Wednesday's Child (Season 15, Episode 14)
Premise: A mother secretly gives away her troubled adopted son through an online broker, and SVU races to find him before his insulin runs out.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 15, Episode 14
- Starring
- Sgt. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Det. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Det. Nick Amaro (Danny Pino), Det. Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish), Dr. Peter Lindstrom (Bill Irwin)
- Guest stars
- Rosanna Arquette as Alexa Pierson, Mark Boone Junior as Roger Pierson, John Benjamin Hickey as Tom Moore, Jodie Markell as Lisa Moore, Josh Pais as Deputy Commissioner Hank Abraham
- Director
- Laura Belsey
- Writers
- Story: Warren Leight; Story & teleplay: Peter Blauner
Summary
“Wednesday’s Child” opens with a ticking metronome and a voice taunting Benson. In therapy with Dr. Peter Lindstrom, she describes the strain of looking after the whole squad and admits she briefly thought she was pregnant; the test was negative, and Cassidy was relieved. Dr. Tom Moore, a United Nations doctor home from Bangkok, finds his seven-year-old son, Nicky, gone from his bed, and his wife, Lisa, insists the boy was asleep. Adopted two years earlier from an orphanage in the Republic of Georgia, Nicky has attachment problems, no fear of strangers and type 1 diabetes, and his insulin pump holds only three days’ supply.
Keys, a street man who moves parked cars, tells detectives Lisa left the previous Tuesday and returned Sunday night with no sign of Nicky. Pressed on her timeline, Lisa breaks down: worn out by six weeks alone with the boy, she gave him to a broker she found online, signed over power of attorney and never told Tom. The prosecutor says Connecticut allows such “re-homing” and SVU has no jurisdiction, but Benson argues that Tom never agreed, which makes it a case, and orders an Amber Alert. Police spokesman Hank Abraham wants the story out. The broker gave Nicky to a couple using fake names: Roger and Alexa Pierson, a wheelchair-using porn producer and a former porn actress, both registered sex offenders who look for unwanted adopted children online.
In a house the couple fled, detectives find a recording of two young girls, Stella and Madison, introducing Nicky to online viewers. Tom’s phone then warns that Nicky’s blood sugar is soaring and his pump is almost empty. Alexa is caught trying to buy insulin at a pharmacy; Benson reaches her by bringing up the premature baby she lost, and she gives up a motel. There detectives find Stella, Madison, an older girl, Caitlin, who says Roger now makes the younger girls perform on webcam, and a baby Roger brought home as a present for Alexa. Roger has taken Nicky to the airport, where cameras show the supposedly disabled man walking. Arrested, he admits leaving Nicky at a doughnut shop.
Spoiler, the ending: Guessing that Nicky is trying to go home, Benson checks a flight bound for Atlanta, Georgia, and finds him unconscious on board; he recovers. Benson tells Lisa how lucky she is to have him back, and Tom promises Nicky he will be away less. Benson declines to stand beside the mayor at his press conference, citing charges still to file and parents still to find. No one claims the baby, and a family court judge declares him a destitute child in the care of children’s services. The metronome ticks again.
Why it stands out
- Rosanna Arquette makes a special guest appearance as Alexa Pierson, with Mark Boone Junior as her husband, Roger.
- Josh Pais’s Hank Abraham also appears earlier in the season in “October Surprise”; here Benson notes he ran the losing campaign.
- Pablo Schreiber is credited as William Lewis, Benson’s kidnapper from the season premiere, for the taunting voice that opens the episode.