The fall finale of Found (Season 1 Episode 11) finally gave us some much-anticipated insight into a few storylines that have been top-of-mind throughout the season, including what happened to Annie (Sir’s previous victim) and how Gabi was taken in the first place.
In the corporate world, this would be called “moving the needle,” and while I understand the sentiment behind holding these crucial pieces of information until later in the season (you have to build anticipation and intrigue somehow), it provided so much necessary context for audiences to better understand Gabi’s overall situation, approach, and mindset.
And that doesn’t even begin to touch on the fact that Gabi slipped up in a moment of weakness and said something that not only made Trent pause but likely gave him incentive to start digging into the Sir case unlike ever before. Some might call this a big breakthrough for him—and if he’s the one to crack it wide open, it would elevate his police work, though it would come at the expense of his friendship, and maybe more, with Gabi. While Trent is one of the good cops, he cares deeply about Gabi, so I’m not convinced that he’d totally turn his back on her if he were to find out about her big basement secret.
Gabi also makes a big decision about the future, but we’ll get to that in a moment. First up, the case of the week, which focused on a missing Black man named Brandon and a white woman named Alison, who he was accused of stalking and possibly kidnapping.
Despite all of their collective trauma—along with the lack of faith from the public after they lost and regained their license—M&A pushed through and took home yet another win, which may not be something audiences want to see. Rumblings on the internet indicate that people want to see them lose more cases for a series more rooted in reality, however, there’s something to be said for Gabi’s impeccable track record. It’s why we’re so invested in the show in the first place, isn’t it? We’re rooting for them to keep doing the work to find the people that the police don’t think are worth their time, even if we have to suspend disbelief about how she skirts the red tape. The show is meant to inspire change—to serve up storylines that are often forgotten about or dismissed.
Gabi is a modern heroine—similar to Scandal’s Olivia Pope, who was equally as frustrating at times. She has the right idea and goes above and beyond to help others, but she’s also deeply flawed, which simply adds layers to her character—ones we get to unpeel with each passing episode. Audiences are allowed to decide whether the good outweighs the bad in this case: is she worth redeeming or is she slowly sinking into a black hole of her own making?
Gabi acts first and thinks later, and while following her gut works most of the time (and it’s one of the things she prides herself on) there are times when it isn’t always effective. During “Missing While Interracial,” it backfired when she went on live television to defend her client, Brandon, without having all of the facts first. While her gut instinct about Brandon was right—and she was one of the few people who didn’t cross him off because of video footage that made him look bad—the perception that the video of him buying rope and a knife was enough to sway the public to side with Alison’s side.
What was even more infuriating about Gabi’s misstep is that she sought to blame her team for not digging up the intel faster than the opposing side, instead of accepting that she took to live television without covering her bases. Time is of the essence in these cases, but it was a rookie move, especially for her, and one she couldn’t even take ownership of. She so badly wants to do the right thing and bring these people home that she sometimes gets ahead of herself.
Gabi and team then had to work even harder to clear Brandon’s name in the court of public opinion, as Alison’s mother and Harwell Justice placed a huge target on his back, all while seemingly discrediting Gabi. Things got messy, but Gabi knew that the truth was in there somewhere, even if the connection between Brandon, a Black man and nurse reservist in the navy, and a white woman, who was in a long-term relationship with some hedge fund manager, remained somewhat hazy. All eyes immediately shifted to the shady boyfriend, Robert Franklin, who seemed all too calm about his girlfriend’s disappearance, and while he didn’t end up being the suspect, he was involved in sending the “leave me alone” text to Brandon from Alison’s phone, which initially made it seem like Brandon was a stalker who had it out for Alison.
In a somewhat surprising twist, Alison and Brandon were actually in love!
One of the criticisms that I’ve seen about the series is that there’s too much of a focus on race, but the reality here is that race plays a role in every single narrative in our world. And similarly to how it played out on Found, the media will defend a white woman over a Black man without many, or any, facts. Look how quickly Brandon became the villain while Alison became the only person that everyone was concerned about. Both mothers were dealing with the same situation, and yet one was, by default, prepared to deal with all the media headlines harassing her son because of his skin color, despite knowing that he only wanted to help others. The mother’s speech to Margaret about why she wanted her son to find a Black woman was also very powerful.
In that regard, Gabi’s no-bias approach, giving everyone the benefit of the doubt and treating them all innocent until proven guilty, is why she’s so successful and why people seek out her help. She promised to look for Alison with the same fervor as she vowed to look for Brandon. And when she realized that the two of them were in a relationship, one that they kept hidden from the world because of all the negative opinions, she brought their parents together in one room and forced them to work together.
Eventually, a search mission kicked off for the couple, who told a friend they were going on a romantic getaway somewhere special but then failed to return after several days, indicating something went terribly wrong. Once they found Brandon and Alison, it was as bad as they feared as she fell and sustained a bloody injury, while Brandon remained by her side and created an IV that served as an improvised blood bank to keep her alive, simultaneously draining himself of life.
