Gabi extolled those wise words toward the media, feasting and salivating at the chance for clickbait about Sir on Found Season 2 Episode 7.

I’d say the reverse is true within this hour and series: “Be careful making monsters out of heroes.” People are inherently flawed, and it’s easy to lose sight of that when emotions get in the way.

The case was a prime example of a controversial figure like Rash disappearing.

If not for their roommate, frenemy, or whatever you’d refer to them as, no one would have realized that Rash went missing, and most wouldn’t have cared.

And we’d never know for sure if Rash would’ve survived the ordeal if their kidnapper would’ve released them as they said, or if Rash would be another queer person who slips between the cracks and vanishes into oblivion with the world around them none the wiser.

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Rash was many things, an aspiring journalist turned shock jock, or at least that’s what many presumed them to be.

Interestingly, even Dhan had reservations about Rash and expressed some judgments about their method of eviscerating other figures by exposing the sins, misdeeds, and wrongs of whoever fell into their crosshairs.

It’s so easy to judge people like that, particularly in this age when journalism is such a convoluted field comprised of earnest individuals passionate about what they do and want to do good work, those who succumb to politics and lack integrity, and just any random person.

Ironically, the criticism of Rash was that they were too political to be a good journalist, and that was a problem.

Ultimately, their existence is considered political, and calling out injustices while being something people couldn’t understand was all it took to indict Rash.

Naturally, this was a case that Dhan took to heart because of how deeply impactful it was for him as a queer man.

But it also was difficult for him because he never recovered from Gabi, initially expressing that they’d handle the case independently without her.

He’s also not doing well with falling out with Ethan.

Found has an Ethan problem, and it’s hard to vocalize why it’s irritating.

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The hour at least acknowledges the ethics of the situation between these two when Ethan shared that he gave up practicing for Dhan.

As a therapist who fell in love with his patient, which they’ve led us to believe, he would’ve had to do it.

But it also fosters a type of resentment that feels as though it will always be between them.

Ethan chose Dhan over his livelihood and practice, but what’s upsetting is that he feels Dhan continuously chooses M&A Gabi over him.

It’s such a layered situation that raises some flags, and I don’t know how the characters should get through this or if I even want them to.

I find it unsettling that Ethan speaks to Dhan more often than not, like he’s his patient more than his husband, while simultaneously falling into that annoying trope of the spouse who is only there to express annoyance about the person they love’s devotion to the job.

In the end, I always have the same reaction to that setup: “You knew they were like this.”

I’m left wondering if Ethan has ever examined this situation in which Dhan may have experienced some form of transference and latched onto Ethan as his therapist, just as Dhan’s entire purpose, existence, and security are wrapped up in his devotion to Gabi.

Ethan seems to resent Gabi for being something to Dhan that he may very well be to him as well.

It’s all very messy, and not unexpected, from a man who faced captivity in war and had the struggles Dhan had.

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There’s no question that Dhan’s devotion and loyalty to Gabi know no bounds, but they also perfectly fit the profile of a man who was in the military and understood the transcendent bond between comrades in arms.

For Dhan, Gabi is vital in making him whole and giving him purpose; she’s his family.

Unfortunately, she’s a driving force in tensions between Dhan and Ethan, but from what we’ve seen thus far, the frustration is in not understanding Ethan’s expectations.

He likely wants Dhan to place him first because he feels he sacrificed everything to do the same for Dhan.

But then, all one can do is keep reverting to the fact that Ethan knowingly married a trauma survivor and doesn’t seem to make full allowances for how that dictates Dhan’s behavior.

Or, I can give him the proper due of not liking that Dhan works with Gabi and M & A but still putting up with it anyway.

Ethan and Margaret shared a moment as well, as he had been instrumental in helping her relax while she was still dealing with the aftermath of her arrest and banishment from the bus station.

I’m grateful that Ethan emphasized that Margaret needs an impartial therapist not connected to all this. We didn’t veer into the messy and unethical territory of him serving as hers.

But in typical fashion, Ethan used his precious bit of screentime to pile onto Gabi as well, seemingly holding her to account for why Dhan won’t start a family with him and feels indebted to Gabi.

As a professional therapist, it’s such a shortsighted impression of that dynamic and tries to minimize what we see as genuine love for Gabi.

It’s tiresome, but it also is what it is.

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As the season goes on, one can’t help but feel deep sympathy for Gabi, and this is where Found plays both sides in her actions.

Viewers can forgive and sympathize with her after everything she did because we’re seeing the story unfold and the emotional damage she has suffered from Sir.

Meanwhile, the other characters can strongly indict her for her actions and hold her accountable.

But Gabi is suffering so much, and it’s increasingly more difficult to witness.

Her nightmare about Sir becoming the public’s hero after helping and receiving a medal was so jarring yet so understandable.

We know how easily and quickly society jumps at the chance to reform an attractive White man.

The public played right into Sir’s desires, too, as message boards and comment sections were filled with speculation about the fundamental nature behind Gabi and Sir’s relationship, confusion over why Gabi would have an issue with a hot man showing interest in her, and general thirsting over Sir.

The self-awareness of this series is as entertaining as it reflects its own audience and fandom’s reactions back to them.

In Found Season 2, they’ve doubled down on proving that Sir is truly evil and calling out those more invested in the villain.

The narrative around Sir shifted so quickly, and you could see how much pain it caused Gabi and how much it drove her investigation into finding him.

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She was already particularly sensitive and vulnerable because it was a special day for her, one in which she honored her late mother.

Gabi’s pain is always palpable and brimming beneath the surface, and the flashbacks are great at fleshing some of that out and giving us the necessary context.

Young Gabi was determined to make the day special again for her and her father, especially since they missed it when she was in captivity.

But his alcoholism ruined everything, and Rich’s pain only exacerbated Gabi’s own.

A’Zaria Carter remains such a remarkable talent. With so much happening in the present, sometimes there isn’t enough focus on just how incredible she does with these flashbacks.

It delights me that Gabi could stay with Gina and Lacey when her father went to rehab.

That only further cements how she and Lacey are like sisters, yes, but it also gives us this much-needed context and background to Gabi’s relationship with Gina.

She’s the maternal figure Gabi never had after her mother died, and this speaks to how that relationship may have shaped Gabi as a woman who endured what she had.

It pleases me that Gabi still has Gina.

But again, it seems like the only people who are aware of how dangerous things have been for Gabi lately are Dhan and Christian.

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Dhan does not trust Christian.

Dhan’s expression when he saw Christian asleep in the chair after pulling an all-nighter with Gabi was priceless, and he didn’t hesitate to lay down all the threats by the end of the hour.

Dhan Rana stands on business, especially regarding Gabi Mosely, and I love every second of that.

I believe his every word when he says he’ll put a bullet in Christian and not blink twice.

Of course, knowing that spells trouble for the fate of his marriage because Ethan is correct in his assessment of the lengths Dhan goes to for this woman.

It even led to another classic confrontation between Dhan and Trent.

Dhan’s a hero just for being the main one who takes Trent to task when he gets all self-righteous, but even I had to laugh at how ridiculous they looked trying to outrun each other when chasing after a suspect.

Trent is a direct threat to Gabi and everything that M&A represents in Dhan’s eyes, and one can only imagine how much worse things will get when he realizes that the police have shut down M&A and Zeke’s internet access.

Zeke’s hacking into the police server was a huge mistake and only fueled the fire in the case Trent had been trying to build against Gabi.

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Interestingly, he discovered that Trent had intercepted a letter that was supposed to go to Gabi, but he couldn’t find out what it was about.

Zeke is in a bad position because he cannot leave his home. Unless they find other avenues of bringing him internet access, the cops have hamstrung M&A’s biggest asset.

Zeke’s breakdown was heartbreaking, especially as Trent insisted that all of this was above him and that his being a friend was the only reason Zeke got to stay at home rather than get brought into the station.

It was an hour for breakdowns, as in a list that included Gabi in both periods and Zeke, Margaret had one of her own.

Despite Margaret being borderline insufferable this season because of the Gabi stuff, I loved how M&A worked around the bus station situation to give her some peace.

Setting up her rendition of it at the office so she could still go through her pattern and find comfort was so compassionate for their friend who is visibly struggling these days.

Of course, thanks to the cops, she no longer has that either.

She was able to express gratitude to Gabi for her quick fix, but after losing the feed, she broke down and finally released some of that anger, hurt, and pain that so much of her actions of late are linked to.

Kelli Williams and Shanola Hampton were brilliant in that scene.

There was so much raw emotion for both of them as Margaret fully succumbed to the pain and asked the critical question of how they and Gabi could find so many other people but couldn’t seem to find her son.

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Everyone is hurting so badly at M&A that it’s hard to see how they can come out on the other side.

And Gabi routinely being there for everyone else while silently suffering is alarming and painful.

But there were other fascinating elements of this hour.

We saw someone hand Sir the M&A file on Rash so that someone could easily access it and retrieve it undetected.

The series loves to cast doubts on the enigmatic Christian, especially with the new DNA news.

One of the small moments was when Ethan said he wanted to leave Dhan’s lunch, but the receptionist, whom we’d never seen or known, wasn’t there.

She’s likely the culprit, and from the little bits we have seen, it seems that a woman is helping Sir.

Sir’s sister involving herself is the primary theory, too.

A small victory was that Zeke resisted the urge to utilize Sir’s assistance on a case when he reached out to him.

He didn’t share that with anyone other than Lacey, but it’s something vital that shouldn’t have been a secret.

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It wouldn’t be surprising if Sir is behind the cops shutting Zeke and M&A down in retaliation for not relaying the message and using his help.

They could find Rash without his assistance, which was a confidence booster after the Sir revelation made them question everything.

But that came at a cost.

After Margaret’s heartwrenching breakdown, it’s doubtful that the most vocal and rigid soldier will be the strongest one if she believes that Sir could really find her son for her.

Over to you, Found Fanatics.

Who do you think is helping Sir?

How are you feeling about Trent’s latest actions?

Did you catch how Sir planned on taking teen Gabi again in the flashback? Let’s discuss.

Watch Found Online

The post Found Season 2 Episode 7 Review: Making Heroes Out of Monsters (And Monsters Out of Heroes) appeared first on TV Fanatic.

