Warning: spoilers ahead for Episode 11 of Found Season 1, called “Missing While Interracial.”
Found has officially aired its final episode of the 2023 TV schedule, and the NBC drama ended on a doozy of a cliffhanger. After an intense case that involved searching for a missing pair whose relationship was shrouded in mystery, Gabi decided that she was done keeping Sir a secret, and she made a call that will change everything… unless fans are in for a fake-out, but it looks like she’s on the verge of showing the basement to a member of her team. Now, with weeks to wait to find out what comes next, I find myself really relating to what Kelli Williams, who plays Margaret, shared with CinemaBlend.about the Found cliffhangers.
First things first! In “Missing While Interracial,” Gabi finally got the answers about Annie she’d been looking for, and she fully expected confirmation from Trent that Annie had died many, many years ago. Instead, she died just a couple of years earlier, and Sir had been telling the truth when he insisted that he didn’t kill her. What he did do, however, was convince her parents that Annie needed to be institutionalized, so she never truly escaped Sir entirely. Mark-Paul Gosselaar‘s character tried to frame the situation as Annie choosing herself over Gabi, but Gabi was disgusted with him. She told him:
You made her crazy, just like you made me into a kidnapper. That is what you do! You turn people into you. No, I am done with your lies, I am done with your manipulations. You have cost me everything. While everyone around me has been healing, I let you drag me into hell. All I was holding onto was a chance to avenge Annie, and now there is nothing to avenge. I should have buried you the day I found you.
I’ve felt for some time that Gabi doesn’t really have a way out of her situation with Sir without killing him or getting herself arrested, and it appears that she’s done delaying a decision about him. The episode ended without revealing who she had called, but the promo for the next episode revealed that it was Dahn Rana, and the footage indicates that Found truly is bringing him into the secret, for better or worse.
Trent originally seemed like a possibility after he made his way into Gabi’s house, but she presumably will have more options with Dahn after Trent returned to his job with police. She did drop a clue that she’s hiding something while on a phone call with him, however, when she commented that “Sir is telling me the truth,” and Trent definitely caught her use of the present tense. Brett Dalton previously opened up about Trent being “blinded” to any clues dropped by Shanola Hampton‘s character; could that be changing just as she brings Dahn into her secret?
Unfortunately, any and all questions about the aftermath of the cliffhanger won’t be answered on screen until the new year and beginning of the 2024 TV premiere schedule. Found won’t return with the final two episodes of Season 1 until Tuesday, January 9. When I recently spoke with Kelli Williams about the early Season 2 renewal and Margaret’s recovery from her trauma, I also asked the actress what it’s like for the actors to get the weekly cliffhangers in their scripts. She shared:
We try to get info, we try to get intel from various sources and often we don’t get it until the scripts are ready. It’s always so funny – actors are the last ones to get it. So we’re always very excited. We’re like, ‘Who?!’ We would sometimes get the scripts late at night… If you’re already asleep or have an early call, we get into the makeup trailer early in the morning and everyone’s talking about it, buzzing about what’s coming up. And if you haven’t read it, like, ‘Don’t tell me! Don’t tell me! I want to be surprised.’ [laughs] It’s pretty fun.
Can anybody else deeply relate to the feeling of dying to know what happens next, but absolutely not wanting to be spoiled?! The full first season so far has delivered twist ending after twist ending (and can be revisited streaming with a Peacock Premium subscription), building enough suspense that I was thrilled when NBC ordered a second season without waiting for the first to end. I want to know what happens next, but only by seeing it for myself to enjoy the surprise!
For now, the only taste we have of the winter premiere is a promo, but there’s plenty to build excitement in the brief clip. Take a look:
Find new episodes of Found back in primetime on NBC on Tuesday, January 9. The Irrational also returns in January as NBC’s other freshman show to receive an early renewal, with the showrunner previewing what’s on the way in the rest of Season 1. When it comes to Found, it’s hard to imagine a way to continue the status quo into Season 2 now that Gabi has brought somebody into the secret, and it’s just a matter of waiting to find out how far she’s willing to go.
