Missing While Widowed – As the third episode of Found begins, Gabi Mosely (Shanola Hampton) confronts Sir (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) to argue that she didn’t want him to kidnap someone else. Sir says it wasn’t easy for her to ask if that makes her feel better. He accuses her of distorting the truth as a way to protect herself. After Gabi says she wants to remember, Sir says it was a lovely evening. In 2003, Sir speaks to a young Gabi about Sartre’s work which some claim is inherently dangerous. He believes she was distracted that day and seemed foggy. Sir asks Gabi if she would like a friend. He gives her a few seconds to decide and she quickly says yes. She’d like a friend. In the present, Margaret Reed (Kelli Williams) tells Gabi they have a new client.

There is a doorman at a building in Dupont who believes one of the elderly residents, Reggie Moore, disappeared. Reggie has been gone for two days. Margaret’s daughter, Taylor Reed (Callie McClincy), walks in moments later. Margaret speaks to her daughter while Cliff (Ezra Knight) tells the team about Reggie. Margaret admits it has been ten years since they’ve seen each other, but she remembers everything about Taylor. If Margaret terminates her parental rights, Taylor will qualify for full financial aid. Gabi knows that Cliff last saw Reggie when he was going on his usual coffee run with a newspaper in hand. Cliff reveals Reggie is a loner who was once a music teacher. Ever since his husband died, he’s cocooned himself even more.

Cliff shows Gabi a video of Reggie playing Chopin. Cliff didn’t go to the police because he didn’t think the police would care about a missing gay, black widower in his 70s. He goes on to tell Gabi how he knows Reggie is a good person. The team gets to work trying to track him down. There are no social media accounts. Dhan Rana (Karan Oberoi) says he spoke to Reggie’s niece, Hollis Moore, who claims Reggie texted this morning and he is fine. Zeke Wallace (Arlen Escarpeta) shows them screenshots of the text message. Hollis says she needs to confirm Reggie’s account number to pay his light bill. After Reggie’s husband died, he was devastated and couldn’t function. Hollis took over his finances. She is on her way to Reggie’s apartment to check on him. Zeke begins working on getting everything he can on Reggie.

Lacey Quinn (Gabrielle Walsh) offers to get the car to take them to Reggie’s. Gabi tells her to wait for Margaret and meet them at Reggie’s. Gabi and Dhan confront Hollis moments later. Hollis struggles to remember the last time she actually saw or spoke to her uncle. Dhan notices Reggie in a picture near a bridge. He remembers going to that bridge with his husband. Margaret arrives and says Lacey is downstairs talking to some of the residents. Hollis claims Reggie and Chris had a lot of friends although Cliff thinks they kept a small circle. When Chris passed, Reggie didn’t keep contact with them. Cliff argues that Reggie was lonely. Reggie would complain about a dog’s constant yapping or a party that went past 10, but the residents got used to it. Margaret interrupts to ask how long Reggie has been taking ACE inhibitors.

If he goes without them for more than 72 hours, he will likely have a heart attack. Margaret tells Hollis to text her uncle and tell him to meet her at 14th and U right now. Reggie says he can’t make it because he’s staying home. They’re in his home so they believe they’re texting kidnappers. Zeke admits he can’t find much on Reggie. His phone is 15 years old so he hasn’t found a way in yet. Margaret wants to get Reggie’s photo out to every hospital in the area. She wants to keep the press and police out of this for the time being. Lacey admits she has already called Mark Trent (Brett Dalton) who arrives seconds later. Mark says the DCPD should have a CMA issued shortly. Margaret pleads with him to cancel it because public attention could get Reggie killed.

She asks Mark to triangulate the phone. Dhan is tasked with going to Hollis’s apartment and staying by her side. Margaret will call the doctors to see if another prescription was called in for Reggie. She soon learns that another prescription wasn’t called in. The only bottle of medication was the one at his house. They have one day until Reggie’s heart fails. Lacey soon realizes that Margaret isn’t fine and Lacey isn’t either. Margaret tells Lacey about her daughter and how she wants to emancipate from her. She believes she hasn’t been Taylor’s mom for a long time at least not since Jamie went missing. Darryl went for full custody because he saw what Margaret couldn’t. He saw that her inability to stop looking for Jamie was hurting their other kids more.