In the media, Brandon was painted as Alison’s kidnapper when in reality, he was risking his life to save hers. See how easy it is to change the narrative? Obviously, it goes both ways as we’ve seen in our everyday lives, but in this case, the storyline was a promising one, which was nice to see in a world where so much boils down to race. Though, admittedly, this could have been the case where one of the died, giving the audiences the dose of “reality” they’re craving.
Aside from the compelling case of the week, Gabi made strides in finding out the truth about Annie, which turns out, was far from what she thought happened. Sir isn’t to be trusted, however, he was telling the truth when he said he never killed Annie, though, he did render her mentally unstable and cause her to lose credibility with her parents, which is kind of just as bad and explains why she never came back to help Gabi escape. Gabi scolds him for turning people into the monster that he is, once again skirting responsibility for her actions and blaming someone else. Sir is a bad man, yes, but he never told Gabi to kidnap him—she could’ve easily turned him over to the cops and put an end to all of this.
When it came to Annie, she didn’t return because no one would have believed her story as Hugh/Sir basically turned everyone against her. And Gabi’s mission to avenge Annie’s death fell apart because, well, Annie only died a few years ago following a drunk driving accident.
When Trent informed Gabi about Annie’s death, she fell into such a daze that she uttered, “Sir has been telling me the truth,” which obviously shook the cop to his core. When he pressed on asking if she’d had any contact with Sir, she tried to backtrack, explaining that Sir “once” told her the truth, but Trent’s radar was already going off. He knows Gabi better than anyone, so I don’t think he’s going to let this go as easily as she’s hoping.
Despite all the wins M&A continues to have, Gabi has been off her game lately ever since Sir has taken up a much larger piece of real estate in her mind. She was bound to slip up sooner or later, not to mention that people have been taking notice of her behavior. And when it gets to be too much for her to handle alone, who will Gabi turn to?
Then again, once Gabi learned the truth about Annie, she informed Sir that she was done with this little cat-and-mouse game of lies and manipulations as it’s cost her everything and prevented her from moving on, and then, as Sir begged her not to, she made a call to someone to tell them about Sir.
FOUND — “Missing While Interracial” Episode 111 — Pictured: (l-r) Shanola Hampton as Gabi Mosely, Karan Oberoi as Dahn Rana, Gabrielle Elise Walsh as Lacey Quinn, Kelli Williams as Margaret Reed — (Photo by: Steve Swisher/NBC)
It’s unclear who is on the other end of the line, but my guess is either Trent or Lacey, with my gut saying that it’s Lacey. It’s the one person that Gabi feels especially guilty about lying to, plus the only other person who was involved in Sir’s kidnapping plot. If anyone deserves to know the truth, and decide what to do with it, it’s Lacey.
However, it’s also not entirely clear if Gabi will go through with telling someone the truth and implicating herself in the process. Would her team stand by her if they found out what she did? Would Trent defend her or risk his career to protect her? It’s possible she placed a call to Trent and once he arrives, she’s going to chicken out.
We also got plenty of insight into the moment that Gabi was “taken,” and it turns out, she actually wasn’t taken in the same way Lacey was—she willingly went with her English teacher thinking that she was going to check out some cool books.
It’s an interesting setup because it underscores that most of the time, the kidnapper is someone you know. And while it would be easy to place the blame on Gabi—”Why did she go with him?” or “Why did she lie to her dad about her whereabouts”?—it’s not Gabi’s fault at all; she was an impressionable young woman who trusted her teacher, and that trust was betrayed and taken advantage of. Hugh Evans, an adult, knew exactly what he was doing, and once Gabi started to pick up on it, it was too late.
This wasn’t a random kidnapping—Hugh didn’t want anything romantic with Gabi, but he did want a family, someone that he felt was “likeminded” and could understand him. He was grooming Gabi and figured that eventually, she’d give up and fall in line with the life he envisioned for them, and in a way, he got his wish. He may not be in control, but he still has a strong hold over her even as a prisoner, and when it comes to her personal life, he has the biggest piece of her heart—regardless if it’s in a good or bad way. Their storylines are so intertwined that I don’t think Gabi even knows who she is without Sir around, which isn’t ideal for healing any of the trauma or moving forward.
The person making the most strides? Margaret! And man, I just really want to give her the biggest hug.
She continued her therapy, trying to break through the guilt that she felt for Jamie’s disappearance, and the scene where she tried to let go of him at the bus station was so deeply heartbreaking. I do hope that there will be a breakthrough in the case—even if it isn’t what she’s hoping for—so that she can get some closure, and I’m naively holding out hope that they will find Jamie alive and well in the future.
Margaret’s storyline has been front and center for a few episodes, so I’m also eager to get a little more insight into the rest of the team, including Lacey and Zeke’s romantic connection.
What did you think about the Found fall season finale? There will be two more episodes airing in 2024 to finish out the season. What do you hope they accomplish? Is there something you’d like to see more of?