Through characters and stories we love, we can help heal the divide and show people that we are all human and all want similar things.

That may seem like small comfort at a time when racism, homo/transphobia, sexism, and anti-Semitism are at an all-time high. Even so, let’s celebrate characters changing the narrative and helping make a better, less prejudiced world.

FBI’s Omar Adom “O.A.” Zidan Is The First Egyptian-Born Lead Character on A Police Procedural

When I think about characters changing the narrative, O.A. is always the first one that comes to mind.

Unfortunately, many peace-loving Muslims get blamed for terrorist activity related to conflict in the Middle East, and that’s been reflected in our television shows for a very long time.

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Before O.A. was introduced on FBI Season 1 Episode 1. there were few Muslim characters on TV who were not either guilty of terrorism or being accused of it based on credible evidence.

Sure, Law & Order: SVU had a couple of episodes about Muslim women who were raped and killed because they didn’t subscribe to radical Islam, but guess who was always the culprit? Their Muslim fathers or brothers.

That changed seven seasons ago when O.A. was introduced. He is the first and so far only Middle Eastern-born Muslim character to be a leading man in any show, and he’s also an FBI agent.

His loyalty to the United States is never in doubt. Before becoming a field agent in an office that specializes in counter-terrorism, he served in the Army and did two tours in Iraq that left him with PTSD.

Like so many of our veterans, he has PTSD because of his experiences, though he has kept it under control enough to become one of the best, most trusted agents in the New York Field Office.

We won’t talk about his relationship with Clay on FBI Season 7, which is leading him in the wrong direction because it’s beside the point.

OA is one of the strongest characters who changes the narrative of the division and hatred that encompass the United States and the world.

It’s sad that even within the confines of the fictional FBI on TV, OA sometimes has to prove that he’s equally loyal to his country or equally capable of being objective when the targets of investigations are Muslim extremists.

Still, he defies stereotypes simply by continuing to exist and offers some much-needed representation.

Watch FBI Online

Heartstopper’s Elle Argent Is One Of The Characters Changing The Narrative About Transgender Women Of Color

LGBTQ+ representation on TV is in decline precisely when we need it not to be, and that’s doubly true for the transgender community.

It’s especially important to showcase Black transgender women and other transgender women of color who experience the intersections of transphobia, racism, and misogyny.

I’d like there to be more American transgender people of all races and gender identities on TV, but in the meantime, the UK series Heartstopper‘s Elle is my favorite example of how transgender characters are changing the narrative about who they are.

Elle is a transgender teenager who is mostly accepted as the woman she is.

Throughout Heartstopper’s three seasons, she has grown from a shy loner who was afraid cis girls in her new school wouldn’t accept her to an out and proud transgender artist who has friends both in and outside of the transgender community.

Sometimes, Heartstopper gets criticized for showing LGBTQ+ kids being happy and mostly free of hate-fueled drama, but we need stories like these.

We need characters like Elle who are supported by their parents and friends and who want to be seen as more than a statistic or a label.

Elle sends the message that you CAN be happy if you’re transgender despite all the hate in the world.

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Transgender kids have an unacceptably high suicide rate. They NEED hope. Elle gives it.

Yes, she was upset during Heartstopper Season 3 when a podcast host asked her for an interview about her art and then bombarded her with questions about whether trans girls should be allowed to use the women’s restroom and other transphobic nonsense.

She struggled with that a bit and needed her friends’ help to overcome the depression and keep moving on. But even that was a positive message, showing that in reality, it doesn’t HAVE to be over because of setbacks like this.

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Good Trouble’s Davia Moss Explored How Fatphobia Affects Plus-Sized People (And Formerly Plus-Sized People)

Good Trouble is no longer on, but it deserves an honorable mention anyway.

This show did so much good in terms of characters changing the narrative around all sorts of identities. I could fill this list with almost everybody on it.

I chose Davia because there is not enough discussion of plus-sized women and the prejudices they face on TV.

The body-size movement began when Camryn Manheim first came onto the scene as a proudly plus-sized actress who did not intend to lose weight to get roles, but Davia is the most modern example I can think of.

Davia experienced body shaming both as a plus-size person and later when she lost weight.

When formerly plus-sized people become not-so-plus-sized, they experience a different flavor of prejudice, with people constantly telling them how good they look and commenting on their weight loss without knowing the details.

It’s annoying and, in some cases, upsetting if the person loses weight because they have a serious illness that they don’t want to broadcast to the world.

People should not be commenting on others’ body size, period, especially strangers, and Davia demonstrated why that is hurtful whether or not you’re a plus-sized person.

Additionally, she demonstrated that there is a lot more to a person than how big they are or aren’t. She was one of the most well-rounded characters on Good Trouble, with a lot of flaws but a big heart and the intention to help others.

Watch Good Trouble Online

The Irrational’s Alec Mercer Is A Black Role Model And Trauma Survivor

The Irrational is busy offering characters changing the narrative all over the place. It was a hard choice between Alec and his sister, Kylie, who is a strong representative of Black queerness.

Alec is one of my favorite characters in television history for many reasons. I find his commitment to rationality over emotion inspiring and his determination to live his life to the fullest despite the trauma he’s suffered even more so.

I’m also stoked about Alec because he is a Black college professor and consultant to the FBI.

The consultant part has been done before, but we all know that Black men are underrepresented in teaching across the board, on TV, and in reality.

Alec is a successful Black man who teaches and inspires others.

His college classroom is always full, and he uses interesting and creative experiments to make points about neuroscience, which isn’t always the easiest topic to understand.

Alec is also a trauma survivor and is changing the narrative on that, too.

Like many survivors, he is very strong in some areas of his life and not very functional in others.

It’s doubly powerful to have him as a representative of trauma survivorship because he knows the human brain inside and out and understands the ways that he sometimes fails him, yet he is powerless to do anything about it when flashbacks or other aspects of trauma hit him.

Watch The Irrational Online

Found’s Bella Dismantles Stereotypes Around Nonverbal People

Trauma can cause people to become selectively mute. That means that they are unable to speak in some or all situations.

That’s not usually what trauma looks like on TV, but Found is different.

This season contains flashbacks of Bella (who chose the name Lacey as an adult) struggling as a seven-year-old child who had recently escaped Sir’s clutches.

Among other things, Bella does not speak.

I love this story because I am passionate about confronting and eliminating the ableist belief that verbal ability has ANYTHING to do with intelligence or competence.

Bella communicates non-verbally very well.

Her facial expressions and other body language are so perfect that an autistic person like me, who struggles with interpreting body language, knows exactly what she is feeling at any given moment.

She can still read, write, draw, and think. She simply cannot speak.

Bella grows up to be a woman who has reclaimed her voice and refused to lose it again, but that doesn’t change the fact that she is one of a very small number of characters changing the narrative around nonverbal children, if not the only one.

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Brilliant Minds’ Oliver Wolf Is The Best Of Several Characters Changing The Narrative Around Neurodivergence

There are many more autistic and other neurodivergent characters in TV Land than there used to be, but that doesn’t mean there’s a hell of a lot of accurate representation.

Brilliant Minds‘ Oliver Wolf is the best neurodivergent representative. He is a doctor who is respected by some and seen as a nuisance by others.

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He has face blindness, which is a neurodivergent condition in which a person cannot recognize people by looking at their faces.

This is far different from the usual neurodivergent character. There is a lot more to neurodivergence than autism and ADHD, not that those conditions are generally portrayed properly, either.

Wolf’s neurodivergent traits are carefully interwoven with his past trauma and his fear of intimacy because of that trauma.

That’s also an important distinction because far too many shows are interested in the question of “Will this person succeed even though they are neurodivergent?” rather than showing the character as being more than a diagnosis.

Wolf does double-duty representation-wise because he is also gay.

Neither of these identities is centered to the degree that we lose sight of him as a unique, fascinating individual who has compensated for his difficulties as best as he can to create enormous professional success.

I also appreciate how his sexual orientation and neurodivergence likely contributed to his trauma.

No one could predict his dad’s mental illness and subsequent death, but Wolf would have experienced some trauma even if those things hadn’t happened because of who he is and how he sees the world.

Watch Brilliant Minds Online

Blue Bloods’ Jamie Reagan Demonstrates That Men Can Be Empathetic and Sensitive

At first glance, it might seem strange to choose a Blue Bloods character as an example of changing the narrative.

Blue Bloods skews more conservative on the political spectrum than most shows, so an argument can be made that it changes the narrative around conservatives all being evil and selfish, which is also important in these divided times.

Jamie has always been my favorite, with Henry as a close second. He not only went into police work for the right reasons but is especially good at building rapport with witnesses and suspects.

In the early seasons, Jamie demonstrated more than once that he had a gift for helping talk down people who were having a mental health crisis.

One moment that sticks in my mind is when an autistic man began causing trouble at a store, throwing things around and generally being belligerent, and Jamie was able to peacefully subdue him by using his understanding of the man’s thought processes.

This was a man with limited verbal skills who respected Jamie and wanted to be like him, so Jamie got him to put his hands behind his head by modeling it, and the man cooperated.

He was arrested without the use of force, which would not have happened had Jamie not been there.

Jamie uses this type of sensitivity and empathy on the job all the time, though, in later seasons, he is in a higher position and doesn’t work with the public as much.

His empathy changes the narrative about what it means to be masculine and demonstrates that cops don’t HAVE to be modern-day cowboys.

Watch Blue Bloods Online

Law & Order: Organized Crime’s Jet Slootmaekers Shoots Down Stereotypes About Female Coders

Jet has been my favorite on Law & Order: Organized Crime since it began.

Jet is a computer expert, but she is far from a nerd.

She’s smart, sardonic, and seemingly fearless. She’s a cop and a computer expert, and she knows how to use a gun better than almost anybody.

In short, Jet would fit in on any modern Western… except she also knows computers.

Jet’s one weakness, if you can call it that, is that she struggles in relationships.

That’s understandable. Women who are as bright and assertive as her often have a hard time finding love, and in her case, she’s too afraid of commitment for it to work.

That’s worse in the later seasons because Jet falls hard for two men who die. That’ll screw anyone up.