Margaret says distance and time bring clarity. The day they lost Jamie they also lost their mother. When asked how many children she has, Margaret mentions Taylor, Rachel, and Jamie. Lacey insists she will always be their mother before urging her to let go of the shame. Lacey offers to look at the documents before Margaret ends her parental rights. Dhan begins Hollis back because he thinks she’d be safest in a back office. Gabi believes whoever abducted Reggie is younger by a few decades. She points out that his grammar was perfect months ago. Now, they’re all one-word responses and text speak. They talk about Margaret having two daughters. Dhan admits he knew for a while. Gabi finds it odd that he never said anything. Lacey interrupts to say Zeke found something in Reggie’s bank records.

Julian Barker (Matthew Zuk) notices Gabi when she goes to the bank with Dhan. After he says he is a big fan, Gabi tells him they’re there regarding Reggie Moore. Julian says he loves Reggie who comes in every Monday to pick up some cash for the week. He is a big fan of Whitney Houston just like Julian. Gabi says they believe there might be some unusual activity in Reggie’s accounts recently. Julian suggests Hollis has been stealing money from Reggie. He shows Gabi the $5,000 transactions that started shortly after Reggie’s husband passed. When a customer’s funds go missing, they launch a full-scale branch investigation. That’s how they determined it was Reggie’s niece. Julian had an unfortunate conversation with Reggie two days ago right around the time he went missing. Dhan asks about surveillance footage from that day.

Julian says sharing bank footage is against policy so they’d need to get a warrant. Gabi asks if he wants to be remembered as the bank who put protocol above a black, gay elder. As Gabi and Dhan leave, they discuss the possibility that Hollis is responsible for Reggie’s disappearance. Trent got a lock on the phone. Dhan is told to get the security video over to Zeke and call Margaret and Lacey. They shouldn’t let Hollis leave the office. Mark tells Gabi that they should wait for whoever has Reggie’s phone to step outside. They soon find that his phone is in the dumpster. When the phone is taken back to Zeke, he says there is no way to unlock the phone. Margaret and Lacey watch the security footage from the motel. They immediately realize that Reggie was devastated when he found out about Hollis.

Hollis has been there so she couldn’t have dumped the phone. Zeke finds out that Hollis posted a fundraising project last month for unexpected car repairs even though she doesn’t own a car. She raised two grand and was hanging out on the beach two days later. Lacey finds a message from Reggie telling Hollis to keep her hands off his money. Gabi says Hollis sent screenshots of her texts this week yet this one wasn’t on it. It is time to speak to her again. Mark says they should do this the old-fashioned way. When he speaks to her, Hollis says Reggie fired her as his guardian every other week. As for the fundraising scam, she scammed dumb men on the Internet. She insists she would never steal from family. She gets a call from Reggie that they begin recording.

He tells her to leave him alone. Gabi tells her to keep him talking. Reggie tells Hollis to stop texting. She is worried about him because it sounded like he was struggling to breathe. Later, Lacey tries to talk to Gabi about Margaret’s daughter. Gabi says they handle things differently and they respect that around here. Lacey asks if she did something wrong because she wants to know how to fix it. Gabi thinks they should just focus on Reggie. At home, Gabi lets Sir go over the information she has. Sir believes there are two people wheezing on the call. He argues that it is the kidnapper and they’re terrified. Everything about this case screams amateur hour to Sir. This person is scared and unstable. Gabi believes that means they’re more likely to kill.

