S01.E05: Miguel

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A foster care worker is reported as missing, but after he ends his own life, the MPU starts to investigate a pregnant woman he was seen with who has been missing for two years. Meanwhile, Sidney follows Keith and fears he may be dangerous.

Original air date: Jan 30 2023

[AnimeMania]

Connie Miu

[TheOtherOne]

I kind of want to be impressed that the writers are using Nikki's reckless behavior as a deliberate character point and it's not just bad writing...but she's so unlikable and the actress so grating I can't care. I have a feeling we're supposed to be sympathetic because of what she went through with Keith's disappearance...but nope. She, her (ex?) husband, and her sour-faced daughter are all awful. I'm sick to death of the daughter's bitchface. It's hard to sympathize with her fake Keith suspicions when she believes she knows what happened to real Keith and never told her parents.

Check on "bringing our babies home" again...but considering their first missing person died, does that count as her not bringing one home?

The case was creepy and unpleasant...but also kind of predictable and boring?

Kemi's mystery man at least kept her away from her usual magical nonsense, but it just made her look unprofessional and unable to focus on her job (like everybody else...)

Mike is still consistently being written as the only non-annoying person on the show. Can he adopt (real or fake) Keith and get on a better show?

Edited January 31, 2023 by TheOtherOne

[Lady Calypso]

9 hours ago, TheOtherOne said:

. She, her (ex?) husband, and her sour-faced daughter are all awful. I'm sick to death of the daughter's bitchface. It's hard to sympathize with her fake Keith suspicions when she believes she knows what happened to real Keith and never told her parents.

I still like her. I think she made bad choices, but everyone on this show has sucked to some degree, even Mike (and Mike's my favourite character). Plus, Sidney's the only skeptical one of Fake Keith, who is so obvious with his manipulations, it's unreal. Every time Fake Keith is questioned in any way, he goes on the defensive or distracts his dumbass parents with something else. He did it several times in this episode alone.

Also, I think I just hate every other character so much (besides Mike) that I'll take any somewhat redeemable character. 

Actually, I'm kind of rooting for Fake Keith. I really, really hope he's not going the redemptive arc, where he's either Real Keith's brother or knew Real Keith, and he starts feeling bad for Dumb and Dumber. I really want him to be playing Dumb and Dumber for money or revenge or some shit like that. I want Sidney to be right in not trusting the kid. Actually, if it ends in Fake Keith harming Sidney (not killing her) just to make her dumbass parents realize that they should have listened to her (even if she HAS been lying about what she knows), I'm all for it.

So, Kemi's spiritual nonsense was toned down at least. They did make up for it by C talking to the skeleton of Possibly Real Keith (I just assume a twist is coming there, but I hope that that's real Keith who they did find and Sidney isn't mistaken in some way). But at least talking to the skeleton is less weird than, you know, telling someone to rub lime juice all over their body or put eggs in a glass. 

Ah, so Kemi was kidnapped as a kid and her kidnapper is still alive. Great, more random nonsense when we're halfway through. 

The case this week was really weird, but I'm glad Mike didn't compromise his morals to be the Shoot First Guy like Jason. I was also rooting for Creepy Cult Leader to stab Jason with the knife. 

I'm glad Nikki acknowledged that she's being reckless and wants to stop. That was surprising of the show to go the route of her realizing it. 

Jason still sucks the most. 

[Madding crowd]

I can’t believe Nikki went in to talk to the guy whose brother died and called him ‘baby’. Mike is the only professional here. Even the guy who reconstructs the bones has to be a weirdo who talks to the bones. One quirky person is fine but not a whole department of people who act with emotion instead of science.

I find the whole Keith story strange. If the boy is the  real Keith it can lead to other stories like finding who kidnapped him, him being involved in other family stuff etc. If the bones are Keith, his story is over and Nikki and Jason go back to the people they were before. 

[Lady Calypso]

14 minutes ago, Madding crowd said:

I find the whole Keith story strange. If the boy is the  real Keith it can lead to other stories like finding who kidnapped him, him being involved in other family stuff etc. If the bones are Keith, his story is over and Nikki and Jason go back to the people they were before. 

I mean, this is very likely a one-and-done series anyway (not that they realized that when making it). That being said, I do think they're setting this whole thing up weird. I think there WAS potential in Fake Keith but with the revelation that Sidney watched Real Keith drown, it would be ridiculous if it was a fake-out. Plus, they're giving NO motivations to Fake Keith, making him act like he didn't go through trauma and making everyone, besides Sidney, act like things are back to normal. 

If Sidney didn't watch her brother drown, then who did she watch drown? Is it gonna be a situation where she watched from afar but never saw for sure that it was her brother? Is Keith a twin and are they gonna play with the idea that Fake Keith drowned and this IS Real Keith? Because I'm not really sure what their goal is with this.

[Madding crowd]

I agree-fake Keith could be good if real Keith were still out there but if he drowned that ends his story. There was a Lifetime movie with a similar plot; a young man who was abused and didn’t have real parents pretended to be a long lost son . It also turned out the real son drowned. This show had potential but bad writers.

[TheOtherOne]

8 hours ago, Lady Calypso said:

I still like her. I think she made bad choices, but everyone on this show has sucked to some degree, even Mike (and Mike's my favourite character). Plus, Sidney's the only skeptical one of Fake Keith, who is so obvious with his manipulations, it's unreal. Every time Fake Keith is questioned in any way, he goes on the defensive or distracts his dumbass parents with something else. He did it several times in this episode alone.

Also, I think I just hate every other character so much (besides Mike) that I'll take any somewhat redeemable character. 

