Written By Mick Betancourt
Directed By Peter Leto
Several prostitutes are found murdered with a prayer card left on their bodies, leading detectives to suspect a religious zealot (Lee Tergesen). The only surviving witness (Mischa Barton), however, is heavily pregnant and her self-harming behavior ultimately leaves Olivia with a difficult choice to make in the end.
Tropes
- Artistic License – Medicine: The show implies that Gladys' 24-week-gestation baby has a minuscule chance of surviving to adulthood without severe disabilities. In real life, 60% of babies born at 24 weeks survive to adulthood, of whom one-third have a significant disability such as cerebral palsy.
- Continuity Nod: One of the friends of a victim mentions the Governor of New York was hiring prostitutes. This is a reference to the Governor Shalvoy storyline on the parent show.
- Knight Templar: Villain of the Week Minister Skags, who despite claiming to be an instrument of God, decides to forego the commandment of "Thou Shalt Not Kill" and goes on a murderous spree targeting specifically prostitutes. In his eyes, they were already damned to hell and death is their only way out.
- Left Hanging: The episode ends like this. A young prostitute goes into premature labor and her baby is put on life support. The mother then runs away, giving power of attorney to Olivia, effectively giving Olivia the choice of whether the baby lives or dies. The episode ends with the baby needing immediate brain surgery and the doctors hammering Olivia for a decision that she never gives. This turns into a case of What Happened to the Mouse?, as neither the baby nor the mother are ever seen or heard from again.
- Pre-Mortem One-Liner: "Are you ready to meet your father?" Said by Skags before he goes for the kill.
- Promotion to Parent: Newly-ex-prostitute Gladys Dalton gives Olivia power of attorney over her very premature, very ill infant daughter while she (the ex-prostitute) gets her life to a point where she can be a good mother (at least, that's what she said). Earlier, Olivia tells Elliot that she would rather stop caring for the infant because there's no chance she'll have a normal, healthy life (Elliot disagrees and accuses her of coming to that decision because she's not a parent); the episode has a No Ending when the baby needs emergency surgery, and Liv is forced to decide whether to allow an operation which could leave the kid brain-damaged or let her die, and since the baby hasn't been mentioned since...
- Villainous Breakdown: After Gladys bleeds her life story in court, Skags just loses it, going on a long-winded rant stating that she deserved death and that the devil has claimed her soul from the very beginning, getting himself indicted to the maximum sentence of second-degree murder in the process.
