The action-packed crossover kicked off with a distressed Ukrainian woman named Nadia arriving at a hospital with clear signs of abuse. Benson was called onto the scene, only for the woman to flee from the hospital upon learning her “brother” arrived. The 2-7 heard the alert over their radio, intercepting Nadia in a public courtyard. But just as Jessica Brady tried to help, Nadia was shot right after moving Brady out of the way of danger. Needless to say, the shooting instantly lit a fire under the squads to make sense of the chaos.

This jaw-dropping incident set the stage for an action-packed two-hour crossover event between Law & Order and SVU — here’s everything that happened.

Benson and Brady’s squads teamed up after a troubling murder

With Nadia’s death, the SVU and 2-7 teamed up on what became a truly mind-boggling investigation. After discovering that Nadia was trafficked and forcibly impregnated as a surrogate, Benson and Brady did their best to track down the perpetrator, but Brady struggled to hold back her fury after being saved by Nadia. As Brady’s interrogation tactics veered into murky territory, Benson encouraged her to keep her head on straight, but that proved difficult as the evidence painted a monstrous picture.

Turns out, Nadia had gone to the hospital after recently miscarrying; she sustained injuries from medical forceps that were crudely used. The squads followed a lead to a warehouse that one of Nadia’s drivers provided. At the abandoned power plant, the detectives discovered locked living quarters, abandoned baby pacifiers, and a full maternity ward and delivery room.

“Is this some kind of baby mill?” Detective Vincent Riley (Reid Scott) asked in shock.

Benson and Brady then visited one of Nadia’s friends, uncovering a trafficking scheme in which Ukrainian women would pay to become surrogates to gain U.S. citizenship, only to be abused by their recruiters upon arrival. Even worse, Benson and Brady realized there were 20 more embryos out there that someone was trafficking, 20 pregnant women in grave danger.

After discovering the murdered body of Nadia’s recruiter, they searched through the man’s recent messages, finding an angry couple demanding their baby. After visiting the ignorant couple and their newborn, the parents explained that they’d paid for a baby only to be ghosted by their recruiter, leading to their angry message. Benson explained that their baby was acquired on the black market and that they’d need to protect themselves amid the pending legal charges.

While touching base with D.A. Nicholas Baxter (Tony Goldwyn) about their wealth of evidence, Benson and Brady built their case: the underground baby mill had connections to a bogus charity named Hope Lifts, run by Sarah Tandon. Meanwhile, after gaining progress on the identity of Nadia’s shooter, the 2-7 and SVU followed the driver’s plates to a warehouse in Staten Island, where they found a cryo-bank, as well as the missing women.

After a tense shootout, the detectives found documents from Hudson Fertility Group, learning that Hudson gave embryos to charities in hopes that the child would be matched with devout couples and be raised in “faithful” homes.

Brady and Benson discovered a baby farm run by white supremacists

Aware that Sarah Tandon’s charity was set to receive 400 more embryos, Brady brought her into the precinct and confronted Sarah on the charges ahead of her.

“These charities perform a real public service for faithful people struggling with what to do with extra embryos,” Brady said. “People who want to be loving parents, and you knew that, and you exploited it. I can almost admire the business model and tell these women they’re gonna become U.S. citizens, so they pay for their own trafficking, and your raw materials, the embryos, you get donated from the fertility clinic. It’s just pure profit.”

But what was the endgame, Brady wondered? Sarah wouldn’t talk, and the A.D.A.s got to work on figuring out how to best frame the case and collect more evidence. After looking through Sarah’s messages, they visited one of the embryo delivery locations, finding an abandoned warehouse with white supremacist imagery scattered on the walls. After checking out an external shed, the squads found a jaw-dropping arsenal of firearms, bombs, and explosives.

Just as the squads realized the gravity of this operation, Detective Terry Bruno (Kevin Kane) heard a faint ticking in the room. Benson mobilized the squads to get out as soon as possible, escaping the building within minutes of it being set ablaze. However, amid the explosion, Bruno sustained significant injuries from being hit by shrapnel. Bruno suffered significant blood loss while being whisked to the hospital, at one point even flatlining in the ambulance, but fortunately pulled through with his Captain Benson at his side.

The Law & Order and SVU lawyers were tossed through the wringer

After uncovering a mountain of evidence connecting Hope Lifts to hate groups, Sarah tried to play victim, claiming that her husband — who was recently shot by authorities — was actually the one pulling the strings regarding their corrupt charity, twisting her dream to help women into something evil. But Benson and Brady smelled through the tearful act quickly, and were emboldened even further after connecting Sarah Tandon’s charity to a eugenic company operated by Joseph Dahlsonn.

Dahlsonn was a trust-fund millionaire who helped finance the entire conspiracy, housing the many trafficked women after recently investing in a genetics company that completed questionable testing on embryos. The “end game” finally materialized: Sarah Tandon was abusing these women in her quest to donate 400 embryos to the eugenics company run by the bigoted Dahlsonn. But with Dahlsonn operating under the ruse of completing testing to help children by treating medical conditions in the womb, the squads had a mighty complicated trial ahead of them.

Knowing he would go down with Sarah Tandon, Dahlsonn’s lawyer reached out to the lawyers and said he could prove Sarah had put out the hit on Nadia, as long as they made a plea deal: all charges dropped and the return of Dahlsonn’s intended shipment of embryos. While the squads were irritated to make a plea deal with a racist psychopath, it was their best option.

After Dahlsonn revealed that Sarah had disposed of several dead bodies in a massive unmarked grave, they had everything they needed to secure a guilty verdict from the jury. But this plea deal sat wrong with everyone as Dahlsonn’s racist rhetoric permeated throughout his testimony.

Throughout the trial, it was blatantly obvious how sinister Dahlsonn’s company was after Sarah’s defense went after Dahlsonn’s history of white supremacy and highlighted his eugenic practices. While Dahlsonn was released from prison and technically gained custody of the embryos, the squads notified the donor families, leading to an injunction and the judge putting a halt to the forfeiture of the embryos.

The judge determined that due to Dahlsonn’s dubious legal means in acquiring the embryos, the court decided that the fate of the embryos would be the same if none of the parties had been involved in the first place: medically discarded.

Justice didn’t come easily for the SVU and 2-7 detectives, but it’s safe to say they saved the day yet again.