Still, few female characters change the narrative of what women in traditionally masculine careers are like as much as Jet does.

Watch Law & Order: Organized Crime Online

Homicide: Life On The Street’s Tim Bayliss Is Still One of The Best Representatives of Bisexual Men 30 Years Later

Look, this might be an old show, but Homicide: Life on The Street is on Peacock, so you can still watch it.

It also has the first bisexual male character on TV. Starting with Homicide: Life On The Street Season 6, Bayliss explored his sexuality after realizing he was attracted to a male suspect.

Bayliss tried dating both men and women, struggled with the question of whether he was straight or gay, and ultimately concluded he was neither.

That was radical then and equally radical today when we still have people insisting that bi characters are really in-the-closet gay characters.

Homicide’s final season wasn’t worth watching in most respects, but Bayliss’s determination to be openly bisexual, even though the police department thought that was “unprofessional,” made up for a lot of other non-interesting stories.

Watch Homicide: Life On The Street Online

Chicago Med’s Hannah Asher Changes The Narrative On Drug Addiction

Drug addiction stories are a dime a dozen on TV.

Far too often, though, it’s treated in a stereotypical manner. Whether someone is addicted to alcohol or hard drugs, the most popular storyline for them is the relapse story, followed by the overzealous AA meeting attendee story.

Addiction is a far more complicated issue than that, but you wouldn’t know it from most TV shows.

Chicago Med‘s Hannah Asher is different.

Hannah recently went through something that could have easily triggered a relapse.

She lost a patient soon after the baby was delivered and blamed herself. Guilt, shame, and pain are powerful emotions that often drive people back toward addictive behavior.

Add in the fact that Hannah’s relationship with her new boyfriend was falling apart, and there was a chance she could lose her job because Lenox thought that it was unnecessary to employ a full-time OBGYN, and you have a recipe for spiraling out of control.

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However, Hannah didn’t relapse. There aren’t any better examples of characters changing the narrative around addiction than that!

Hannah’s addiction is part of who she is but doesn’t define her, and unlike most of the people with addiction issues on TV, she is self-aware enough to realize when she’s at risk and take action to protect herself.

That makes her a role model and dismantles the stereotype that relapses “just happen” and nobody can do anything to prevent them.

Watch Chicago Med Online

Georgie And Mandy’s First Marriage’s Georgie Cooper Dismantles Stereotypes About Country Boys In An Interesting Way

Throughout Young Sheldon, Georgie was depicted as the “stupid” (or at least ignorant) brother.

However, there is a lot more to Georgie than that, and now that he’s gotten his own show (Georgie and Mandy’s First Marriage), it’s easier to see.

Georgie was never book-smart. School wasn’t his thing.

But he has a head for business and is gifted mechanically, skills that were never emphasized when he was growing up in the shadow of his younger brother.

We need characters to change the narrative of what intelligence is.

There are many kids who fall through the cracks because they would shine in trade schools or in the arts but are not academically minded.

This doesn’t mean that people don’t need to learn the basics, but not everyone needs advanced degrees, and that should be okay.

As a bonus, Georgie’s intelligence in areas other than academics also dismantles the idea that Southerners, particularly Southern men, are all idiots, which can only be a good thing in this overly divided country.

Watch Georgie and Mandy's First Marriage Online

Over to you, TV fanatics!

Who are some of your favorite characters who are changing the narrative about various groups of people?

Hit the comments with your thoughts!

The post How TV Is Breaking Stereotypes: 11 Characters Changing the Narrative appeared first on TV Fanatic.

But the good news is, watching TV isn’t just an escape.

Some of our favorite dramas hold unexpected life lessons, and you never know what you’re going to learn when you tune in.

The Irrational Teaches Us How To Stay Steady In Difficult Times

NBC’s The Irrational is one of the most entertaining cozy mysteries out there, but it is also so much more than that.

Alec Mercer literally teaches every week. His neuroscience lectures focus on different aspects of the brain’s workings, often including demonstrations and experiments to illustrate his points.

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Alec isn’t specifically teaching life lessons, but his exploration of neuroscience does teach his philosophy of life, which is based on his understanding of the brain.

Alec lives his life by two guiding principles:

1. The brain processes emotion before rationality, so you have to identify your emotional triggers and put them aside
2. Trauma makes the brain want to protect itself, but life must be lived to the fullest

I find the first principle to be an especially helpful life lesson, even if I haven’t fully mastered it yet.

It’s easy in tough times to get overwhelmed by emotion and make decisions that aren’t in your best interest.

Fear is an especially strong motivator. It causes people to go into flight or fight mode, often making decisions that ultimately hurt them because they’re trying to protect themselves.

Alec’s lecture on The Irrational Season 2 Episode 1 about emotional triggers and his suggestion to wait them out before making big decisions are nothing I haven’t heard all my life, yet they hold more weight coming from a TV character.

That cooling-off period is something I consciously try to do now.

Alec doesn’t just teach these lessons in his lectures.

He lives his life by them.

He demonstrates the principle of living fully despite what life has thrown at you every day just by getting up and doing his job despite the trauma he’s suffered.

He is also one of the happiest characters on the show despite everything, while this season Phoebe is struggling because she chose safety over continuing to take risks with Alec and she’s not happy with her new job.

Phoebe’s story contains subtle messages about the cost of choosing safety over living fully, and what the consequences of that are.

Lately, The Irrational Also Contains Life Lessons About The Cost Of Doing The Right Thing

In the current political climate, doing the right thing has become more important than ever, but it’s not easy.

The Irrational offers helpful life lessons here, too. I especially liked Phoebe and Kylie’s conversation on The Irrational Season 2 Episode 4.

After Phoebe realized that her new boss was plagiarizing student work, she debated whether to come forward, and Kylie told her that she’d recently learned the hard way how hard it would be, which she knew well because of her own choice to stand up to the hackers in her coding group, who then rejected her.

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People will reject you, and those in power will use it to hurt you.

No, that’s not one of the life lessons I’m talking about. Kylie’s deeper point was that you have to go in knowing what the consequences are and choosing to do what’s right anyway.

That awareness makes all the difference. It’s easier to advocate for what’s right if you’ve already evaluated the consequences and made a plan to deal with them.

Watch The Irrational Online

Found Teaches Us To Protect Our Joy

Found is an important show because it includes a group of mostly-Black women who stand up for those missing persons who fall through the cracks of the system.

It also teaches us some important life lessons in how to navigate trauma.

In the days following the Presidential election, I keep returning to a scene from Found Season 2 Episode 5 where a teenage Gabi tells Bella:

If we allow Sir to steal our joy now that we’re free, then he wins. And we don’t want him to win.

That’s a profoundly important message in these frightening and depressing times. I would argue it’s the same message my candidate espoused but in a different form.

In any case, it resonates strongly with me right now, and remembering not to allow anyone to steal my joy has helped me stay steady and move forward during these difficult times.

Watch Found Online

I Have Learned So Many Life Lessons From Blue Bloods

One of the many reasons I’m heartbroken that Blue Bloods is ending is that there is so much to be learned by example from the Reagan family.

Its heroes are flawed, relatable people who stand for something.

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Blue Bloods imparts the biggest life lesson each week: know what you believe in and stand up for it.

Frank lives his life as a man of integrity or tries to, and that means that political considerations such as optics don’t usually figure into his decisions.

He is intimidating to his adversaries, yet they respect him, and that comes from him knowing who he is and what he stands for.

There’s no bigger life lesson than that.

There are other life lessons in each episode, of course. There’s not a week that goes by that I don’t find at least one Frank Reagan quote that I want to stick on a meme.

His exhortation to Mayor Chase to “serve this city, not your egos” is one of my recent favorites.

You can also always count on Henry for life lessons. One of the most beautiful things about Blue Bloods Season 14 Episode 11 was his advice to Jamie about the car that some criminals had stolen that had once belonged to Joe:

Never hold on to material possesions. Worry about what you can’t replace.

That’s something important to keep in mind.

During difficult times, it’s easy to cling tightly to our things because they give us a sense of safety and security that we’re badly missing, but that doesn’t help anything.

Watch Blue Bloods Online

Over to you, TV fanatics.

What life lessons have you recently learned from your favorite dramas?

Hit the comments and let us know!

The post Lessons We Didn’t Expect: What Recent Dramas Teach Us About Life appeared first on TV Fanatic.

After Found Season 2 Episode 6, it’s confirmed that Sir is working closely with someone, and the others know it. Trent is coming after both Gabi and Dhan, and Margaret is facing devastating repercussions for her actions.

And that’s only a fraction of what the hour delivered.

Something that’s working incredibly well this season is the flashbacks.

Jasmine Washington and Azaria Carter are truly amazing, and the focus on them is sometimes more gratifying to watch than the present day, which speaks volumes as there’s plenty to enjoy in the current timeline.

As I mentioned before, the heart of this season and this series is the sisterhood between Gabi and Lacey.

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Through those flashbacks, they’re digging into their past and illuminating this dynamic that we couldn’t even begin to properly understand during Found Season 1.

Bella’s nonverbal state after her kidnapping has not prevented her story from being one of the most compelling of the season.

Washington is such a beautiful young girl who evokes so many emotions through facial expressions and body language so wonderfully that it’s worth commending every hour.

In the flashbacks, an article about their ordeal nearly drove a wedge between them because a journalist twisted Gabi’s words and suggested that she felt Bella was broken.

It was so apparent that this was never the case that it was a relief when Gabi pulled out that recorder and played what she really said so Bella could hear in Gabi’s words just how much she admired and loved her little sister.

There is nothing broken about Bella, and it’s such a rare find that a series deems to explore trauma-based nonverbals and commits to it.

They didn’t duck out of it when it was most convenient or felt the audience wouldn’t notice.

It’s something that Bella genuinely has to work through in her way.

But the flashbacks were great at further establishing two points: one being Lacey’s constant battle with trusting her own mind but also convincing others to actually listen and hear her, and two, giving Gabi the support that young Gabi always gave her.

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Lacey is instrumental in them ever coming close to finding Sir and capturing him.

But at this rate, it’s doubtful that they can.

I love Mark-Paul Gosselaar’s presence in this series, and Sir is truly a terrifying figure.

But the way he evades capture requires an unreal suspension of belief.