Lacey speaks to Taylor about her mother. Lacey insists Margaret is an amazing person and her whole family went through heck. Taylor used to think her mom couldn’t be anyone’s mother. Now, she wonders if she just can’t be hers. Lacey tells her that the grief hasn’t ended since Margaret spends every night at the bus station. Gabi and Margaret reach Reggie’s apartment so they can check it with a clear head. Margaret apologizes for being distracted and not telling her about Taylor. They agree to bring Reggie home so they start looking at his belongings again. Margaret explains that she goes to the bus station to keep her memory of that day fresh. Gabi tells her to let go of the same. Margaret admits Lacey said the same thing so Gabi raised her well. Gabi quickly points out that she didn’t raise her.

Margaret tells Gabi how she helps them find their power and purpose. She finds it odd that Reggie doesn’t have more mail since he lives his life offline. Cliff brings them what mail he could find. Margaret asks Cliff how long he has been in love with Reggie. Cliff admits it has been years. Gabi finds out that Reggie switched banks. She suspects the bank could be the thief. Dhan learns that two Bank of Citizens Bay branches are under investigation for complaints of missing funds. Julian worked at both branches. Reggie’s picture hits social media so they’re worried Julian is going to get spooked. Mark is told there was a confirmed sighting of Reggie being pushed into a maroon Honda Ridgeline three days ago after he left the bank. Gabi tells her to see if the DMV records match Julian Barker. Sharker is told to move quickly once they have an address for the car.

Dhan and Gabi miss Julian at the bank by a few minutes. Julian tries to flee from them but gets tackled quickly. Mark admits they don’t have anything. Dhan attacks Julian who says 3708 Foote Street Northeast. It is a bank foreclosure. Gabi’s team checks the place and finds Reggie. At the hospital, Hollis tries to rekindle her relationship with Reggie. Cliff tells Reggie that he was worried. Gabi says Cliff saved his life. Reggie invites Cliff up for tea sometime. Dhan tells Zeke what happened over the phone. Mark tells Gabi that the charges probably won’t stick since Dhan attacked Julian. She asks for five minutes with him. Gabi confronts him about draining the accounts belonging to five people. One of them turned up dead. When Julian says he didn’t kill anyone, Gabi says he can make it true. She wants him to do his time or she’ll be on him.

Later, Gabi asks Lacey if she remembers the first night they met. She wants to know if it seemed like she was expecting her. Lacey says no because she was completely confused. Gabi just leapt into action. In a flashback, Gabi tells Sir she’d rather die than put someone through this. She goes home and tells Sir that he lied to her. Sir argues that he manipulated her for a while. Gabi reminds him that he isn’t in control before taking his books. Then, she asks for the toothbrush and soap. Gabi shows up at Lacey’s place because she wants to apologize. Taylor meets Margaret at the bus station. Margaret says their dad has given her and her sister a normal life. It’s the only thing that gives her peace. Letting Taylor go was the only thing she could give her. Margaret is ready to sign the papers. She signs them using the pen that Jamie loved. Taylor decides to sit with her mother just for tonight so she can understand.

 

Found Review

It is becoming increasingly difficult to be optimistic about Found because the series has gotten progressively worse with each episode. The third was easily the worst so far. The performances are mostly okay, but the script and dialogue certainly aren’t doing them justice. The silliness of the story makes it impossible to care about any of the characters including those who are missing. It doesn’t help that Gabi and the team often use unscrupulous tactics that make them unlikable while dumbing down the story.

Again, this is another show with caricatures instead of authentic characters that people can genuinely connect to. When Reggie’s phone was located, it was sitting on the very top of the garbage without a speck of dirt or debris on it. For obvious reasons, Julian’s guilt was clear from the moment he appeared on screen. Truthfully, this show is just dumb. The story is dumb and the dialogue is sometimes dumber. This is supposed to be about serious topics but the script doesn’t even try to take the story seriously.

This is really a missed opportunity that makes The Irrational look like a modern television masterpiece. This episode scores a 4 out of 10. Recaps of Found are available on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link. Learn more about advertising on Reel Mockery here. Discuss this show and others at the Reel Mockery Forum.