infant Emma Daricek is kidnapped at grocery store, SVU discovers a scheme of abducting & selling babies for adoption orchestrated by attorney Mark Sanford.
Cragen becomes involved in the case when he discovers that one of the adoptive children, Tyler Blake is the son of a woman that was murdered years ago which leads to a custody battle between Tyler's adoptive parents & his biological father.
Tropes
- A Day in the Limelight: Cragen is the main character of the episode due to the connection to an old case of his.
- Amoral Attorney: Surprisingly averted. Robert Cook's attorney, unlike most lawyers in the show, isn't overly smug or dickish, even offering the Blakes his condolences for what they are going through.
- Played straight with Sanford, who is a licensed attorney, but works as an adoption broker.
- Armor-Piercing Question: During the custody battle, Robert's attorney asks Tyler's adoptive mother Erin if she'd want her kidnapped child back even if they were found being raised by nice parents. Erin answers yes.
- Artifact Alias: Stephen Talmadge was raised under the name Tyler Blake. After being found, he insists on still going by Tyler, with the only time he's called Stephen afterwards being when he meets his grandparents. It helps that his adoptive parents were unaware they were adopting a kidnapped baby and are good people who have raised him well. While the revelation of his identity presumably makes Tyler's legal name Stephen Talmadge, he may choose to legally change his name to Tyler Blake when he's older.
- The Atoner: Robert's actions can construed as a misguided attempt to make it up to Tyler for missing his first 12 years.
- Bitter Sweet Ending: Linda Cook is arrested for the murder of Jennifer Talmadge and the kidnapping of Stephen/Tyler, and Sanford's scheme has been exposed, however Sanford himself gets off with no jail time. The mystery surrounding what happened to Stephen Talmadge/Tyler Blake is solved, but he is taken away from his adoptive parents and put with his biological father Robert Cook. However, the blow is softened with the implication Robert will allow the Blakes to continue to be a part of his son's life.
- Both Sides Have a Point: Legally, Robert is entitled to have his son returned to him as the only reason Tyler ended with the Blakes in the first place was because Linda impersonated Jennifer to give him to Sanford, which nullifies the adoption. At the same time, the Blakes were unaware they were adopting a kidnapped baby and by the time the episode takes place, they've been a family for 12 years.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Why Linda confronted Jennifer about her letter to Robert informing him he was Stephen's father, leading to the latter's murder.
- Disappeared Dad: Robert was unintentionally this to Tyler during the first 12 years of his life, not even knowing he was the man who impregnated Jennifer. He makes it clear he never would have abandoned Tyler.
- Entitled to Have You: Robert Cook insists on suing for custody of Stephen/Tyler (the child of a woman he knocked up in college and did not know existed for the first 12 years of life), even after it becomes apparent that doing so is not in the child's best interests (and would likely traumatize him). Though legally, he is correct, as the biological parent of a kidnapped child, he is entitled to have his child returned to him.
- Herbert and Margaret can also come off as this as when they meet with Cragen after Tyler's found, they're more focused on why they haven't received custody of him than how Tyler is dealing with the possibility of being taken away from his adoptive parents, and are disheartened by the news Robert will likely claim his parental rights.
- Good Parents: Both the Blakes and Robert Cook are shown to be loving and affectionate parents, with Robert's first scene being of him playing baseball with his sons by Linda. Robert makes it a point to tell the police and courts he never would've abandoned Tyler had he known he was the father.
- Good Versus Good: It is noted that all of the people fighting for custody of Stephen/Tyler (his adoptive parents, his biological father, and his biological grandparents) are technically good and decent people. Even the judge points out that she's so used to dealing with people who are only acting for selfish or even evil motivations that she feels the need to emphasize that everyone involved in the case is acting out of genuinely good intentions.
- Halfway Plot Switch: Multiple times throughout the episode. It starts with a baby being kidnapped, however the child is found and connected to a larger baby kidnapping scheme, after that is exposed it turns into a plot about solving Jennifer Talmadge's murder and finding her missing son Stephen. When Stephen is found, the episode turns into a custody battle between his biological father and his adoptive parents, with Jennifer's murder being solved shortly before the end.
- Happily Adopted: Tyler loves his adoptive parents and when his biological father sues for custody, he's devastated when the court takes him away from them.
- Hate Sink: Linda Cook, Robert's ex-wife who is revealed to be Jennifer's killer and Stephen/Tyler's kidnapper. She goes as far as to refer to Tyler as Robert's "love child," saying she doesn't care if Robert gets custody of him.
- I Have Many Names: The child the episode focuses on was born as Stephen Talmadge but was adopted as a baby and raised as Tyler Blake. Everyone afterwards proceeds to refer to him by his adopted name that he was raised under rather than the name his birth mother gave him.
