Found Season 2, Episode 11 Review: ‘Missing While Understood’

Found Season 2, Episode 11 changed everything.

I love bows – the kind that go in your hair. Do I love the kind that wraps storylines up in a bow? Not really. I actually hate it. In Found, Season 2, Episode 11, I found myself angry, confused, and also wondering if I would like this new direction.

I was both perplexed and entertained by this week’s Found. I feel like there were so many things that happened and there was a big pivot that I am not sure that I like, but also not sure that I hate.

Yes, ‘Missing While Understood‘ was a good episode. It was just a lot for me to watch this episode and so many things that were changing. But isn’t that also what makes good television? Episodes that affect your emotions and take you on a journey. Found Season 2, Episode 11 was good television.

It’s actually great television. There isn’t an episode that doesn’t change me. This one included.

IT IS TIME

The entire team is at Gabi’s and trying to put everything together for her. We all know that she’s aware that her time is up, and that at any moment Trent should be there to get her.

Gabi wants to give herself up and make sure that she pays for her crimes – I admire her. But I also think that she needs to protect herself. Gabi has lived her entire life in fear of a man who is obsessed with her.

She needs to pull herself together.

What I can admire about Gabi is that she’s going through a lot, but she really just wants to give the time that she has to say goodbye. But also, she makes sure that she tries her best so that no one is forgotten.

Everything in this episode is happening so fast and yet slowly. Every single moment feels like the ending of a story and the beginning of a new one. It feels like a pivot to the show that we’ve all grown to love and I am not sure if this is a good pivot. However, I am more convinced than ever that Trent does not know how to pick women.

Yes, I ship him and Gabi, but I do not like this chick that he picked up at the bar. Heather, I do not like you. And I do not believe that you were shot by Christian.

HEATHER – GIRL WHATEVER

Christian Evans is perplexing and yet, interesting. He’s interesting because he needs to run away from anything to do with this brother, and yet he keeps getting caught up in anything that Sir does.

Heather has claimed that Christian drove up beside her and opened fire. It doesn’t make sense whatsoever. Christian hasn’t been violent and why would he pull up on Heather? She’s only been around for a second. She doesn’t make sense.

I am confused. I am wondering if the writers are trying to confuse us with Heather’s appearance and her claim that she was shot by Christian. It makes me think that she is working with Sir. The other possibility for me is that she’s a person from the Evans brother’s past that has put herself in a position to have some control over them.

I do not for a second think that she likes Trent or wants to be with him. I do believe that she wants to make Gabi pay for something, but I can not figure out why that is. Heather telling Gabi that she would take care of Trent was enough to prove that to me.

What does bug me though is that Trent is so naive that he trusts in Heather and is going to carry the weight of thinking that she was injured because of him. Trauma bonding isn’t a way to make a relationship work.

While I do not think on any level that I have figured out Heather’s angle, I do believe that I will. She’s not to be trusted.

MISSING WHILE WANTING TO BE FOUND

I have never been so angry watching a television show over a fifty-second portion of the show. But we will get there. I just have to state it, because that’s the power of good television. It’s the parts that move you and change you that make you a better person.

Yes, I said that it makes you a better person because television can change you. Stories that you become invested in are important. They open your eyes to what is happening around you.

When Gabi is in the office, two men come in, begging for her help. Their son has been missing – for three days. One of the men is the biological father and the other one is the missing teen’s foster dad. The young man is neurodivergent and they have no idea where he is.

While both are spending a lot of time fighting back and forth, they don’t communicate and a young man goes missing. It angered me because I can not for the life of me understand why it is that people can’t put their arguments aside and put the child first.

TJ has been tossed around the system, but he was placed with a foster Dad who was able to nurture him in such a positive way that he felt so much love. His biological father was a drug addict and needed to get clean. Both seemed to keep their secrets, which could and will affect finding their son.

What I do love is that the team jumps right on the case and isn’t about to stop until they find the missing. The team at M&A will never let themselves stop looking for the forgotten.

BUSES AND SECRET

Dhan was able to find that TJ had taken a bus to Maryland. Though the team was not sure of why, you know that it only took seconds before they were on the way to put together the clues.

TJ has a brother he didn’t know. Max was adopted. TJ showed up at the house where his brother lived and spent seconds with him before Mr. Stevens came out to get TJ to leave.