This time around, we saw the man entering M&A by himself as if he owned the joint, using keys that he had made from an impression in hopes of having another conversation with Gabi or worse.

And somehow, despite the alerts, he could casually stroll away and disappear into the night without the cops or anyone else finding him.

How?!

But thanks to Lacey and the team finally listening to her, they’re making headway by realizing that someone is helping Sir, and Lacey isn’t imagining that.

It’s so frustrating that she has to keep proving that her mind isn’t playing tricks on her and that what she says is real.

For a bunch of trauma survivors, it’s as grating that everyone tends to doubt Lacey or tell her how she should feel and what she should do as it is they are treating Gabi like crap.

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She spent so much of her life with others gaslighting her “for her own good,” and it’s disheartening that as a grown woman, she still has to deal with that.

Gabi and Dhan seemed receptive to what she had to say. Still, it wasn’t until Margaret could confirm Lacey’s theory, despite her own frazzled and emotionally unstable state, that the collective listened.

For Lacey, Zeke gets carried away with being protective, invalidating her at every turn, and questioning her judgment and mental and emotional state.

He’s so painfully in love with her, and it’s adorable, but he needs to stop telling Lacey how she should feel about everything. It’s so grating!

But at least he had some endearing moments, such as their near kiss and his stepping a foot out into the rain.

Gabi faces similar treatment by the group.

Sir is working with someone, and it must be a woman. We saw the hands of the person patching them up, and it had to be a woman.

What’s interesting is that we know about Christian but still haven’t heard much of anything about their sister. Neither brother mentions her, which must mean there’s something more there.

Sir is such a diabolical character, but damn if he doesn’t have his moments.

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Initially, it was easy to assume that Margaret had hallucinated Sir, too, and that he wasn’t there.

However, he was, and we got one of the most unexpected showdowns of the series.

Margaret was terrified of Sir but kept her composure as best as she could, and she took notice of these little details about him.

Meanwhile, Sir threw so much shade at Margaret that it was hard not to laugh.

He gave her a run for her money with the dry, witty barbs.

It was quite the interaction, but inquiring minds would love to know if Margaret has softened or found more sympathy for Gabi after experiencing Sir directly.

Although she did her best to hide her fear, she was visibly scared of him.

It’s frightening that he walked into their place of business like it was nothing and shattered any illusion of safety at M&A.

Sir is all about control, and he spent the full hour showing everyone exactly how little they have and that he is holding all the cards.

He also rattled Gabi with this case, making her doubt her capabilities and wonder if she could ever solve a case without him.

We know she’s been doing that just fine for years before she locked Sir in her basement, so it’s not like she’s incapable, but it’s hard to convince yourself of things when you’re spiraling.

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The case had its fair share of twists as Other Gabi sent everyone on a wild goose chase when she faked her kidnapping for attention and stole another girl, too.

This case had a lot going on in an hour that already had more than enough going on, which made the whole thing feel a bit clunky.

However, Charlotte had to post a video hailing Sir as a hero for saving her since he beat Gabi to the location.

It’s almost laughable that anyone could see that video of this looming, high-profile fugitive and not be horrified that a known child abductor is anywhere near another teen girl, whether he saved her or not.

But Sir is attractive, articulate, and seemingly well-mannered, so it’s no surprise if he garners quite the fanbase after that video.

The author, Arthur, was a potentially intriguing element to the show, but it was a waste to utilize him here.

Bringing AI into the mix was an appreciated nod to how disruptive it would be if AI took over everything, but it got squeezed into play, and there was too much the hour was already juggling.

Frustratingly, Gabi knew that wasn’t Sir, but she still had Trent and others trying to suggest that she didn’t know what she was talking about, and it was such an irritating pattern.

Blessedly, Gabi finally went off on them and pushed back more than usual, which means that she may be reaching her boiling point and won’t keep sitting there, taking everyone’s digs all the time.

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But it’s laughable that these other people were trying to tell Gabi about Sir. If anyone knows Sir well, it’s Gabi.

As his primary prey, she can’t afford not to understand her predator fully.

In other news, we’re inclined to show Margaret some grace, at least marginally, because she’s vital to the agency and has a lot going on with her.

What I cannot fathom is what Found intends to do with Trent.

I do not foresee a believable way for them to make him redeemable after the first half of this season.

He lacks basic professionalism when he’s in the vicinity of Gabi or any of her friends and those close to her.

He’s hellbent on building a case against a woman the nation only knows as a survivor and a hero, who they have more faith in than him as an officer.

Trent is more fixated on building a case against Gabi than he is finding Sir, the actual bad person and serious threat to the public.

The way he’s been in Sir’s vicinity or close on his heels and fumbled the chance to capture him is unfathomable.

But it’s Trent’s way of trying to exploit people’s trauma or simply bulldoze past it to come after Gabi that makes me so angry I physically shake when he’s onscreen.

There is no pathway toward making Trent a redeemable character, and there certainly isn’t an avenue where I can actively support some relationship between the two, so what are they doing here?

At this rate, as much as I love Brett Dalton, I’d sooner see him off the screen than continue down this path. It’s not entertaining or fun; it’s genuinely offputting.

At least within M&A, Dhan reached a point where he had to call everyone out for their behavior.

It’s gotten to be too much, and it’s stressing him out in a way that highlights his fears and some of his triggers.

I hope the series spends some time touching on that more.

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He can’t reconcile turning on a woman who saved his life; he genuinely sees Gabi as the reason he’s still here, and their relationship means far too much to him for him to want her shipped off to prison.

There’s a codependency there that the series still needs to unravel fully.

But it’s also sensible because outside of Lacey, who is also advocating for Gabi, he’s the only other person who recognizes that she’s a trauma survivor just like them and knows that she’s just as vulnerable as she is strong.

And his payment for that is Trent actively going after Dhan, too, which is too irritating for words.

Dhan did a decent job calling Margaret out on her “having a bad day” and a horrible reaction, but it didn’t penetrate Margaret’s exterior.

She still sees herself as different from Gabi and views Gabi as some monster for her actions.

She was also adamant about Dhan telling Ethan the truth.

It went well until it didn’t.

Ethan is a character that I often forget exists until he’s mentioned or shown. It’s a shame.

However, something that always bothered me about Ethan during the first season was how he felt more like Dhan’s therapist than his husband, likely because he is one.

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Ethan speaks to Dhan like he’s something he’s trying to fix, which creates an uncomfortable power imbalance that gets stirred up again during this installment.

Interestingly, Dhan clings to these connections because as much as Ethan seems to resent Gabi’s hold on Dhan and his unwavering loyalty and devotion to her, Dhan may have the same dynamic with Ethan, too.

After all, didn’t Ethan “save” him as well?

Ethan handled the news that Dhan helped Gabi well.

He was perfectly forgiving and understanding the whole thing until he realized Dhan told M&A first.

And now Dhan is in the dog house, and Ethan is upset that he comes second to M&A.

I don’t know what to do with that, so I’ll leave it there.

Despite Margaret’s ire, snippiness, and strong judgment, Gabi and Lacey were right there to support her in the end, proving that the sisterhood extends beyond just Gabi and Lacey.

Frankly, Gabi’s grace is impressive. I’m a grudgeholder and petty, so I probably couldn’t resist being snippy while helping.

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Margaret isn’t doing well and desperately needs to go back to therapy, and if anything will drive her back there, it’s the bus station banning her from returning, and in this case, the man she assaulted is building up.

She reacted poorly to an employee she was friendly with before moving the fliers about Jamie.

And surely, once the floodgates opened because of that incident, it was easy to justify her never stepping foot back in there since she spent every night there, slept there, and approached people constantly about her son.

Margaret can no longer include the bus station in her routine, and it’s hard to say how much farther she’ll fall because of that.

For better or worse, despite their differences, she at least has her M&A family to support her through this.

However, Sir presented an offer that Margaret initially refused. Anyone would be tempted to take him up on it.

What if he really can find Jamie?

Over to you, Found Fanatics.

Are you sick of Trent?

Will Margaret consider Sir’s offer?

Let’s hear it below!

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The post Found Season 2 Episode 6 Review: Sir Isn’t M&A’s Most Insufferable Antagonist, It’s Trent appeared first on TV Fanatic.

M&A is broken, but is it broken beyond repair?

We all know there’s a way around this, or rather through it, and that the Found Family will find some middle ground, but these times look incredibly bleak.

And Found Season 2 Episode 5 sheds light on how fractured things are and even sets the groundwork for a world without Gabi at the helm of M&A and one in which their “vigilante” group is rendered obsolete.

We got a quick solution after Found Season 2 Episode 4‘s cliffhanger, which had us clutching our chests and wondering what happened to Lacey all over again.

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She needed some air and took off for a breather, something the characters relayed quickly at the top of the hour. The others have concerns about her but still don’t fully voice them.

Unsurprisingly, it was a fake-out, but it was frustrating, considering how much we sailed past it.

However, it was something else that established how Lacey is still struggling not only with the trauma of her time with Sir and all that it stirs up in her from her childhood but from a TBI as well.

The combination of both places Lacey in a difficult position. She doesn’t always trust her mind and often feels that others feel the same way about what she says and does.

It muddies the waters whenever she shares a tidbit, but we see how she mulls things over before she voices her thoughts as if she’s too afraid of people not believing her.

It lingers from her childhood, as we saw how everyone unwittingly gaslighted her whenever she attempted to share that Sir was stalking her.

Because Lacey already has a lot on her plate, it’s bothersome that she has to spend some time fielding other people’s strong feelings about what happened to her and emotions about Gabi.

Trent’s follow-up with her showed some sensitivity.

He always reaches the point where he allows his own feelings to override everything else, and that’s when it consistently becomes a problem.

Trent couldn’t resist prodding Lacey about Sir and Gabi despite their conversation draining her mentally and emotionally.

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Trent, on this fool’s journey, attempting to build a case against Gabi is one thing, but the way he insists on roping those closest to Gabi into all of this is absurd.

If he could find an ounce of chill in any capacity anywhere, it wouldn’t be nearly as grating, but sadly, he cannot.

It’s as if no one else around Lacey is considering how they’re placing more undue stress on her by trying to dictate or influence how she feels about Gabi for their own selfish reasons.