- Innocently Insensitive: Robert Cook. He understandably wants to make up for missing the first 12 years of Tyler's life, but doesn't seem to really consider how traumatic it might be to force him away from the parents who raised him.
- In the Blood: Robert Cook is into baseball, a trait all three of his sons inherited.
- It's All About Me: When asked on the witness stand whether it would be in the best interests of the child for Tyler to be transferred to his custody, Robert brushes the question off and answers that he's entitled to have Tyler as Tyler is his "flesh and blood," even saying it breaks his heart to have to put Tyler's adoptive parents through the custody ordeal when it's his own doing.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Averted by Robert Cook, who insists on suing for custody of Stephen/Tyler even after being warned that doing so would traumatize him significantly. Though the ending does imply that he will keep the Blakes in Tyler's life.
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: Before he's confirmed as Tyler's birth father, Robert says that while he slept with Jennifer a few times, he didn't think it was him who got her pregnant.
- Moral Luck: The detectives knew that the woman who kidnapped the baby from the supermarket lied to Sanford, but the detectives arrested him and the caretaker under suspicion of kidnapping, despite having no evidence that either was doing anything other than their perfectly legal jobs. Later, when Cragen finds out Sanford placed Stephen Talmadge, he threatens to "nail his ass to the wall" again with no evidence that Sanford knew anything about the murder and kidnapping. Sanford later turns out to be running a triple-dipping scam, which the detectives had no way of knowing about when they arrested him, but makes him retroactively deserving of being arrested and thrown in jail.
- Never My Fault: When Robert and Linda have to prove their eldest son Brandon is not Tyler (Robert having impregnated Jennifer when Linda was a few weeks to a month pregnant), Linda blames Robert for them being murder suspects because he didn't keep it in his pants. As we later find out, she is Jennifer's killer, meaning it's her fault there was a murder for them to be suspected of at all.
- Nice Guy: The episode emphasizes that everyone involved with the custody case at the end are good people who only want the best for Stephen/Tyler. Robert Cook is only shown to be the worse choice because Stephen/Tyler doesn't want to be with him and because removing him from his loving adoptive parents would be traumatic, not because Cook is necessarily a bad man.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Cragen puts to rest a murder case and solves the mystery of what happened to Stephen/Tyler. At the same time, the revelation of Stephen/Tyler's identity has devastating consequences for him and his adoptive family. In all fairness to Cragen, there was a murder and missing person case to solve and Jennifer's parents derserved closure.
- Nom de Mom: Tyler's birth surname is that of his mother.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Herbert and Margaret Talmadge suffered this when Linda killed Jennifer.
- Playing Catch with the Old Man: Robert Cook is introduced playing baseball with Tyler's half-brothers.
- Raised by Grandparents: Jennifer's parents were expecting to receive custody of Tyler after he was found and are shocked about Robert's intention to claim his parental rights.
- Relationship Revolving Door: Tyler's conception resulted from Robert sleeping with Jennifer while he and Linda were on an off period while they were dating in college.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Judge Serani is sympathetic to the Blakes and after granting Robert custody of Tyler because that's what the law requires, she urges that he continue to act in Tyler's best interest by keeping them in his life. The end of the episode indicates that he'll take that advice.
- Shout-Out: To the mothership series. The murder of Jennifer Talmadge and the kidnapping of her baby was originally Max Greevey's case prior to his murder in 1991.
- Single Sex Offspring: All 3 of Robert Cook's children are boys.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- The revelation that Tyler was kidnapped as a baby and handed over to an adoption broker with forged papers leads to a custody battle between his adoptive parents and biological father.
- Despite finding out the truth about his past, Tyler still prefers to be called by the name his adopted parents gave him as that's the name he's used to. He isn't going to start going by Stephen Talmadge after 12 years just because it's what his birth family gave him.
- While the Blakes are loving parents to Tyler, custody is ultimately granted to biological father Robert as he is a fit guardian and Tyler was given up for adoption by his kidnapper using forged papers, which nullifies the Blakes adoption. However, Judge Serani recognizes the Blakes are good parents and urges Robert to keep them in Tyler's life.
- Unbalanced By Rival's Kid: While unstated, it's possible the reason Linda took Stephen/Tyler after killing Jennifer was to avoid raising him alongside her own children.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Linda's hospital roommate when she was pregnant with Brandon told her about Mark Sanford. Had Linda not known about Sanford, she might have left Tyler, then known as Stephen, to be raised by his grandparents after killing Jennifer, avoiding the whole custody battle.
- What the Hell, Hero?: While Cragen was only doing his job, the Blakes are understandably upset with him due to the possibility that they'll lose custody of Tyler.Erin Blake: We are the only parents he has ever known. We were a happy family until you came along. How could you do this to us?!