I was irate that he could be treated like he didn’t matter to keep a secret from their son. Mr. Stevens didn’t stop to think that this was a neurodivergent boy who needed help. He gave him fifty dollars and told him to get on his way. It was one of the most selfish things that he could have done. I do get that he’s trying to protect his son, but he could have made a phone call and stopped this whole thing.

Instead, the father is lying to everyone in his life to keep a secret from his son. Instead, this poor boy is left to find his way home and not understand what is happening. He is left to be overstimulated and arrested because the police do not understand what is happening to him or around him.

I think that everyone can understand the want to protect the people that you love, but in doing so I think that it is completely selfish to put others in danger. I felt as though I wanted to jump through my screen and punch someone in the face. Violence is never the answer but it just made me so mad that this kid was put into this position because people lied to him.

GROUP HOMES

Gabi and her team are able to find that TJ was taken to a group home. I think that I definitely have gotten over my anger at Margaret for her cruelness to Gabi because she sees things that no one else does. She can see the lies that the caretaker is peddling.

Margaret is doing everything she can to pull herself together and be better – for herself and her kids. She is also finding a way to make sure that she is there for the team. If we’re being honest, I don’t think that the team would find the things that they do without Margaret.

She realizes that something is wrong and goes to Zeke to have him look into her, which leads the team back to her group home. This woman had kids die under her watch. She had children go missing. When the team notices that there are mounds in the backyard, they go to see what they are.

And they find that TJ has been put in a box with an air pipe covered in sand as punishment.

And this is where I got MAD. I know that the foster care system is not perfect, but knowing that kids are going through the worst things in the world is infuriating. It’s something that makes me want to punch a wall.

Seeing TJ come out of that box and that horrible woman just standing there – I was screaming at the TV. I wanted that woman stuck in a box. Found, tell me she went in a box? A cell will do.

DAD… CAN YOU HELP MY FRIEND

It’s funny how in a show like this you can go from anger to tears. The team is able to return TJ to his Dads, who decide to pull themselves together to be there for TJ. They make sure to tell him that he is loved and that he is cared for.

I was crying because TJ knew at that moment that he was loved – unconditionally. He would have two people that loved him and would protect him.

And then when TJ wants to protect his friend who is in the group home and get him a family like he’s got – I was a mess. This kid was worried about others when he’d just been through the worst. That’s a special kid.

TJ deserved the win of what happened next. The Stevens brought in his brother to meet him. Seeing TJ’s joy, as well as his father’s, was a moment that I applauded. Family is forever and if you can reunite a family – especially siblings – it’s a great moment.

Gabi, Lacey, Dhan, Zeke, and Margaret are this amazing team that doesn’t give up. They see the big and the small clues. They see that people are worth it. People don’t deserve to be forgotten.

BAIT AND SWITCH

When the team is back in the office – just them – they start to talk and all of a sudden everyone is quitting M&A. Like say what? Did we not just have a win here? How was I just crying and now I am mad again?

Found Season 2, Episode 11 was a pivot that we all needed.

In the moments that they were all quitting, I didn’t think for a second that it was a farce. I thought that they were really quitting. I wondered how it was that they could just let it all go after all they fought for to be there and didn’t think that it was a plan to draw Sir out. 

It was a farce. Sir had been in the office and he came right out after everyone left to tell Gabi that it was time for her to go with him. She was able to see Sir arrested and that was perfection. It just felt very overwhelming when all of a sudden Gabi turned herself in.

I knew that moments like this were coming, but it felt rushed. Saying that in the same breath, it felt like a pivot that we would all need. The team was broken, but I know that they will continue.

As I am thinking that this is a lot – we’re all faced with the reality that there is always more. There is the possibility of more things that I did not see coming. Found, Season 2, Episode 11, you are just so good.

Margaret is at the bus station and staring inside. She can’t enter and I feel like it was breaking her apart in a way. But as she turned there was a boy standing there. He calls her Mom.

Jamie? Is that you? 

OTHER THOUGHTS

• I do love all of the flashbacks and seeing Gina protecting Gabi and Lacey – I screamed and clapped. I appreciated seeing her strength, but also the strength that she gives others.
• Seeing Lacey pick out her name, but then also speaking for the first time in a flashback, I thought that was such a beautiful moment
• The way that Gabi picks up on all the clues that Sir leaves is crazy to me
• I don’t believe Christian did anything but he needs help
• Sir getting arrested was chef’s kiss
• Found Season 2 Episode 11 changed everything. It’s crazy!