Found Season 2 Preview: Gabi, M&A Struggle Now That Sir Is ‘Out in the World, Able to Pop Up Whenever!’
In NBC’s Found, Gabi Mosely (played by Shanola Hampton) dedicates her life to finding the marginalized individuals who’ve slipped through the cracks. That’s because back in 2003, she as a kidnaped teen — alongside a newly abducted Bella — tried and eventually succeeded in escaping their captor, Sir (Mark-Paul Gosselaar). The drama series’ premiere, which aired almost a year ago, famously ended with the reveal that grown-up Gabi has been keeping Sir in her basement, chained to a wall!
Sir proved useful to Gabi throughout Season 1, using his uniquely twisted mindset to help her crisis management firm, Mosely & Associates (M&A), crack cases. But in January’s finale, Gabi returned home to discover that Sir had escaped. She promptly called a meeting at M&A, to come clean about keeping Sir chained up. Unsurprisingly, the taff was devastated by the betrayal. Lacey — fka the aforementioned Bella (Gabrielle Walsh) — took it the hardest and walked out. And at episode’s end, we saw Sir hidden behind a door in Lacey’s home, grinning as he watched her reject a phone call from Gabi….
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A freshman hit for NBC, Found Season 1 earned a TVLine reader grade of “A,” and among all of the new series launched last TV season, it ranked No. 5 in viewership.
TVLine spoke with showrunner Nkechi Okoro Carroll about what to expect from Gabi, Sir and M&A in Season 2, which arrives this Thursday at 10/9c, on a new night.
TVLINE | Sir is out and about in Season 2. How does that impact his power struggle with Gabi?
That seesaw in their power dynamic that we saw in the basement, even though Sir was chained and in captivity, it didn’t necessarily mean that Gabi was always the one in power. He still had an incredible ability to manipulate, and now they’re doing that on a bigger playground. That seesawing power dynamic between them continues in Season 2 in a way that we’re allowed to expand. Just because Sir is on the loose doesn’t mean he’s always the one in control and in power, just like when he was in captivity didn’t mean Gabi was always the one in control and power. Now we get to have more fun because we’re playing in a bigger sandbox. Because he’s out in the world, able to pop up whenever he feels like it, and that’s been very exciting to write.
TVLINE | Lacey, ever since she escaped, has spent planning her life on not being found by Sir. Now that thar has happened, how will it impact her, mentally? And Gabi as well?
Gabi’s guilt is at a 10, because while Sir is, by her words, “a monster who is responsible for all the havoc he has wreaked,” his extra focus on Lacey, who Gabi feels responsible for. Everything she’s done has been in the name of keeping Lacey safe, and she achieved the exact opposite of that, so she’s going to have to live with and reconcile that guilt and have it not shut her down in a way where it stops her ability to do the super important job she has, which is saving lives. The stakes are even higher because of the nature of the type of cases she works. Yeah, we’re gonna see Gabi really, really struggle with that. And same with Lacey. As we saw in Season 1, she’s this ball of light and joy, and truthfully, sort of the heart and soul of M&A in a very effervescent way, but she had residual issues from just one day in captivity with Sir when she was a child. To see someone like that who’s lived the rest of her life the way she’s lived it, but still have residual trauma from one day, imagine how that now is manifesting because she is back in that person’s grip. We’re absolutely going to see that have an effect on Lacey, as Sir realizes she’s not the little girl he kidnapped anymore, either. Lacey is not some crying, weak, seven-year-old who doesn’t understand what’s happened to her. He’s dealing with a very different version of Lacey, that I’m excited for the audience to see.
TVLINE | I’d love to see her have a little fight in her, because we’ve seen her be so cautious and prepared.
Preparation comes in all ways, shapes and forms. And Sir is about to find that out.
TVLINE | M&A right now is pretty fractured. They’re all, as you said, pissed off at Gabi for keeping this big secret. How does that impact the way that they’re able to handle cases this season and continue that important work?
That is entirely their journey this season, and that is exactly what we’re going to tackle, because different people have different reactions. Even in our writers room, as we talk through these things, people have different reactions to when trust is broken, and what that bond looks like during its healing process. I personally am one of those people where I form trust bonds very quickly, but then when that trust is broken, it is very hard for me to form the new bond. There are people in our writers room where it’s very hard for them to form that trust bond initially, but once it’s formed, they’re ride or die. They’re the Dhans (Karan Oberoi) of the world, where I’m more of the Margarets (Kelli Williams) of the world.
