Written By Julie Martin and Warren Leight
Directed By Peter Leto
A baby goes missing on Halloween night, but the story that the distraught parents give the SVU soon develops holes as their stories don't match up and detectives soon turn their attention to gathering evidence to determine which parent killed the child.
Tropes
- All for Nothing: The entire plan Ali and Tim came up with is rendered pointless with the reveal that Nate died of SIDS and not accidentally being smothered as they thought.
- Ambiguous Situation: It's never made clear if Tim's actually abusive towards Ali or not. We know he's never hurt his son, but he's shown to have a temper and there was that report of domestic abuse Ali's sister filed (Ali says he "shook her a little" and Tim says her sister hates him); some of Ali's dialogue sounds very similar to the way abuse victims defend their abusers' actions. On the other hand, the worst we see Tim do is yelling at Ali and that was part of their act. And she's turned out to be the driving force behind their plan and seems to be the leader in their relationship. She also mentions working as a debt collector - implying she knows how to deal with, and is not afraid of, angry people. So it's possible he's just emotional but not dangerous and she has no problem handling him.
- Break Them by Talking: Olivia with Tim and Amaro with Ali.
- Continuity Nod: Olivia is shown happily accompanying Calvin Arliss, who she was previously given custody of in the first half of Season 12, and his grandparents at a Halloween festival in the opening scene. Calvin was last seen in Season 12, Episode 10 "Rescue" being separated from Olivia and sent to his grandparents.
- Death of a Child: The episode is about finding the cause of three-month-old baby's death.
- Empathic Environment: It's raining when they find the baby's body buried at the beach with his blanket and toys.
- The Punishment Is the Crime: SVU chooses to cut the couple loose after The Reveal that their baby died of SIDS and it was All for Nothing. They're not punished for putting the city through the false search because living with the loss of their baby is punishment enough.
