A 1-year-old girl briefly disappears from a park and is found nearby, unconscious and with any evidence that she was abused. Further investigation reveals the she suffered shaken baby syndrome, so SVU turns their attention the two babysitters, the mother, and the mother's boyfriend as likely culprits.
Tropes
- And I Must Scream: The doctor's description of Lucy's condition indicates that she has just enough brain function left to feel pain and nothing else. While no one can be sure, the doctor indicates that she believes Lucy is constantly in pain due to the way her body is breaking down.
- Anti-Climax: Stabler is breaking Sarah down, it looks like he's going to get the truth of what happened to Lucy from her, she admits "I know it was wrong, but did it" - and then it turns out what she did is steal petty cash, and Stabler is no closer to closing the case.
- Child Hater: Evelyn’s boyfriend isn’t fond of Lucy, especially after she vomited on him the one time he picked her up, but even then he didn’t shake her. The part about her vomiting ends up being a vital clue.
- Didn't Think This Through: Veronica Nash tells the detectives that Lucy's nanny slapped her for misbehaving at a museum. It apparently didn't occur to her that the detectives would speak to the museum's employees to corroborate her story. Veronica was subsequently arrested because the tour guide revealed that Veronica slapped Lucy for something that the museum didn't even consider a problem.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Lucy gets hit with this twice by Veronica Nash (who slaps her for more or less being an overly excited toddler) and her own mother (Lucy wouldn’t stop crying when Evelyn had time alone with her boyfriend so she shakes Lucy so violently that she breaks her ribs and causes brain damage).
- I Need a Freaking Drink: A deeply disturbed and upset Stabler has multiple glasses of whiskey after the case is cleared.
- In-Universe Factoid Failure: The reporter doesn't bother to vet Veronica's easily refuted lies about Sarah before he informs on her to the cops and publishes his story in the Tribune.Munch: The only thing that paper's good for is lining my birdcage.
- Moment of Weakness: Evelyn was spending time with her boyfriend and finally had some time to herself for the first time in a long time, and then Lucy started crying and wouldn't stop. In a fit of anger, Evelyn shook her until she stopped.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Stabler recalls a time his daughter spilled grape juice on a new carpet, causing him to strike her. He immediately had this reaction and still chokes up about it years later because he "could have killed my kid over a lousy carpet."
- Evelyn has this reaction over causing her daughter's coma, once she gets over her denial about it.
- Would Hurt a Child: Evelyn Prichard shook Lucy hard enough to cause severe damage to her brain, not to mention that she was grabbing her hard enough to break her ribs in the process. Made a little bit murky in the sense that she didn't plan to hurt Lucy, and she certainly didn't intend to cause her serious harm; she just snapped in the heat of the moment and the results ended up being catastrophic (something which Stabler indirectly acknowledges by comparing it to a time he lost his temper with his own then-toddler daughter).
- Veronica Nash, who wasn't even Lucy's babysitter, is found to have gone completely overboard and slapped Lucy in the face for her misbehavior on an earlier occasion. She's subsequently fired and arrested as a result. However, she did not shake Lucy.