What’s been great about this season and these different characters and the backstories that have been so ingrained in the actors, in our writers, everyone operating from the same sort of foundation of information about each character, is that every single one of them has a different perspective and a different way that this broken bond is affecting how they do their job. The one thing they’re all unified in is, “We need to save lives. No matter what these personal feelings are, we have a job to do.” The thing that is interesting for us is seeing how they may not even realize how it’s impacting the job until they’re in the middle of it. And then how do they navigate that? How do they overcome that obstacle? It’s yet another complication.
TVLINE | This feels like M&A will open itself up to new partnerships. Like, I love seeing Zeke (Arlen Escarpeta) and Dhan having their interactions because they are two very different personalities. Will we see more different pairings and the team really relying on each other, while still being pissed at Gabi?
One-hundred percent, because so much of the dynamic we saw in Season 1 was everyone else is anchored to Gabi, and once that anchor is now the thing that’s disappointing you, where does that void get filled? Who do they turn to now that they feel they can’t turn to Gabi? It makes for really interesting, dynamic pairings that we hadn’t seen before. Even the nature of Sir being on the loose — we only ever saw him interact with either teen Gabi in the past or our Gabi in present day. Now we actually get to see him interact with different people, and it’s like, “Oh, this is a very different version of Sir than when I’ve seen him with Gabi, who holds a specific place in his life.” That has been very exciting to write and to watch Mark-Paul execute.
TVLINE | What kind of energy does Michael Cassidy (Good Trouble, Resident Alien) bring to the show this season as Christian (a grief counselor with controversial ties to Gabi’s past)? What stories do you mine from the introduction of that character?
What’s exciting for us is, with Sir out in the world, being able to also expand his world in terms of when you’re hunting someone, you need to know the person you’re hunting. All of M&A knows Sir is on the loose and no one feels comfortable resting until he’s captured, which means they need to get to know everything about him. Having a character like Christian come aboard is a way for our team — and our audience — to get to know more about Sir in a way that we couldn’t through just his interactions with teen and adult Gabi.
We’re so excited to have Michael on the show. He’s such incredible talent. It’s funny, when the [casting] announcement came out, the amount of friends who hit me up who were just like, “OK, wait, he usually plays a specific type of role. Should I be worried?” I love that everyone’s conditioned to have these immediate feelings. I was like, “You have not heard this man say a word,” and everyone’s got these theories. We get to keep people on their toes, and then they can make the decision for themselves once that character is introduced on what they think about it.
We’ve got a number of guest cast this season that we are so incredibly honored to have. Dionne Gipson (The Wilds) plays Gina, who is Lacey’s mom; Danielle Savre from Station 19 is also joining the show. We’ve been able to expand the world in such a beautiful way with these incredibly talented actors.
TVLINE | What can you tease about Danielle Savre’s role?
I can say the character is a lot of fun. We’ve loved having her on the show, and she’s loved playing it. I think she pretty much interacts with almost everyone on the show, which has been such a beautiful, fun energy to bring in. And she’s such an incredible talent. Similar to the character of Christian, I will leave the audience to decide how they feel about her. But for me, it’s been pure joy.
TVLINE | What are some of the stories you’re excited to explore?
We’re going to tap into Black women in hospitals and under medical care, and some of the challenges around that area for us — unfortunately, there were so many personal experiences for us to pull from in our writers room to add to the authenticity of these storylines. Almost too many, which is how we knew it was definitely one we needed to do, to get the word out there and sort of educate as we go along.
Neurodiversity, especially in our young Black boys…. That is often recognized in other kids in a way it doesn’t get recognized in young Black boys, and they instead get labeled other things that, unfortunately in this world, can be detrimental to them because of how our young Black men are perceived.
TVLINE | Does that pertain to Zeke as well?
It becomes a very personal thing for Zeke, because you’ve got him as an agoraphobe who processes the world in a certain way and can really identify with some of these cases we’re bringing in. My hat is tipped very much to my fellow writers on the show, because everyone has dug deep and given personally for these stories. It’s part of the magic of the show, that every case we have, every story we tell, is sort of out of this “jambalaya pot” of people’s personal experiences, stories we hear about in the world, anything we think we can pull from our imagination. Unfortunately, the world has us beat and has a more extreme version of real life, and we’re like, whoa. But that’s part of the beauty of the show, is if we can use that and channel it in a way where even one person in the world reacts differently when they see something like that, then we’ve contributed to making it better in some way, shape or form. We’ve got 22 cases’ worth of new worlds to expose our audience to, and hopefully lessons we can share with them of how we can do better in real life in these particular areas.
Want scoop on Found, or for any other TV show ? Email [email protected], and your question may be answered via Matt’s Inside Line!
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