There’s nothing fair about Lacey needing to set aside her own traumas and issues at times because she feels compelled to draw a clear line regarding her sister and the judgment that Gabi is facing.

By the end of the hour, it’s enough to make you wonder if, deep down, Lacey recognizes that part of Gabi imprisoning Sir was on her behalf.

Maybe Lacey didn’t want Sir held in captivity the way Gabi arranged, but if there’s anything we’ve learned from the flashbacks, Gabi has always been Lacey’s protector and would do anything for her.

Gabi has seen Lacey through it all, and she’s been there through the darkest moments for her.

The flashbacks continue to be one of the season’s highlights as they build on the background we’ve learned and establish this dynamic between these two sisters and how deeply it goes.

It sets the tone for everything we know about the relationship between these two characters, whether as children or now.

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It also shapes so much about Gabi, who she is as a character, and how everyone around her reacts to her, never fully knowing the full extent of her journey in the first place.

Gabi has been Lacey’s advocate and protector since the moment she laid eyes on her, and Lacey couldn’t have thrived without the loving support and help from her mother and Gabi.

We see how deeply Gabi is protective of Lacey, but Lacey could potentially extend that to Gabi in the present day, and if she does, she’d be a rarity — who actually looked after Gabi when she escaped Sir?

It doesn’t seem like she ever got to process anything, and one thing about trauma is it will come back and bite you if unresolved.

Gabi is a protector and always has been, but this woman has been on such a slippery slope emotionally and mentally since well before we met her, and it’s only increased tenfold now since all of this has happened.

One can’t help but keep returning to the critical question: Who protects the protector?

Nearly everyone in Gabi’s life is so busy judging and indicting her for everything that there’s been little focus on whether or not she’s genuinely okay and needs some protection herself; it’s disheartening.

Maybe just an ounce of the empathy that she extends to others would be nice and essential here because it’s abundantly clear that this woman never actually had the full support network she needed after all of this.

Knowing that Bella/Lacey’s breakthrough in creating a happy picture that wasn’t cast in darkness was one of Sir behind bars certainly adds more context and a deeper layer to Gabi’s actions, and the slow unraveling of that is fascinating.

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Of course, the context means very little when M&A is a hot mess.

The case’s approach and formatting differed due to the issues plaguing M&A.

For starters, it wasn’t even a case that Gabi picked up herself, but rather Margaret.

There’s nothing wrong with Margaret working on some cases and bringing them to the attention of others, but the problem is that she didn’t tell anyone about it.

However, she still invited the Diazes to the agency anyway.

It was a bold move, and while we’ve all had to deal with her anger toward Gabi, how she undercut Gabi with this maneuver was still particularly difficult to watch.

If it wasn’t already a gut punch that she went behind Gabi and brought these people into the office without telling anyone else her intentions, the dig she made justifying why she did it was a total KO.

Margaret wants to ensure she can do the job without Gabi, as she assumes Gabi will go away.

It seems that Margaret feels she’ll be taking over the agency, presumably when Gabi is imprisoned for what she did to Sir.

That was enough to justify her not communicating properly or professionally with Gabi regarding the Diaz case.

The work that M&A does is incredibly important.

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Gabi is clearly a better person than I am and certainly better than some of the characters are actually giving her credit for here.

Gabi could still take that particular dig and plan to the chin because she would naturally want the company to continue without her if necessary because she believes in their work.

As a result, Gabi wouldn’t dare call Margaret out on her audacity nor stoop low and make some points about Margaret’s fragile state that may interfere with her properly executing things or leading the charge in Gabi’s absence.

Margaret was right about little Matty being Adela’s son, which meant Adela was alive.

But the others have adequate reason to be concerned about Margaret and her mental health because she looked utterly frazzled for most of the hour.

They all noted her harried demeanor and look, and we also learned that she stopped seeing her therapist.

It’s not a good sign that she’s stopped those sessions, and now she’s facing a larger stressor and more issues because of how she’s handling everything with Gabi.

She also has seemingly regressed when it comes to her sitting at the bus station every single night.

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Margaret has been having a rough time, and the problem is far deeper than what happened with Gabi and Sir.

One wishes that Margaret would even consider looking past that and getting to the crux of her issues because it only seems to be causing more harm and damage.

She’s hurting far too much to continue at her current pace, and hating Gabi isn’t enough, nor is it doing her any good.

Even her meddlesome nature with Dhan is frustrating.

Frankly, it’s not really her or Zeke’s place or business to harangue Dhan about whether or not he’ll tell his husband about his role in helping Gabi.

This desire to be judge, jury, and executioner when it comes to Gabi, or in this instance, Dhan, taking accountability for their actions and facing the consequences is irksome.

Unfortunately, Dhan is also having a tough time. Because of everything that has transpired, he’s seemingly avoiding his husband every chance he gets.

But it also feels like something that he has to work out for himself without the input of his displeased and righteous colleagues.

Margaret is on the warpath, but all of this is eating her up too much, which is why, as shocking as it was that Margaret landed herself in cuffs before Gabi did, there was almost a certainty too.

We don’t know what caused Margaret’s arrest, but she hasn’t been doing well, so she wasn’t headed anywhere good.

Trent is also still painfully obnoxious about Gabi, despite some of the ground made in Found Season 2 Episode 3, but at least this time, she finally shut him down so they could focus on the case.

How much abuse does he think she’ll take?

They can’t even work on a time-sensitive case without him taking moments to dig at her.

Trent is misguided, and it’s frustrating that a law enforcement officer fails to grasp what a GENUINE TRAUMA BOND looks like.

He keeps speaking to Gabi as if she’s choosing Sir, trying to serve Sir, addicted to Sir, or as if this game that she and Sir play is out of sport and entertainment for her and not freaking survival.

It’s infuriating that Sir terrifies Gabi, but people forget that because they don’t understand their connection.

She never chooses Sir, and she doesn’t consider him a partner, but ironically, Trent doesn’t even consider that he’s playing into Sir’s plans and giving HIM what he wants by alienating Gabi.

Even the debate over whether or not they would hear what Sir had to say about the case was frustrating.

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Understandably, people have bruised egos and hurt feelings over the realization that sometimes Sir was critical in helping them solve their cases.

But when someone’s life is on the line, and there is little time to waste, it doesn’t feel right to ignore anything useful Sir may have had to say.

Even Lacey could grasp this and trusted Gabi.

Interestingly, she and Dhan noted how Gabi processed what Sir had to say, down to envisioning his presence in the room and speaking to him as if they were mere feet apart.

It’s clear that Gabi has her own struggles regarding Sir, and that moment with Dhan and Lacey on the outside looking in clued them in. This isn’t fun for Gabi, nor something glamorous or that she desires; it’s supremely effed up and messy.

But, of course, they aren’t the ones that overlook her vulnerability.

It’s a relief that Sir didn’t somehow breach M&A and wound up in the room with Gabi and that close.

But Sir is no less evil and scary, and you know it’s bad when, besides being scared for himself, Christian is terrified of what Sir has planned for Gabi, too.

The two brothers have fascinating interactions because you never know where their conversations will go.

Christian needed time to process the news that Sir killed their mother, but he still insisted to Gabi that he’d somehow help because Christian definitely wasn’t the person helping Sir, right?

It’s unclear how he intends to help, and when he has moments where he crosses paths with his brother and fails to do anything, it’s hard to know where Christian stands.

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Christian isn’t long for this world, mostly because Sir doesn’t care for Christian’s interest in Gabi.

At this point, Sir could probably do away with his brother and still make himself a martyr in the process, as he did when all but confirming why he killed their mother in the first place.

Found still sometimes struggles to show how Sir’s insight is so essential.

He often shares things that Gabi would have already known or would have taken the others only a short time to figure out.

In this case, his connection and insight were on the weak side.

But so many other things were happening that it wasn’t too grating, especially since it delivered that wonderfully shot scene of Gabi imagining Sir there with her. Again, it perfectly encapsulates what Sir and Gabi’s trauma bond actually looks like.

The Diazes were victims of the criminal justice system and the media. Seven years of the general public believing that you killed your daughter based on a bar fight is deplorable and yet the EXACT type of scrutiny and judgment that BIPOC often faces.

It was far too easy to vilify these parents of color, perpetuate some violent Brown man narrative, and then not bother to find Adela, and then these same people wonder why there’s hesitancy to trust in and reach out to the authorities.

Sadly, because Trent was taking up this case this time, he was the one who had to apologize on behalf of the entire force for the actions of others who preceded him, including Edwards.

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The case brought his father into the mix, and the two have a strained relationship and different outlooks on life.

His father is charismatic and seems to have the respect of those around him, but he’s also more old-school.

He considers Trent a bit more sensitive to the nature of the job, but despite their different outlooks, he seems insistent on protecting Trent from Gabi.

I don’t know what to make of that, nor do I know how to process that Trent’s next order of business is a specialized task force for these types of cases.

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He’s probably trying to hurt Gabi by making her obsolete, but this, too, is laughable.

As we saw in Found Season 2 Episode 4, even with a specialized task force, only some respect or trust law enforcement.

If Trent had to apologize on behalf of law enforcement over the mishandling of a case seven years ago, what makes him think they’ll be any better equipped at helping people now?

And if Gabi had to have an entire agency because law enforcement drops the ball with disenfranchised missing people, how would a specialized unit do any better than what police have been doing thus far?

M&A and Gabi are in a precarious place right now, and it’s hard to guess what the future holds.

Over to you, Found Fanatics.

What do you think is in store for the future of M&A?

Why do you think the police arrested Margaret?

Sound off in the comments below, and let’s discuss it all!

Watch Found Online

The post Found Season 2 Episode 5 Review: Gabi’s Legacy and M&A’s Future Hangs in the Balance appeared first on TV Fanatic.

Law & Order: SVU has been about empowering survivors to rebuild their lives for the past 26 years.

Now, two other shows join it in its mission, and better yet, both Found and The Irrational feature Black survivors — a badly underrepresented demographic.

Law & Order: SVU Started An Important Trend 26 Years Ago

For a long time, Law & Order: SVU was a beacon of light in a dark TV landscape.

