S02:E01: Missing While Bait

[Trini]

Gabi and her team at Mosely & Associates begin to spiral amid Gabi's shocking revelation. Lacey's childhood flashbacks begin to resurface, providing vital clues as Sir remains at large.

Airdate: October 3, 2024

[AnimeMania]

Anisa Nyell Johnson as Detective Shaker

Dwight Hicks as Darrell Wallace, Zeke's father

Dionne Gibson as Gina, Lacey / Bella’s mother

[Rodney]

Welcome back, show!

I just hope that it doesn't take too long to bring Lacey back.  But glad that she's still alive.

[possibilities]

I must have missed something-- I saw that the clues were left in the book, but where/how did she find the book? 

Moreover, where in the world was there a pay phone? 

I looked up "Dot and the Kangaroo" and it's a real book. The library has it here. According to the blurb, it's about a girl lost in the Australian wilderness, who is helped by a kangaroo.

[Rodney]

1 hour ago, possibilities said:

I must have missed something-- I saw that the clues were left in the book, but where/how did she find the book?

It was in the trunk of the car that Sir stole from one of Gabi's neighbors.  He had it there with a dummy made up to look like Lacey.

[Trini]

Too tired for more commentary, but I'm glad we saw more of the team's reaction to the Gabi/Sir reveal, that I wanted last season.

1 hour ago, possibilities said:

I must have missed something-- I saw that the clues were left in the book, but where/how did she find the book? 

The book was in the trunk of the car Sir stole, where he had put the dummy for them to find. I don't remember any characters commenting about it, but I did notice it in that scene.

Quote

Moreover, where in the world was there a pay phone? 

 

I had the same question! And it was an old-ish one too.

[possibilities]

I was really glad, also, that they showed us more of how the team reacted to Gabi's secret. 

They are already starting to forgive her, though. Margaret didn't tell Cop Love Interest, and Lacey's mom was already fine with it. And Zeke said that thing about not being judged by your worst moment. I believe in redemption, but it was more than a moment we're talking about.

I had not considered the fact that there might be trouble convicting or even indicting her because of lack of evidence. She confessed, but it could be argued that she did so out of a mental breakdown over Lacey being kidnapped, and it wasn't really true. If/when Sir is captured, even if he decided to accuse her, who would take him seriously after what he definitely did? 

I don't know what will get Betrayed Almost Boyfriend to forgive her. Maybe Sir will somehow kidnap and torture him and he'll have a revenge fantasy or commit a felony of his own? 

I thought Zeke recreating the scene by looking at the blood spatter was a bit too much. I'm kind of hoping that it didn't play out quite how he thinks, and that maybe Lacey went after Sir, not the other way around.

I am glad they found a way to tell us the dog is okay. The whole story about the dog walker seems to indicate the dog was not at home when Sir arrived, and is with the dogwalker as things are happening, right? The dog was saved? I am not remembering that wrong because I hate the idea of the dog dying?

I still think the music in the background is way too loud and intrusive. But maybe if it was silent it would be even creepier.

If I'm not mistaken, most rat poison is anti-coagulant, so it causes you to bleed internally. Wouldn't Zeke be bleeding more than foaming, in that case? I might be wrong about that, though. 

Edited October 4 by possibilities

[babyrambo]

Solid start to the season. 

I know the cases of the week are inevitable with a show like this, but I think the writing shines when it takes a step back from that to explore the relationship dynamics between the main five. 

2 hours ago, possibilities said:

They are already starting to forgive her, though. Margaret didn't tell Cop Love Interest, and Lacey's mom was already fine with it. And Zeke said that thing about not being judged by your worst moment. I believe in redemption, but it was more than a moment we're talking about.

Yeah that was quick. Margaret was snapping at Gabi throughout the episode and everyone else was still disappointed but Dhan seems to have fully gotten over it. So has Lacey’s mother. Perhaps she doesn’t understand the full scope of events, but her daughter was still kidnapped. I thought she was incredibly forgiving and almost laidback in the way she went about things. I expected more urgency or at least some frantic worrying on her part, but she was behaving like she’d found out Lacey had taken an impromptu vacation. 
She could’ve been holding it together for everyone else’s sake, but I definitely didn’t get that feeling. 

Another reaction I took note of was Gabi’s obvious irritation at Margaret, in response to Margaret’s own anger at her. She was returning the eye rolls and snide comments with a testy energy that seemed unnecessary. I get being defensive, but Gabi’s so clearly in the wrong that I expected more contrition and even some grovelling. Although, Gabi has never silently taken anything in her life so maybe it tracks.

