Captive Hearts (episode)

Information
"Captive Hearts" is the 16th episode of Martial Law. It first aired on February 20, 1999.

Summary
"Sammo and Terrell pursue a sweatshop manager who sells its workers' babies."

--DVD description

Synopsis
Terrell, disguised as a homeless man, is digging through a garbage bin outside of a building. A guard comes out of the building in an attempt to chase him away, which allows Sammo and Louis to enter unnoticed. Sammo and Louis find a sweatshop, with many women working to make clothes.

The men managing the shop spot the detectives and corner them with guns. Terrell enters the building and distracts them, allowing Sammo and Louis to attack and defeat the men. When the villains are all down, Louis finds a distraught Croatian woman hidden behind a table. She tells the detectives that someone has taken her baby.

The woman, Nadia, is taken to the hospital, where Sammo and Terrell visit her. Nadia tells them everything she knows, and says that a doctor took her baby--one she has never seen, since she was blindfolded. Sammo assures her that they will find her baby.

Sammo and Terrell go to the Immigration Department to stop them from deporting Nadia and the other women back to Croatia. There, Sammo happens to run into Melanie George --the woman he assisted and befriended in "Extreme Measures". They are happy to see each other, and Terrell gets the idea that they might be interested in each other on a more romantic level.

Meanwhile, Louis and Grace go to an outdoor photo shoot, where models in swimwear are being photographed. They speak with a man named Seth Payne. He seems surprised to learn that his clothes were being made by slave labor in the factory that the detectives shut down earlier. Seth tells the detectives that he sent his checks to someone named Mark Smith.

At the hospital, Sammo runs into Melanie again--she is speaking with Nadia, who is being released. Melanie offers to let Nadia stay at her home, and Sammo agrees. She also tells Sammo that her cooking has improved from taking a class, and hopes that he will come to try it sometime.

Louis and Grace wait at the post office to see who uses box 297. They spot two men who do, and inform them that they are under arrest. The men resist, but the detectives manage to restrain them with packing tape and bubble wrap to take them back to the station.

In the interrogation room, Winship questions one of the men--Jack. Jack eventually gives up the name of his employer. It is Nate Krill. He is a sweatshop proprietor who is involved in selling his workers' babies.

A bit later, Sammo and Terrell go to see Nadia at Melanie's house. Melanie provides them with milk and homemade mint brownies, which--after tasting them--they are more inclined to hide rather than eat, in order to spare Melanie's feelings. Sammo and Terrell then ask Nadia to join them on a drive, to see if she can remember anything.

In Nate Krill's hideout--a building full of mannequins and exercise rings--Krill meets with Jack, and shoots him. Krill then calls a doctor to discuss plans to sell the babies. Krill now wants them delivered tomorrow.

Sammo and Terrell are driving around the city with Nadia, hoping that she can help them find the building where she and the other women were kept. Though she was blindfolded, Nadia remembers hearing children at a playground and smelling bread from a sandwich shop. From this, the detectives are able to find the building. They ask Nadia to wait in the car.

Sammo, finding a long pipe, pole vaults into an upper story of the building. He disposes of a guard with the help of Terrell, who has quickly caught up with him. They soon find the room where the other women are, and tell them that they are here to help them.

Louis and Grace find a woman who sent a check to Krill because she thought his services would help her and her husband get a baby, which they were unable to have. From her, they finally learn the name and location of the doctor who is Krill's accomplice--Dr. R. A. Wilson. Undercover as a married couple seeking a child, the pair go to see him and ask about his services. As the doctor speaks, Grace discreetly records his voice with a device in her purse.

Later, Winship brings the tape to Nadia in the police station's kitchen. She confirms that this is the voice of the doctor who took her baby. Winship says that he will send Louis and Grace to arrest him.

When they do, they don't notice that Nate Krill is in a car nearby, and sees them take Dr. Wilson away. Krill goes into the building and takes the nurse at gunpoint, telling her that she is going to be delivering the babies. He takes all of the office's Pitocin, which is a drug used to induce labor in a pregnant woman.

While Terrell arrests a crooked INS agent named Arthur, who was aiding Krill, Sammo--at Melanie's house-- finally gathers the courage to ask her on a date. She agrees.

In the interrogation room, Dr. Wilson tells the team of the Self Storage facility where Krill is keeping the pregnant woman. The detectives go there, only to find it abandoned--Krill got there first. However, Terrell has gotten Krill's address from Arthur. He, Sammo and Winship hurry over to it to stop Krill once and for all.

They find him in his hideout, ordering the nurse to deliver the babies quickly. When they reveal themselves, Krill responds by firing his gun. Sammo quickly disarms him. He and Terrell take on Krill's henchmen as Winship tries to get the pregnant women and the nurse to safety. As Krill comes at Sammo, Sammo kicks him out the window, where he falls to his doom.

Later, Winship, Louis and Grace meet with Nadia. She has finally been reunited with her baby, and thanks the team for their help. She can't wait to show the baby to Melanie--who is currently on a date, dancing on a rooftop with Sammo.