 

I guess for me, I don't think she's remotely redeemable. Believing her brother was dead, she let her parents believe he'd been kidnapped, destroying their marriage and forcing them to live with the uncertainty--which is so much crueler than knowing--while she said nothing. Then, when an apparent impostor shows up and is invited into the family home, potentially jeopardizing their lives and her own, she pouts and flounces instead of telling them EXACTLY why she knows they shouldn't believe him. Even when she decides the truth is finally her only option, she contrives a situation to have her brother's body discovered rather than simply telling them what happened, which is just dragging things out more since the body still has to be identified (because she still won't just say who it is).

She may be the most loathsome character on the show for me. She's awful.

[Sweet-n-Snarky]

I'm happy they toned down Kemi, but they did turn up C with the bones. Kemi being a former abducted kid could be interesting.

This case was interesting in that the villain was far more layered than they knew what to do with and they didn't lean into it nearly as much as they could have. A disenfranchised man who was the last of his tribe trying to revive his culture ruined by deforestation and capitalistic genocide is actually interesting. Him breeding the women who represent the companies of the families who did it was interesting. This guy's moral code while doing this...not physically sexually assaulting them with his person but via IVF said a lot about his mission and stance. Even the fact that be chose these women to bear his children rather than other indigenous people most likely because he wouldn't want to subject other indigenous people to a familiar violence even if I would imagine his genes and culture would've been better with them I imagine was potentially fascinating but they didn't unpack much of that.

I also thought they missed an opportunity to expound on why a man of color like Mike was reluctant to kill the bad guy who was also a man of color, indigenous, the last of his tribe, killing him when he knew he could talk him down instead. Jason would've shot him without a second thought and never considered the ramifications of that on different levels. But they never went there with any of the storyline.

It was interesting to acknowledge how reckless Nikki is. I feel bad that Mike is the only rational one there. Now that Nikki is aware I wonder if things will change.

I'm glad that Sidney isn't letting up because someone needs to acknowledge how suspicious all of this is but it does take away from her that she believes she knew what happened to Keith and just never said anything. That makes her borderline psycho too. 

I actually think this was one of the first times that Not Keith was genuinely afraid and not just manipulating Jason and Nikki at the end. Typically he does deflect and play into sympathy and he did it earlier in the episode. But the end with him in the basement felt real. He's still a person who has endured extensive abuse based on his X-rays and stuff. He still may genuinely be in fear for his life. I actually felt that was all real and genuine and that he has something at stake keeping up this facade.

Edited February 1, 2023 by Sweet-n-Snarky

[Lady Calypso]

16 hours ago, TheOtherOne said:

I guess for me, I don't think she's remotely redeemable. Believing her brother was dead, she let her parents believe he'd been kidnapped, destroying their marriage and forcing them to live with the uncertainty--which is so much crueler than knowing--while she said nothing. Then, when an apparent impostor shows up and is invited into the family home, potentially jeopardizing their lives and her own, she pouts and flounces instead of telling them EXACTLY why she knows they shouldn't believe him. Even when she decides the truth is finally her only option, she contrives a situation to have her brother's body discovered rather than simply telling them what happened, which is just dragging things out more since the body still has to be identified (because she still won't just say who it is).

She may be the most loathsome character on the show for me. She's awful.

This may all be very true. I AM highly annoyed they've taken this route with her. I'm not sure why, because they could have just not had her know what happened to her brother. Now, she was a kid when he supposedly drowned, and I STILL expect a twist to happen, but this show really sucks for putting this on Sidney and making her look terrible. And they're not even going to give a reasonable explanation to make her look better. 

I think I just like the actress and think she's at least doing well with the role she's been given, compared to Dania, who can't act, and Scott, who is slipping back into his Hawaii 5-0 character again. And then everyone else, besides Mike and MAYBE Not Keith, are annoying AF. 

Urg, this goddamn show. WHAT made them think this plot twist was a good idea? Hey, let the kid witness her brother dying and then NEVER say anything to protect herself from???? 

It's not like she saw someone kill Keith and was threatened to not talk. It sounds like it was just her and her friend who saw Keith drown and never said anything.

[JH Lipton]

This show is so stupid, with stupid people doing stupid things.. even the hair twist was stupid -- did Fake Keith have a sample of his own baby hair or is the lab so stupid that they can't tell baby hair from adult hair. (If they wanted a non-hackable test, get DNA from Mom and Dad and compare to DNA from maybe Keith  Nope, too dumb to think of that.  I have to watch with my brain turned off.

On 2/1/2023 at 6:58 AM, Sweet-n-Snarky said:

Jason would've shot him without a second thought and never considered the ramifications of that on different levels. But they never went there with any of the storyline.

Any "officer involved" shooting goes to some kind of review, and the superior can't just say "never mind", especially in a low-level department like Missing Persons. 

 

On 2/1/2023 at 6:58 AM, Sweet-n-Snarky said:

Him breeding the women who represent the companies of the families who did it was interesting.

Stupidity again.  They ran the DNA of the babies to find the mothers, but see that the babies all had the same father, much less see that it was the baby-factory guy?

[Lady Calypso]

2 hours ago, JH Lipton said:

(If they wanted a non-hackable test, get DNA from Mom and Dad and compare to DNA from maybe Keith  Nope, too dumb to think of that.  I have to watch with my brain turned off.

Keith is adopted (as is Sidney). They did use it as a reason in the pilot.

[JH Lipton]

On 2/3/2023 at 4:43 AM, Lady Calypso said:

Keith is adopted (as is Sidney). They did use it as a reason in the pilot.

tganks -- I forgot about that.  But if they know either of Keith's birth parents, they could still do the test.

[DanaK]

This unit is really dysfunctional. I’m surprised they can get anything done. At least Nikki called out Kemi for being distracted, but the unit is still dysfunctional