Enredo

A canister of frozen embryos is stolen from a fertility clinic. The SVU team race against the clock to retrieve it before the embryos are no longer suitable for implantation.

Someone broke into a fertility clinic and stole a tank containing frozen embryos. So, SVU works the case. It seems that the embryos are only viable as long as they're frozen and the tank only has a few days of liquid nitrogen left. They eventually find them. They were stolen by a couple who oppose fertility clinics. But they found them too late. After the couple are arraigned someone shoots the husband outside the courthouse. So they start by checking everyone who lost their embryos. They also suspect the wife because she left in a huff.—rcs0411@yahoo.com

The Hudson Cryobank is robbed of a cryotank containing a hundred frozen embryos. The Chief calls them potential children who've been kidnapped. So the Special Victims Unit is on the case. Elliot Stabler feels he has other cases to handle, but Olivia Benson says, "You know what they went through to get those embryos?" Stabler, who just had a son, replies: "I had kids the old fashioned way." Benson: "Some people aren't as blessed as you." The detectives Chester Lake and Fin Tutuola sense that Stabler has unintentionally hit a nerve with his partner. They decide to question the cryobank's clients while Stabler and Benson check out the clinic. Dr. Berlitz tells them that they have less than three days to find the cryotank before the liquid nitrogen in the tank evaporates. "Women are putting off having children longer and longer now," he says, a remark that makes Benson flinch. While at the lab Benson looks longingly at pictures conceived at the clinic through invitrofertilization. Lake and Tutuola come across two disguntled clients, Maya and Stan Jorgensen. Stan got a court order to hold Maya's embryos; Stan doesn't want kids and fears the costs involved with a divorce and possible child support. Outside of the Hudson Cryobank Benson and Stabler come across James and Victoria Grall, the married leaders of The Values Defense League, who liken fertility clinics to death camps. Olivia comes across Eva Sincle in the squad room. She had her embryos stolen, a cancer victim whose chemotherapy is preventing her from producing more eggs. Another monodrama leads Benson and Stabler to the home of the Harveys, a married couple who donated eggs to the clinic; the eggs came from the Harveys' brain damaged eight year old daughter, Alicia. Mrs. Harvey is unable to conceive again. "You'd be giving birth to your own grandchild," says Benson. "Without harvesting her eggs, our family line ends with Alicia," says Mrs. Harvey. Outside in the car, the likelihood of Benson becoming a mother is touched upon by Stabler. "You'd make a great mom. Maybe you should think about having kids," says Stabler to Benson. Munch comes across a group of children sired by the same man through a sperm bank, donor 1029. "Liv, if you're in the market, you could do worse than donor 1029," he cracks, not knowing he's talking to woman whose biological clock is ticking away. She thinks Stabler was talking about her behind her back. Olivia meets Eva in a diner. "I should've forced Dr. Berlitz to implant them . . . I thought I had a second shot at having life, and now this." Eva suddenly starts throwing questions at Olivia of a personal nature. "Do you have kids? Don't you want them? What are you waiting for?" The security cameras at the Hudson Cryobank show a cleaning lady who doesn't leave the building. When the detectives question Enrique, the regular cleaning person, he tells them that Carol the receptionist told him not to come in the night of the robbery. Carol, operating with the Values Defense League, let Victoria Grall in the building disguised as a cleaning woman. Then Victoria stole the cryotank. James and Victoria are arrested. In the interrogation room James tells the detectives that the eggs are being returned to the cryobank through an overnight delivery service. The detectives trace the delivery truck to 54th Street, where Fin breaks into the truck and the detectives rush the container back to Dr. Berlitz. It's too late---the nitrogen evaporated, the eggs died. Benson gives Eva the bad news. The Gralls make their first court appearance, and at the arraignment Eva shouts, "They should be charged with murder!" Hungry for publicity, James confronts reporters on the courthouse steps, where he is shot dead. Benson confronts Eva as a suspect. "Because of your actions somebody had to talk to you, and I thought you would prefer it be me," says Benson. "Why?" replies Eva. "Because we've become such good friends?" Eva has no alibi. They part company, with Eva addressing Olivia as "Detective Benson." The film taken on the courthouse steps by the reporters who filmed the shooting shows the assassin, but Dr. Berlitz cannot identify him. Victoria spoke to the assassin shortly before her husband's death, but he was friendly, saying she would be fine as long as James and Victoria had one another. Benson tells Stabler that a few months ago she looked into adoption. She was turned down for being single, not having an extended family support system, and working too much. "They didn't see me as prime parent material," she says. "They're wrong," says Stabler. Munch visits an imprisoned Carol, who tells him of Kelly Ryland, a soldier who had her eggs stored and frozen before going to Iraq. She came to the clinic with her husband Scott, who turns out to be the man in the picture Munch shows her. The gun is found in Scott's apartment, and Scott is found at LaGuardia Airport. Kelly was killed in Iraq, and the detectives find Scott by her coffin. "She had her eggs frozen so that if something like this happened she could still have a child. I would still have a part of her," says Scott. He is placed under arrest.