As does Sir calling Lacey the key and keeping her alive. MPG’s performance (so far) is much less campy than last season and I’m thankful. Maybe it’s the choice of scene partner but his conversation with Lacey was the first time I felt really creeped out by him.

I don’t think he’s going to kill Lacey, but once she’s rescued and recovered, I don’t see how she can possibly forgive Gabi or come back to M&A. Sir is the culprit, but I think Lacey has every right to feel anger at Gabi as well, and even with intensive therapy, this kidnapping and prior breach of trust has done irreparable damage to their relationship.

My one nitpick of this episode is the makeup—shallow, but it distracted me enough to notice. I know the TV version of ‘dressed down’ is never the same as real life, but the idea that both Margaret and Gabi would waste time getting heavily made up while Lacey was missing was a bit much. Showering and even putting on a nice outfit is one thing but they both came to work ready for their closeups lol. Especially Gabi, with that cute petal bun and stylish all black number. 

[TiffanyNichelle]

I thoroughly enjoyed how tense this episode was. At one point I actually wondered if they would go so far as to kill Lacey off to be shocking but that would going too far for a network show.

I liked that everyone had the appropriate reaction to Gabi having kept Sir. Esp the cop who was like while I was upstairs spilling my heart out to you, sharing secrets I've never told anyone, Sir was in the basement listening? And he was because he was really pissed off that night. I don't remember, did we hear Lacey's reactions to knowing Sir was in the basement the time she was staying over b/c she was scared he was close by?

As much as I did love everyone's reactions, a twisted part of me wanted to still defend Gabi. None of these people have been very good at dealing with their traumas in healthy ways. Zeke became an agoraphobe (I knew he was going to have a bad reaction when he woke up in the hospital). Margaret spends every night sitting in a bus station and lost years with her daughter. I'm pretty sure Dhan married his therapist. Lacey was only kept by Sir for what, a week or more? And she's obsessed with protecting herself. So Gabi who was kept for a year is still working through a lot and keeping Sir after losing her father (Criminal Minds would call that a trigger) was part of it. 

I wonder how long Sir was working on his plans to get to Gabi's crew because he was able to move quickly and poison them all and had his hideout plans.

 

[jalady]

14 hours ago, Trini said:

 

The book was in the trunk of the car Sir stole, where he had put the dummy for them to find. I don't remember any characters commenting about it, but I did notice it in that scene.

 

And that book should have been in a police evidence locker, not in Gabby’s grubby little hands.  They even showed her cutting open the plastic evidence bag!  So tired of these TV tropes where people get away with illegalities just by saying “pleeeease“.  Which is how she got into the interview room with the dog walker and wasn’t arrested for kidnapping.  Give me a fucking break 🙄

I know, it’s teevee, lol.

[cfinboston]

42 minutes ago, jalady said:

And that book should have been in a police evidence locker, not in Gabby’s grubby little hands.  They even showed her cutting open the plastic evidence bag!  So tired of these TV tropes where people get away with illegalities just by saying “pleeeease“.  Which is how she got into the interview room with the dog walker and wasn’t arrested for kidnapping.  Give me a fucking break 🙄

I know, it’s teevee, lol.

Even worse they let Margaret traipse around the crime scene. 

[possibilities]

... and Margaret didn't actually come up with anything, did she? First time she's had no insights after looking at a crime scene.

[Dowel Jones]

21 hours ago, possibilities said:

Moreover, where in the world was there a pay phone? 

Late to the party here.  Believe it or not, that website payphonemap/(city) really works.  When I tried it there was a link to the locations of the last remaining 6 payphones in DC.  Go figure.

[possibilities]

I guess Superman still needs a place to change.

[bros402]

On 10/4/2024 at 1:01 PM, babyrambo said:

My one nitpick of this episode is the makeup—shallow, but it distracted me enough to notice. I know the TV version of ‘dressed down’ is never the same as real life, but the idea that both Margaret and Gabi would waste time getting heavily made up while Lacey was missing was a bit much. Showering and even putting on a nice outfit is one thing but they both came to work ready for their closeups lol. Especially Gabi, with that cute petal bun and stylish all black number. 

I like to think that Gabi has a couple of outfits at the office in case she needs a snazzy outfit in an emergency. Especially since she does press conferences regualrly.

For the hair, she obviously has a superpower - her hair is always stylish.

[Rodney]

One thing that I hope about this season is that it isn't all about the team trying to find and rescue Lacey.  I hope that they return to their regular cases, too.

Speaking of Lacey, I have to shake my head at her flashback scenes.  Sir really didn't have her for more than a few days.  I'm surprised and confused by her being as traumatized as she was.  Gabi was held prisoner for a whole year and eight days.  She has way more of a right to be traumatized than Lacey, yet she seemed to be handling things like a champ in the flashbacks.