On most shows, trauma was a plot point and one that wasn’t portrayed particularly accurately.

People with PTSD were often depicted as violent or unstable and sometimes given symptoms that weren’t accurate.

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(This still happens sometimes today; it was only a few years ago that Days of Our Lives had someone with PTSD experiencing hallucinations similar to those found in schizophrenic patients.)

But SVU was different from the beginning. This show was far from perfect, especially in its early years.

While SVU’s mission involved centering trauma survivors, early survivors were all white, female, and straight, and in early episodes, the series was not as supportive of LGBTQ+ people as it is today.

Still, it took trauma seriously.

Olivia Benson was the cop that many survivors wished really existed.

Instead of being in a rush to fill out paperwork, she took the time to listen empathically, fought hard for justice, and was on the survivors’ side even when no one else was.

26 years later, Olivia Benson is no longer an idealistic newbie, but she’s still passionate about helping survivors avoid the pain her mother suffered from after the rape that led to Benson’s conception.

Those stories are important, but we need a variety of voices talking about what trauma looks and feels like because it’s not the same for any two people.

That’s why I’m so grateful that NBC is now centering trauma survivors with not just one but three series.

Watch Law & Order: SVU Online

The Irrational’s Alec Mercer’s Story Is All About Living Fully And Free Of Fear

Ironically, Jesse L Martin is well known as Ed Green, one of the detectives on Law & Order toward the end of its first run in the late 2000s.

Nowadays, however, he plays a very different type of character, one who can serve as an inspiration to trauma survivors in a different way than Olivia Benson can.

Martin’s Alec Mercer is a survivor of a church bombing that killed people he loved.

One of the things I love best about Alec is that he shows that experiencing trauma can make someone’s life so damn uneven.

He’s a brilliant neuroscientist who is very successful at not only teaching at the college level but also helping the FBI understand the mindset of criminals so that more murderers and other violent criminals end up behind bars.

Yet he ALSO is divorced in part because his PTSD makes him hard to live with, and he lives with his sister because it’s difficult for him to live on his own.

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That’s what trauma is or can be. It isn’t people cowering in the corner 24/7 — in fact, Alec is one of the bravest characters on television and encourages others to live more fully.

Sometimes, though, it wreaks havoc with parts of your life that other people find easy, and that can be especially maddening if you’re highly intelligent.

Alec’s expertise in neuroscience doesn’t make him immune from trauma responses or other irrational behavior.

As much as he understands what’s going on with his brain, he can’t always control his behavior.

The Irrational Inspires Survivors By Offering A Hero That Is One

The Irrational is centering trauma survivors in a different way than Law & Order: SVU does.

While SVU mostly focuses on police officers who help trauma survivors, The Irrational features a trauma survivor who thrives despite some challenges.

Alec spent most of the first season trying to find out the truth about who set the bomb that nearly killed him. After surviving an abduction by the bomber, Alec has his answers, but that is only the beginning of the story.

In many ways, The Irrational Season 2 is even more empowering. Getting answers didn’t make Alec’s trauma go away, but it allowed him to focus on moving forward.

The consistent theme of Season 2 is to never let fear stop you from living fully.

Alec’s assistant, Phoebe, quit working for him because she felt the risks he took to get the truth on any given day were bad for her mental health.

Phoebe wants safety, yet she longs to return to working for Alec, always asking how she can help with a case even though she’s working for someone else.

Phoebe’s desire for safety and desire to be fully alive are clashing, and that’s only one example of this theme.

The Irrational Season 2 Episode 1 had a splashy, violent case: Alec’s girlfriend, Rose, getting kidnapped.

The important part of that story is what happened afterward. Rose, struggling with the trauma of having been kidnapped, kept pushing Alec away out of fear of losing him.

It is only at the end of The Irrational Season 2 Episode 3 that Alec convinced Rose that cutting herself off from him so that she would never know the pain of losing him permanently to violence didn’t make sense.

It remains to be seen whether she will be able to resist the pull toward isolation in the long term.

This is what I mean by centering trauma survivors. Rose’s trauma is different from Alec’s, and she handles it differently.

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Alec and Rose are both influenced by their various identities, too. Their race, gender, and culture all play a part in how they deal with trauma.

Alec is especially important as a role model because there are too few men who are willing to be vulnerable and real about their emotional struggles on TV. Since Black men are underrepresented, there are even fewer of them.

As good as Law & Order: SVU is, it can’t give its audience that because it’s about a white female cop who straddles the line between police officers and social workers to help survivors.

Watch The Irrational Online

NBC’s Found Also Contributes To The Refreshing New Trend of Centering Trauma Survivors

Found is a difficult show for some.

Its heroine, Gabi Mosley, is a trauma survivor who does not present the way many people expect survivors to present.

Trauma survivors don’t always pick up the pieces of their lives in ways we approve of, and that’s part of what makes this show so uncomfortable for some viewers.

It seems natural to empathize with survivors, but how far does it extend when the survivor in question isn’t purely dedicated to helping others, sometimes comes across as cold or selfish, or does things that conventional morality says are wrong?

Found Season 2 has made it clear that Gabi is a survivor but not a savior. Although she has helped many other people get their lives back after they were kidnapped and the police ignored their plight, her primary mission is not to save the world.

She has done a lot of good, but she will also do whatever it takes to prevent herself and her loved ones from being re-traumatized.

During Found Season 1, that wasn’t as clear.

The premise of Gabi locking her one-time captor up in the basement and forcing him to help her with cases seemed like a takeoff on Silence of the Lambs, except Gabi was both Sir’s jailer and the person turning to him for help.

But after Sir escaped and re-kidnapped Lacey, Gabi has had to deal with everyone’s judgment.

Her one-time friends have almost all turned on her, accusing her of being just like Sir even though she is not a psychopath and has used Sir to do a lot of good.

This is trauma, too, especially when the need for self-protection and seemingly “bad” behaviors intersect with related issues such as racism and sexism, which also cloud people’s judgments.

The situation is complicated by the fact that everyone who works with Gabi is a trauma survivor, but having survived trauma doesn’t mean you understand what someone else’s trauma is like.

Watch Found Online

This is a story that needs to be told.

TV has come a long way in terms of centering trauma survivors, but it still falls into the stereotype of survivors only being worthy of empathy if they are using their pain to help others.

TV Can Help Clear Up Misconceptions About Survivors

As a trauma survivor myself, I’m keenly aware of how little understanding there is, even for those survivors who aren’t doing what Gabi Mosley is doing.

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Many people are offended by the idea of trigger warnings in books and movies, and that’s only the tip of the iceberg.

Many, many people think that not being able to just “get over it” years, after something horrific happened, means someone is weak or overly emotional, and sometimes trauma survivors are still the butts of people’s jokes about being oversensitive.

That’s why we need diverse voices talking about trauma, and NBC has made a strong start with these three series centering trauma survivors this season.

Over to you, fellow television enthusiasts!

What do you think of the way NBC is centering trauma survivors?

Are there other shows you would add to the list of dramas that help empower survivors?

Hit the comments with your thoughts.

The post The Irrational, SVU, Found: NBC Is Centering Trauma Survivors In A Refreshing and Original New Trend appeared first on TV Fanatic.

We’ve seen that a great deal, as the season strongly focuses on Lacey in the present and via flashback.

However, one character we continue to gain unexpected insight into is Detective Mark Trent.

If you’ve been following along with our Found coverage, you’ll know how much we’ve enjoyed the season and how passionate we’ve been about the storylines.

And we’re equally excited about sharing an exclusive sneak peek of Found Season 2 Episode 5.

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Our exclusive clip features Brett Dalton‘s Trent in a totally new context that piques our interest.

So far, we’ve seen that Trent has been one of the most vocal about Gabi’s misdeeds regarding keeping Sir hostage.

It has severely affected how he views her.

It’s apparent that he’s having difficulty balancing his personal feelings, and the subsequent heartbreak of learning a woman he cares about did something so morally questionable for him by working alongside her in a professional capacity on missing-person cases.

In many ways, this came to a head during Found Season 2 Episode 4, which saw Trent show a vested interest in a case that involved a missing couple comprised of a powerful man and his wife, who was a domestic abuse survivor.

We saw how passionate Trent was about this case and how he shoehorned his way into working with M&A despite young Jay’s reluctance to work with the cops.

Eventually, we learned that Trent was passionate about this specific case because of his personal experience with the topic.

His sister was in an abusive relationship, and Trent spent some time trying to get her out of it, almost by any means necessary; a dark confession from Trent, who has been so morally righteous since we met him.

And now, we’ll learn even more about Trent as the sophomore season continues to explore his personal and family life.

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We already knew that Trent seemingly followed in his father’s footsteps by becoming a cop, and now, we’ll get to meet the senior Trent up close and personal.

And if our sneak peek is any indication, Trent’s relationship with his father is fraught.

Found Season 2 Episode 5 is titled Missing While Presumed Dead and introduces another fascinating case for M&A.

In this instance, we’ll learn that Margaret takes the initiative in reopening a cold case from seven years ago that involved a missing teenage girl.

A mysterious, unidentified four-year-old child suddenly appears, prompting Margaret to reopen this cold case.

The young boy is likely connected to the missing teen from many years ago.

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It’s certainly an interesting premise to start the installment and the case, and one has to imagine that after seven years of never solving this one, M&A will bring the heat in an effort to do what law enforcement was unable to do nearly a decade before.

With the appearance of Trent’s father, we’re led to believe that if he wasn’t directly involved in this case, he was at least familiar with the lead detective at the time who was.

From our clip, Trent wants to speak to his father about the cop, Hank Edwards, who led the investigation of the missing teen, as Trent’s father was the cop’s T.O. once upon a time.

The implication is that some alcoholism led to shoddy police work, which will cast the law in an unfavorable light as this cold case raises new scrutiny.

In our clip, we get a real sense of the relationship between Mark and James Trent.

James appears to be a charismatic big-timer who impresses others and is someone other officers look up to and respect.

He also comes across as old-school, as he doesn’t seem to understand why the public may be more critical of law enforcement these days.

Father-son tension is thick between them.

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Mark Trent may have always struggled to live up to his father’s expectations and is used to his father’s criticism or passive-aggressive observations.

