‘Found’ Boss on Trent’s Reaction to Gabi’s Secret in Season 2: Betrayal Can ‘Change Someone’s Character’
Preview
As painful as it was to watch almost all of Mosley & Associates walk out on Gabi (Shanola Hampton) after she revealed to them she’d been keeping her kidnapper Sir (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) in her basement (and he escaped) — except Dhan (Karan Oberoi), who dealt with that blow before that — in the Found Season 1 finale, there’s more heartbreak to come because there’s still someone who doesn’t know: Trent (Brett Dalton).
The detective did have reason to suspect something was going on, after Gabi referred to Sir in the present tense to him, something he noted to Margaret (Kelli Williams). But there are also his feelings for Gabi to consider; the two have a history, but she’s put a stop to anything happening now due to the situation with Sir. There’s also the matter of where she is in her healing to understandably consider.
When Trent does find out, “I think he’s going to be broken because having the woman you love — the juxtaposition between what he does for a career and what Gabi has done will be hard for him to wrap his mind around,” Hampton tells TV Insider. “And there are also feelings involved, so it’s going to be quite difficult and a position Gabi really never wanted to put Trent specifically in for that reason because she knows his passion for law and order.”
As for how she feels about him, “I think she only allows herself to feel a certain way because of the chaos that’s in her life, and it would be unfair to feel anything but what is happening now,” according to Hampton. “She is years, years away from being able to open herself up — because you gotta work on yourself first, if anybody’s aware of that, Gabi is — from actually being in some sort of intimate, real relationship. It wouldn’t be fair to the person with all of the baggage that she has.”
Executive producer Nkechi Okoro Carroll also points out that Trent remains in the dark about something the entire team he’s been working with and feels close to knows. “We’re going to see what the consequences of that become for someone like Trent,” she teases. “Betrayal is one of the most powerful emotions. We talk about how people can’t change. It is probably, I would argue, one of the strongest emotions that has the ability to change someone’s character.”
Also coming up in the 22-episode Season 2 is the fallout of Margaret, Lacey (Gabrielle Walsh) — currently in danger with Sir hiding in her apartment — and Zeke (Arlen Escarpeta) now knowing the truth. It has affected not only their relationships with Gabi, but also likely with each other. After all, they went their separate ways rather than turn to each other after her confession.
Matt Miller/NBC
“She’s the glue,” explains Carroll. “When you find out that that glue wasn’t really glue and that it’s slime, it’s silly putty, it’s slippery, it’s everything, everything falls apart. Now they’re like, was anything we ever thought about Gabi real? … It makes you question whether are any of the things that she’s been the glue that held together in your life is real, and that includes their relationships.”
Dhan did come around by the end of Episode 12, which Carroll attributes to where his “line in the sand” is. For instance, it would’ve been easier for him to understand if Gabi had killed Sir after she had him track him down all those months ago versus what she actually did. “That is very much rooted in parts of his backstory that we haven’t even heard yet,” the EP says. “We’re going to find with every single member of that M&A family – and I call them a family because they’re so much more than a work team — is their ability to process what Gabi has told them is very much rooted in where their line in the sand is and what is acceptable to them and what is not.”
We’ll also see how Lacey being in danger changes Gabi’s plan, which was to come clean (first to the team, then to the police). “What do they say? Make a plan and watch God laugh at you,” says Hampton. The culmination of what has happened, especially with that Lacey cliffhanger, has left her with so much guilt. “In her mind, she brought Sir back into their lives and now it’s guilt,” the star explains. “[She’s feeling] shattered, scared — you don’t get to see a lot of fear in Gabi. It’s all the things because it’s Lacey.”
Looking ahead to Season 2, Hampton is “most excited to explore [Gabi’s] acceptance of not being the perfect savior and what that means for her and her healing process.”
Everyone’s healing process will remain a focus point on the show, Carroll says, as part of looking at “what trust, consequence, and grief look like given where they all are in their various stages of [that] and how their past is going to inform the future.” They’ll also continue to tell the story of “why everyone deserves to be found and why everyone deserves to live happily ever after, whether it’s something we can guarantee or not,” the EP shares. “We’re going to continue to tell stories about the forgotten ones and we’re going to continue to have this sort of thriller-esque undertone to the more serialized aspects of the show as we continue to unpack the dynamics of post-trauma and those relationships we carry with us.”
But what about one of the most important sets of the show, given that Sir has escaped the basement? Will it be used in a different way? “I have no comment,” Carroll laughs.
Found, Season 2, TBA, NBC