[possibilities]

What I don't understand is how Zeke's delivery worked. If Sir ordered the food, Zeke would not eat it, right? Knowing he himself didn't order it? We know Zeke Sir used Dahn's husband's credit card. Would Zeke think Dahn sent him food? Likewise, how did Sir get Margaret's food poisoned? It looked like a meal she made and packed herself.

Edited October 11 by possibilities
fix name

[bros402]

5 hours ago, Rodney said:

One thing that I hope about this season is that it isn't all about the team trying to find and rescue Lacey.  I hope that they return to their regular cases, too.

Speaking of Lacey, I have to shake my head at her flashback scenes.  Sir really didn't have her for more than a few days.  I'm surprised and confused by her being as traumatized as she was.  Gabi was held prisoner for a whole year and eight days.  She has way more of a right to be traumatized than Lacey, yet she seemed to be handling things like a champ in the flashbacks.

I hope they get back to regular cases after 3-4 episodes.

I'm guessing Lacey was so traumatized due to how much younger she was? Maybe she had other stuff going on, too?

4 hours ago, possibilities said:

What I don't understand is how Zeke's delivery worked. If Sir ordered the food, Zeke would not eat it, right? Knowing he himself didn't order it? We know Zeke used Dahn's husband's credit card. Would Zeke think Dahn sent him food? Likewise, how did Sir get Margaret's food poisoned? It looked like a meal she made and packed herself.

They said he "wouldn't have had the time" to do things, which is why he stole the car. maybe Margaret meal preps and makes her sandwiches ahead of time, so Sir saw those in her place and poisoned each - but Zeke's makes no sense. It's not like Zeke was out of his place or that Sir is a Super Hacker who was able to magically hack whatever app to discover food being delivered to Zeke and then knock out the doordash driver and poison it or something.

Also, how would Sir get their addresses? Gabi doesn't seem like the kind of person who would keep her employee's addresses at home... especially since she has a kidnapper in her basement.

[Rodney]

4 minutes ago, bros402 said:

I'm guessing Lacey was so traumatized due to how much younger she was? Maybe she had other stuff going on, too?

Grudgingly, I'll say that that must be it.  Yeah, it'd probably be worse for a young child like Lacey, no matter how short or long of a time it'd lasted, than it was for a teenager like Gabi was at the time.

At least Gabi showing up helped bring Lacey out of it.

[possibilities]

I've also observed in real life that different people react to the same incident in different ways. Some people are more resiliant than others, or are traumatized by different kinds of things, or recover more quickly. 

I actually had PTSD, and in the recovery groups I was in, some people had a much faster bounce back and others stayed stuck permanently, and it didn't seem to me to depend on the nature of the original trauma or the  kinds of support people had, at least not exclusively.

[possibilities]

On 10/7/2024 at 1:06 AM, bros402 said:

It's not like Zeke was out of his place or that Sir is a Super Hacker who was able to magically hack whatever app to discover food being delivered to Zeke and then knock out the doordash driver and poison it or something.

... and if he did, then who would deliver the food? Sir couldn't do it because he'd be recognized. And we'd have a story in the news about a delivery person being attacked.

[Rodney]

20 minutes ago, possibilities said:

... and if he did, then who would deliver the food? Sir couldn't do it because he'd be recognized.

Not necessarily.  I went on a little binging of last season and saw that every one of Zeke's deliveries are left for him, not delivered to him personally.  Whoever delivers the food or whatever package is typically gone by the time he opens the door, so if Sir did it, then he probably just left the poisoned food and left.

[bros402]

16 hours ago, possibilities said:

... and if he did, then who would deliver the food? Sir couldn't do it because he'd be recognized. And we'd have a story in the news about a delivery person being attacked.

Zeke doesn't interact with them - he just tells them to leave it (although you think he would use a video doorbell to watch it get dropped off...along with looking at all of those cameras he has in his neighborhood)

[MarylandGirl]

On 10/7/2024 at 12:44 PM, possibilities said:

I've also observed in real life that different people react to the same incident in different ways. Some people are more resiliant than others, or are traumatized by different kinds of things, or recover more quickly. 

I actually had PTSD, and in the recovery groups I was in, some people had a much faster bounce back and others stayed stuck permanently, and it didn't seem to me to depend on the nature of the original trauma or the  kinds of support people had, at least not exclusively.

Yes, this. My therapist has said similar things to me, when I've said I feel bad/weak for reacting so strongly to things from childhood when others had it much worse and seem generally fine.