But if the personal tension between them wasn’t fraught enough, James mentions Gabi as well, which clearly gets under Mark’s skin.

Check out our exclusive sneak peek below!

Hit the comments with all of your thoughts!

Found returns with an all-new episode on Thursday, October 31 at 10/9c on NBC.

And we’ll be back with a full review of the hour, so don’t forget to check that out as well!

Watch Found Online

The post Found Season 2 Episode 5 Sneak Peek: Trent and His Father Have a Tense Reunion appeared first on TV Fanatic.

We reached a bit of a turning point during Found Season 2 Episode 4, which had Lacey’s return to the agency, a little worse for wear but no less a survivor, and some leeway in the constant bashing against Gabi.

And Sir was still wreaking havoc and making some diabolical plans.

First, we should delve into the case because it was such a well-done introduction.

The cases this season have mostly fallen by the wayside only because they’ve served as background fodder for the bigger plot point of locating Lacey and Sir.

Getting fully invested in many of Found‘s cases was hard because there were more pressing issues to address.

So, despite it being Lacey’s first official case, a week after she survived her ordeal with Sir, it was easy to believe that it would be another case that took the backseat.

Initially, one had to wonder what the primary hook was for this particular case when it involved a wealthy socialite couple who weren’t even on the radar of law enforcement or the mother/mother-in-law taking care of their teen.

But Jay was a compelling character, and his desperation to get help, clamming up the second he saw Trent’s badge, was enough to rally the troops.

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It was fitting that Dhan immediately latched onto this case because it speaks to his desperation to keep his family and this collective sense of purpose intact.

Typically, Dhan wouldn’t have shown much interest in this case at first glance only because they historically love to focus on disenfranchised parties who don’t get the attention of the media and law enforcement.

Despite Jay’s insistence that something was wrong and a deep sympathy for this kid, it was a curious thing to wonder what their attachment to this case would be, and they landed on it easily when everything clicked into place regarding Kate’s position as a domestic abuse survivor.

Not only did this case tie into some of the current friction and other things with the characters we know and love, but it illuminated an issue and challenged viewers to broaden the scope of how they perceive which type of people slip through the cracks.

Kate and Sam were the “perfect” couple, but the truth is that behind closed doors, they were anything but that.

It’s not uncommon for seemingly wealthy, socialite families to harbor the darkest secrets, and the fixation on upholding a perfect image is a breeding ground for some of the most heinous acts.

One can never let a person’s social status or even economics overshadow the dangers they may face, and Kate is a prime example.

Her husband was a well-connected lawyer; they were hailed as philanthropists and activists, and her mother-in-law was so worried about protecting her son and the image of the family that she turned a blind eye to decades of Sam abusing Kate.

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It was abhorrent yet all too real, and once the bits of that started to unravel and spread, we had a genuinely compelling case that harked back to some of the greatest hits of Found Season 1.

This is a case that I’ll remember, and that will stick with me for a bit. It was mainly that way because it affected characters like Trent, Gabi, and Lacey.

For Lacey, it was difficult for her to keep up with the case and all of its factors because her concussion was causing memory issues.

People generally don’t tend to realize how severe a concussion’s damage can be and the long-arching battles of a TBI, and that’s another reason I’m grateful for a series like Brilliant Minds, which explores topics like that in detail.

But Kate’s abuse was also triggering for Lacey as she thought of all the physical and emotional violence that Sir unleashed on her from the moment he took her until she made it to the hospital.

Gabrielle Walsh does some incredible work in this hour, and it felt so damn good to have her free from the confines of whatever hole in the wall Sir held Lacey in and back into the fray of interacting with the other characters.

It never felt so obvious that Lacey was as much of the glue to this group as Gabi.

Lacey serves as the bridge between Gabi and the others because she has a lot of light and energy that just balances out all the seriousness and trauma.

If I had to compare Lacey to anything as the hour unfolded, it’s kintsugi, you know, that Japanese pottery practice where they make something previously broken whole and beautiful again by piecing it together with gold.

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Lacey is the gold repairing the broken pieces, and no, it won’t look exactly the same again — M&A will never look precisely the same again, but it can still be beautiful, strong, and full of character and purpose.

We needed that, and it feels like the season is finally starting to click into place again as a result.

But, the case was taking a toll on Lacey and bringing up some of the issues from her past.

The flashbacks have been great and illuminating.

I love following baby Bella as she tries to work through this horrific trauma and find her place, all with the help of young Gabi and Gina.

My heart aches for this poor girl who has spent her entire life with Sir, ever the elusive gaslighter, harassing her and making her question and doubt her own mind and sanity.

It’s probably one of the worst offenses of someone who emotionally terrorizes you because you’re left defending yourself or wondering if you really are crazy.

It was upsetting that everyone insisted that Lacey was having nightmares and just seeing things instead of actually witnessing Sir in the flesh.

As a young child, it was easy to dismiss Lacey and chalk things up to her traumatic experience, but it genuinely sucks that she didn’t have more support with that.

However, it’s also challenging to thread the needle.

As frustrating as it was that Gina didn’t seem to take more precautions to help Bella in the aftermath of her abduction (maybe moving her out of a room that leads outside or trying to get more therapists involved sooner), these are the hard things.

People underestimate how difficult and long it can be to obtain the resources that a person needs.

And in the interim, Gina could easily have faced losing her child if CPS thought Bella wasn’t in a good place.

In the end, they had to convince Bella that she was having nightmares because if people believed that she was still seeing Sir everywhere, she’d be shipped away somewhere, which was counterproductive to her well-being, ripping her away from the stability and warmth of her home and family.

It all translated well to the present, which had Lacey again questioning her own mind when she saw images of Sir outside of windows and on camera following Trent.

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Lacey staying with Zeke was probably the best call because she had the comfort of another person always there with her, enough security to feel safe, and the possibility of feeling useful, too.

If it wasn’t already abundantly clear how much Zeke loves and cares for Lacey, we saw that with all the ways he doted on her and tried to protect her as best as he could.

Their late-night sleep session on the floor was as endearing as it gets, and here, Found does a decent job of having a romantic interest provide a safe space and support where their love comes through clearly.

However, it doesn’t feel like Zeke is taking advantage, either.

The only issue where Zeke got annoying was his insistence on serving as a buffer between Gabi and Lacey.

He put his all into checking Gabi at every turn, making it seem as if she would harm Lacey.

It’s frustrating that everyone is allowing their own grievances and anger to overtake them and putting it off on other people.

In the end, NO ONE has a bond with Lacey as Gabi does.

We know that Lacey could forgive Gabi for some of anything because of the context of their sisterhood and what they’ve served together.

The other characters have no clue how deeply that bond is, and it feels a bit ridiculous that some of them are trying to step in and muddy the waters in a situation and dynamic that they simply will never understand.

It wasn’t their place for that, and fortunately, in the end, Lacey acknowledged that she did remember Gabi’s confession and that she’d forgiven Gabi, and they needed to as well.

The others can’t continue to carry anger against Gabi, which Lacey doesn’t even possess, to justify constantly browbeating this woman like this.

You can see the relief on Dhan’s face when Lacey makes her statement because he gets it, too, and he just wants to keep this great thing they have going.

It also felt good to have other characters, including Lacey, counter the harshness or offer some reality to the situation.

Blessedly, Captain Mallory has done the same with Trent.

I couldn’t have cheered loudly enough when the captain called Trent out on his hurt feelings, clouding his judgment.

Cap Mallory: Is this about her breaking the law, or breaking your heart?

He’s lost all sense of rationality if he genuinely believes that they can build an entire case against Gabi based on admission in a heightened moment when she’s one of the most recognizable faces of a Trauma Survivor there is.

In an editorial piece unpacking this complex character and how others react to her, I may have emphasized that Gabi is a Survivor, Not a Savior.

Gabi is a bit of a hero and lifeline for so many people.

If they don’t have an airtight case (which they don’t) and someone willing to press charges against her (Sir would NEVER for a plethora of reasons, one of which being he’s a wanted killer and abductor), Gabi isn’t going down for this.

Given the circumstances, I don’t think a jury around would convict Gabi of anything, and Trent has to know that at some point.

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Shockingly, the captain had to keep 100 with him like this, but no DA would even want to touch that case, especially given the recent news of Lacey escaping the clutches of this same monster.

Sir is the monster in America’s eyes, and Gabi is a hero in this story as someone who used her trauma for a purpose and advocates for the masses reunites families, finds missing babies, saves lives, and “defends” herself or takes a proactive approach against her abuser.

Trent and some of the others severely overestimate that the courts, a jury of peers, and the general public would perceive Gabi as they do.

Interestingly enough, Trent had some admissions as he bogarted his way into this case because of how deeply it affected him.

He fought like hell to get his sister out of an abusive marriage and even admitted that he almost killed his brother-in-law himself.

Trent understands the high emotions that could lead to such indefensible acts, and his righteousness is rooted in his having the wherewithal to stop himself.

But what if he didn’t? And what if someone stopped the situation for him?

Does Trent have to be precisely in a person’s shoes to understand these things, or does he allow other factors to cloud his judgment?

He exuded such sympathy for Kate, but he also had moments with her when he wanted to focus on the law.

Kate hit the point home clearly: The law isn’t always fair

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The law being fair, just, moral, and equal is patently false, and Trent even has to realize that in some way.

Trent still couldn’t resist the constant potshots at Gabi, even after her dutifully answering his questions in Found Season 2 Episode 3, and he got a firsthand look at the hold Sir has on Gabi then and even during this installment with the letter.

It’s frustrating that if Gabi hadn’t shown remorse, it would be an issue, but when she expressed genuine guilt and remorse, they still took digs at her.

What exactly do they want from this woman?

Kate’s elaborate plan got her what she needed: she and her son were free from her husband, and Sam confessed to everything and took accountability.

It reflected what was happening and could also occur with Sir and Gabi.

It’s how Gabi can get away with what she’s done because, in the end, the real monster is Sir, who is on the loose.

The cat-and-mouse game at the home between Trent and Sir was entertaining.

Shockingly, Sir showed some restraint and didn’t actively plot to do anything against “Heavy Boots” despite having the chance and loathing that man.

