Found Finale Puts Gabi on the Defensive for Season 2

After a season of being in control of nearly every decision, case, and circumstance on NBC’s Found, private investigator Gabi Mosely (Shanola Hampton) now finds herself out of control — opening the door to an intriguing future for the series with the tables now turned.

The Season 1 finale of Nkechi Okoro Carroll’s gripping missing persons drama, which aired Tuesday night, saw the inevitable unraveling of the once unshakable kidnapping survivor-turned-recovery specialist, who, up until this point, had built a respected career and reputation on doing everything possible to bring justice to the forgotten. After all, Gabi had been secretly holding her former captor, Sir (Mark-Paul Gosselaar), in her basement and using him to solve near impossible cases — unbeknownst to her trusted inner circle at Mosley & Associates — for a long, long time. For however strong Gabi presents herself to be, the mental and emotional anguish that comes from withholding that kind of information and the years of trauma associated with it is bound to make someone snap.

And she does by the end of the finale, “Missing While Forgotten.” After first revealing her long-held secret to her most loyal soldier, Dhan (Karan Oberoi), in the penultimate episode and confidentially seeking his help, Gabi decides it’s finally time to come clean to the rest of the team by scheduling a meeting for the next morning. But it’s television, so a series of events delays that meeting from happening: Sir escaping Gabi’s basement and leaving clues for her to gradually discover. A well-timed lead on an unsolved case of a missing Black girl named Tasheika that had deeply affected Gabi — parallels to her own grief over her father’s death was a root cause for her attachment — causes her to temporarily shift focus to rescue the young teenager.

Even with the looming threat of Sir and the reality that she will likely face retribution for abducting him, Gabi (and the M&A team) successfully save Tasheika, adding another photo to the “found” wall of once lost individuals. Unfortunately, the bond that’s been established between Gabi and her found family won’t ever be the same again. Gabi comes to the haunting realization that Sir will always have a grip on her. No amount of distance or justice-seeking will ever change that, at least for right now.

“Helping me is his purpose now. He thinks it binds us. He’s never going to stop hunting me… He’s never going to let me go,” she confides in Dhan after it comes to light that Sir was the one who provided the timely tip that led to Takeisha’s safe return. Telling her team the unsavory truth of his involvement in their cases is the only way to “end it,” Gabi concludes.

The dialogue-less scene that follows is simple in execution but incredibly powerful in meaning, as the severity of Gabi’s confession in the M&A conference room and the consequences that follow are now major questions for Season 2 to answer. The devastating reactions of her associates — legal aid Lacey (Gabrielle Walsh), who has the most to lose due to her trauma bond with Sir and Gabi; lead investigator Margaret (Kelli Martin); and tech wiz Zeke (Arlen Escarpeta) — convey all that needs to be communicated in that moment. The truth of Gabi’s connection to Sir tarnishes and discredits their life’s work and worse yet, opens them up to legal and moral examination.

All that is a moot point if Sir keeps the eerie promise he once made to Gabi if she ever severed their “partnership” for any reason: He would find Lacey and kill her. (Remember, Sir kidnapped Lacey, then named Bella, to appease Gabi all those years ago.) True to form, he leaves clues that he’s one move away from doing so. The timing couldn’t be worse; as Gabi frantically phones Lacey to warn her of impending danger, the call goes unanswered. If poisoning Lacey’s dog wasn’t enough, the final scene of the season shows Sir creepily slipping into the darkness inside Lacey’s deadbolted apartment.

A lot is at stake for Found heading into Season 2. The jam-packed finale sets into motion an unnerving yet electrifying cat-and-mouse game between Gabi and Sir, who currently have one of the most satisfyingly complicated dynamics on TV, that puts the former on the defensive for the first time in a long while. There were cracks in Gabi’s armor throughout the season, but how does she fare without any semblance of control?

Thus far, Found has effectively balanced absorbing cases of the week that add weight to or amplify the main characters’ journeys against the more serialized nature of Gabi and Sir’s toxic arc. Many layers have already been peeled back on their history, but there’s room for other characters’ backstories, like Gabi’s M&A colleagues, to get the spotlight, notably Margaret in her years-long search for her missing son. Hopefully, with the way the freshman season ends, that’s exactly what’s in store.

Found Season 1 is streaming on Peacock. Join the discussion about the show in our forums.

Philiana Ng is a Los Angeles-based writer covering TV, celebrity, culture and more. Her work has appeared in The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, Entertainment Tonight, TV Guide, Yahoo Entertainment, and The Daily Beast, among others.