Inconceivable (Season 9, Episode 14)
Premise: The theft of 100 frozen embryos sends the squad through a fertility clinic’s most contentious clients, and the activists behind it set off a fatal act of revenge.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 9, Episode 14
- Starring
- Det. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Det. Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni), Sgt. John Munch (Richard Belzer), Det. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Det. Chester Lake (Adam Beach), Capt. Donald Cragen (Dann Florek), ADA Casey Novak (Diane Neal), Chief of Detectives Muldrew (John Schuck), Judge Lena Petrovsky (Joanna Merlin)
- Guest stars
- Mark Moses as James Grall, Janine Turner as Victoria Grall, Gabrielle Anwar as Eva Sintzel, Kevin Kane as Scott Ryland, Richard Masur as Dr. Berletch
- Director
- Chris Zalla
- Writers
- Dawn DeNoon
Summary
“Inconceivable” opens at the Hudson Cryobank, where a blonde woman flees with a portable cryotank, knocking down a man who tries to stop her. Chief of Detectives Muldrew, after admiring a photo of Stabler’s newborn son, Eli, hands the squad the case: the tank holds about 100 frozen embryos, one set belonging to the police commissioner, and they will last only a few more days. Clients with grievances include Maya Jorgensen, who is fighting her ex-husband, Stan, over their embryos. James and Victoria Grall of the Values Defense League call fertility clinics death camps but deny any role in the theft. Eva Sintzel, left infertile by chemotherapy, tells Benson the stolen embryos are her last chance at motherhood.
A Long Island couple, the Harveys, stored eggs taken from their profoundly disabled eight-year-old daughter, Alicia, whose growth they are also stunting; Benson objects, while Stabler defends the parents and encourages her to have children of her own. Jocelyn Miller, a little person, quarreled with her doctor for refusing to implant an embryo that would share her dwarfism. Then Munch spots a blonde “cleaning woman” on security video who hid overnight in the clinic. The regular cleaner says receptionist Carol told him to skip his shift, and Carol admits she let in the Gralls, with Victoria in a wig. Arrested on live television, the couple say they shipped the embryos back, but the package was not sent for early delivery. The detectives chase down the delivery truck, but the liquid nitrogen has run out and the embryos are lost.
At the arraignment, Eva shouts that the Gralls should face murder charges, but the charges stand, with bail of $10,000 apiece. James then holds a news conference on the courthouse steps and is shot dead by a man who hid a handgun under a jacket draped over a microphone. Benson questions Eva as a suspect and later tells Stabler that an adoption agency turned her down. News footage shows the gunman speaking kindly to Victoria minutes earlier, and Carol, held at Rikers, recognizes him as the husband of Kelly Ryland, a reservist who had her eggs frozen before she deployed to Iraq.
Spoiler, the ending: A search of Scott Ryland’s apartment turns up a pistol and a note reading “LaGuardia, 2:45,” which proves to be an arrival rather than a flight out. The detectives find Scott at the airport as Kelly’s body comes home; she was killed when a suicide car bomber struck her supply convoy. He says her eggs were all he had left of her and that her death drew none of the attention the Gralls got. Arrested, he says his own time has already run out.
Why it stands out
- Stabler shows off his newborn son, Eli, whose birth is the subject of the season’s earlier episode “Paternity.”
- Mark Moses and Janine Turner play activists James and Victoria Grall, with Gabrielle Anwar as Eva Sintzel and Meredith Eaton as Jocelyn Miller.
- Benson reveals that she looked into adoption and was rejected because she is single and works long hours.