Found Episode 2 Recap and Review- Missing While Sinning- NBC’s Procedural Gives Us Complex Characters I Can’t Look Away From

Trauma, power imbalances, and guilt can be destabilizers. Intense trauma and guilt propel you forward in good and bad ways. Found Episode 2 continues to explore how each of the Mosely Agency has been affected by their pain. It also continues to delve into the psyche of Hugh Evans, aka Sir(Mark-Paul Gosselaar). This cast of characters is the most unique in television for some time. Sir isn’t just a bad guy. There is complexity and psychosis that makes him both terrifying and sympathetic, and Gabi(Shanola Hampton) and her group are all driven by the very things they don’t want to define them. This series won’t just be a victim of the week series but a deep dive into what makes us all tick.

Gabi is on a mission. A driven to save as many people who have fallen through the cracks as she can. She is also compelled to prove Sir did not break her. All of the group has trauma they have tried to outrun or turn into positives. Lacey has turned her fear into victim compassion and armor against the group’s inevitable run-in with the police. She doesn’t know Gabi has been keeping Sir for nearly a year. I can’t help but think that her sense of betrayal will be profound when she finds out. Gabi talks about Sir having no longer power over her, but that isn’t true. If he weren’t still in her head, she would at least let Lacey and the others know about the prisoner in her basement.

That’s the thing with perceptions, though. They are tied to the perceiver and are often faulty. It is why Dahn(Karan Oberoi) dislikes Zeke(Arlen Escarpeta) so much and why Gabi insists she isn’t a monster. Dahn’s husband is right to force him to confront his past. He hates Zeke because he sees what he perceives as his own weakness. Zeke’s childhood isolated him from everyone, leaving him afraid to walk out his front door. These two are good for one another, and seeing a healthy male friendship develop is just one of many exciting and real things about Found Episode 2.

A battle with a delivery just beyond Zeke’s porch leaves him with a nasty head wound and a new person he can count on. Dahn and Zeke aren’t friends yet, but their uneasy relationship is growing and will provide both something they desperately need. Watching men be vulnerable is sorely needed in storytelling. Not every man engages in toxic masculinity and detachment. Watching two intelligent men with emotional baggage find one another is refreshing and more representative of authentic relationships.

A sex worker named Jenny is the abducted victim of the week. She had a stalker who had escalated in the last few months and a lot of clients who were all suspects. As an escort, Jenny’s case has been largely ignored. Detective Trent spent time working on the stalking case, which makes things even messier. Her friends and a roommate are worried about her. A missing painting is the only clue to her disappearance. Not many of her clients want to talk, and one is obviously uncomfortable.

After questioning all her clients and playing head games with Sir, Gabi realizes they are looking in the wrong places. Jenny’s abductor isn’t a client but probably the stalker. The stalker is drawn to the fantasy. They have created a reality that Jenny is theirs to have. They perceive a love affair that isn’t there, much like Sir’s perception of Gabi. He really thought Gabi would want to celebrate a full year together because he was lost in the fantasy he created. Gabi is lost in a similar space where she believes the ends justify the means. She vehemently refuses to believe she is a monster like Sir because she doesn’t withhold food and is using his brain power for good. His trigger is mess, though, and his rigid rules on moral purity and cleanliness leave him vulnerable. Gabi isn’t withholding food, but she is holding that over him.

The two have a captivating push and pull where neither is truly victim or captor. He still has power over her memories and actions, and she literally controls his life. Sir planted those seeds of compassion, sympathy, and hatred twenty years ago. Her good works further blur the thin line between obsession, madness, and commitment. Gabi has convinced everyone, including herself, that she is a hero. She is. However, she is ruled by her trauma. Until she deals with it, she and Detective Trent can never find love, regardless of how much chemistry they have.

Gosselaar continues to shine in Found Episode 2. His Sir is so erratic and unique. He isn’t a preening sociopath with a taste for human flesh or a typical predator. He is a pathetic pretender and a magnetic powerhouse rolled into one good-looking package. As the series continues, I would love to find out if he has trauma in his past that has informed his future just like the others. What ghosts still haunt him?

Lots of series have tried similar ground. The damaged but driven team of brilliant heroes and an equally brilliant psychopath working together. Hannibal Lecter, Breakout Kings, Profiler, CSI, and Criminal Minds. The list goes on. However, Found has established new ground by giving each character an authentic voice. Neither is entirely good or bad, and they all have depths waiting to be plumbed.

For now, I am content watching the dynamic develop between them all. Their collaboration is working. Jenny, who hadn’t been abducted but was hiding from her stalker, could return to her life after the group caught her stalker. Jenny’s life won’t be the same as the person she was helping had made her unsafe, and the art gallery that was a refuge is where her stalker first met her. Hopefully, reconciling with her mother will give her the support she needs.

The best thing about Found Episode 2 is the core characters and their chemistry with one another. What motivates them, controls them, frightens them, and holds them back is the lifeblood of the series. These are people I want to examine. I want to be inside their complicated minds, even the criminal ones. Find all our Found coverage here.