Sir’s desperation to help with this case proves how obsessed he still is with Gabi, but his addition to the matter feels ridiculously contrived because there’s no way on earth Gabi needs that letter to prompt her to identify with Kate.

But alas, we overlook these things.

It was interesting to see how Sir is plotting so much to set up this new life with Gabi.

Gosselaar busting out the Dutch at the top of the hour was such a delightful treat, but I shuddered at the books lined up of non-extradition countries he’d love to go to (Holland, China, Russia) and the fake passport he already had for Gabi.

I couldn’t help chuckling when he said his wife was an agoraphobe (way to take after Zeke) and inquired about this new luxurious place that had a basement.

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Every time you think about how this man groomed Gabi to go from his progeny pseudo-daughter to a “worthwhile” partner and wife, it’s enough to give you the creeps.

But where exactly is Sir getting all of this money from?

Surely, he can’t access things he had before he went missing, as it would alert authorities. And he stole Dhan’s husband’s credit cards, but they shut that down.

Gabi is determined to track down Sir with whatever time she has left before (IF) Trent arrests her, but a key to that may be Christian.

She ignored two of his calls, but he must have a lead on Sir or something important to say. I can’t wait to find out.

Additional Thoughts:

• Lacey’s sweater, Trent in that caramel motor jacket, Sir in that black trench, and Gabi rocking that hot pink blazer… the wardrobe department delivered us LOOKS in this episode. I want EVERYTHING.

• Margaret couldn’t even handle walking into the basement to see where Sir was held, reminding us yet again that she’s having a tough time because she’s coming from a place of never experiencing captivity like the others.
• Is Margaret still going to therapy? She may need to revisit her therapist because she’s having such a hard time with this, and something has to give.

• I’m dying to understand the book’s significance at Mr. Choi’s house and how they play out moving forward.
• Something tells me that Lacey leaving the house and sounding off the alarms is a false alarm. Maybe she just needed to get out or need space, but poor Zeke!
• I genuinely would love to learn more about Dhan and dig deeper into his relationship with Gabi. It keeps scratching all my Scandal Olivia/Huck vibes, and I’m eager for the story behind them.
• Shaker is the gift that keeps giving. Not a scene alive she can’t steal!
• I agree with Lacey; I, too, missed that part of the gig and the “welcome home celebrations.

Over to you, Found Fanatics.

Can Trent build a case against Gabi? Where do you think Lacey went?

How did you feel about this case? Hit the comments and let’s discuss!

Watch Found Online

The post Found Season 2 Episode 4 Review: Lacey’s Return Sparks Hope, While Sir Sets Plans in Motion appeared first on TV Fanatic.

Much to our delight, Found is leading the pack with Found Season 2 expounding on what the first season established in captivating and frustrating ways.

But most importantly, the series and this season have been conversation starters, and so much of that rests upon Gabi Mosely’s complexities.

Multifaceted and Flawed Female Characters (Especially of Color) Are a Rarity

Despite television leaning toward dark stories and characters, the medium rarely allows female series leads to be complex, imperfect beings, and even less so for women of color.

When Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder concluded, a golden era of powerful, imperfect female characters (particularly WOC) ended, too.

Gabi Mosely carrying the baton Oliva Pope and Annalise Keating left behind is one of many reasons that Found continues to be one of the most thrilling, compelling series currently airing.

But with Gabi, there’s this extra layer of seeing something we don’t typically see onscreen, and that’s a woman living through trauma.

Gabi’s Motivations Are Often Lost in Translation

The first season set the groundwork for that when we saw that Gabi was still reeling from the loss of her father and executing what she felt was some form of revenge by having Sir chained in her basement.

Not only did she feel she got to punish him for what he did to her and her sister Lacey, holding them captive for months to over a year, but she also got to punish him for stealing precious time away from her father, who was never the same after her abduction.

Those are essential elements to remember as they become crucial to the fiery aftermath of her rash decision, which blew up her life all over again.

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We slowly piece together that while Gabi thought she had all the control when Sir was chained up in that basement, she didn’t.

Sir’s obsession with Gabi kept him in that basement, not whatever delusion she had of controlling him.

He took control the second he had the opportunity to leave, ironically, to “save” her when her life was in danger.

It’s another critical realization that shapes the nature of Gabi and Sir’s complex dynamic and how it continues throughout this series.

Gabi sought any combination of revenge and control; ultimately, she didn’t have either.

But that’s often lost in translation as the others have caught up to her misdeeds and responded in myriad ways, most of them uncomfortable and arguably offputting.

Found Unpacks the Ugliness and Uncomfortable Effects of Trauma and Grief

And this is where Found, even as it frustrates, digs deep into its theme of trauma and the flaws of humanity all at once.

One has to hope and believe that there’s a very intentional way of telling this story and some of the outcomes are to reflect back on the audience and how we as a society react to trauma survivors.

Both Trauma and Grief are ugly and messy and as non-linear as it gets.

There isn’t a “right” way to tackle either, and on a series like Found, they opt to explore what constitutes a “wrong” way and how it plays out.

What’s been most interesting about the fallout from Sir is how badly Gabi is facing scrutiny from those closest to her.

The lack of grace extended to Gabi by some characters has been downright frustrating.

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Found’s Short Timeline Compounds the Fallout in Alarming Ways

Every installment of Found this season has been tougher than the previous one regarding how Gabi’s close ones have treated her regarding the Sir revelation.

The series likes to operate two spaces regarding this:

• Your worst act should not always define you

• Trauma and pain don’t override accountability and bad choices

However, we’ve mostly seen the heavy leanings toward the latter, which has resulted in characters like Margaret and Trent browbeating Gabi over her horrific actions.

It’s at such an alarmingly intense level that often it bears reminding that while we’ve been watching this storyline over an extended period within the series, it has only been three days since they all learned the truth.

Found loses a bit of ground there.

It’s difficult to grasp that short time frame when we’ve also had to buy into a fractured M&A successfully solving three critical or high-profile missing persons cases within that period.

That may be where the time frame gets dicey and becomes a source of contention among viewers.

It stretches some believability for us, requiring that the audience be more patient with the likes of those who feel betrayed by Gabi while also marveling at how even dysfunctional and down a member, M&A pulls off an impossible feat.

But even considering the short time frame for the others to process this news, the lack of grace extended to Gabi during this challenging time has still become an irritating (albeit realistic) point of contention.

Found Disassembles and Reexamines the “Strong Black Woman” Trope

Gabi Mosely is a trauma survivor.

If this situation hasn’t exposed anything else, it’s how easily some viewers and other characters fixate on the “survivor” component more than the “trauma” portion.

What’s fascinating is how the series plays with who Gabi Mosely is as both a Black woman and a trauma survivor and what it subtly revealed where there was a high expectation of her in nearly any situation.

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Found disassembles the “Strong Black Woman” trope and allows us to reexamine all its components.

It’s fascinating to see the underlying theme of other characters expecting Gabi to be stronger, better, less broken, and more superhuman than human and getting incredibly angry when she falls short of those expectations.

Gabi is essentially the glue that holds M&A together.

She created a safe space for people she helped or connected with who share similar or overlapping traumas, and she gave them all a purpose in assisting disenfranchised individuals who slip through the cracks of a broken system.

Gabi’s Fall from the Man-Made Pedestal Others Placed Her on was Inevitable

Gabi is the fearless leader who rallies the troops and points them due North. She’s incredible at what she does.

To some, Gabi may even be their savior. She’s the pillar of strength and fire, solid and safe, and in their M&A bubble, everyone can simultaneously learn to live with their respective traumas, progress, and do good.

It seems all the other characters have placed Gabi on a pedestal as the best of them all, the poster woman for stability and living through unspeakable things while coming out on the other side “okay.”

However, Gabi Mosely is still a trauma survivor, and the Sir revelation and subsequent reactions have also shown how easily even those close to her forget that.

The two characters who showed her the most grace make the most sense.

Lacey’s mother views Gabi as a second daughter, and she’s familiar with the full extent of what Gabi went through and overcame, as well as what they both had to experience helping Lacey through that horrific time.

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Dhan’s Rare Insight into Gabi’s Vulnerability Makes Him the Most Sympathetic and Supportive

Gina sees past Gabi’s facade, offering up the maternal reaction that adds a nice balance to everything else.

Interestingly, it’s Dhan, the one character who serves as the group protector, yes, but also the person who consistently sees Gabi as her most vulnerable, who is finding a way to extend some grace to her.

Dhan never had any delusions about his “savior” being anything other than an equally as damaged and flawed human.

He also comes from a background where the world is far grayer than the others are willing to accept, and after wading in the darkness for long stretches, he’s not as fazed.

It’s Dhan who stands by her as she curls into herself on the floor and cries or who she calls when she’s struggling the most.

He’s the one who saw just how badly her grief over her father was and collaborated with her to track down Sir in the first place.

Unsurprisingly, Dhan is the one person who, despite his disappointment, can soldier on primarily because he never viewed Gabi as infallible.

Zeke is a pure soul; thus, his disappointment is strong enough that he wants to quit, but he can still maintain professionalism.

Margaret’s Self-Righteousness is a Reminder that She Doesn’t Know the Specific Trauma of Captivity

Interestingly, the two people who are the hardest on Gabi at the moment are individuals who haven’t experienced the specific trauma of captivity.

Margaret feels deeply betrayed and as if Gabi’s work with Sir has tarnished everything they’ve done thus far, and she’s been vocal about that since Found Season 2 Episode 1.

It takes away from the good she’s been doing and her sense of purpose.

But Margaret has also repeatedly sniped at Gabi, with disparaging remarks and sharp barbs that have done everything from continually indicting Gabi for her horrible misdeed to implying more than once that she’s somehow “as bad” as Sir (something Trent mentions as well).

It’s an infuriating statement that reflects on how even those close to a person still don’t know how to properly grasp trauma responses if they don’t look like their narrow expectations.

Found’s core is about this group of individuals with various traumas forming a home.

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Often, these individuals clash with one another and cause conflict, and this is a strong example of this.

Margaret’s anger and feelings of betrayal are valid, given the circumstances.

Margaret Loses Sight of Gabi as a Trauma Victim

However, the invalidation of Gabi’s experiences and mental state that led her to her actions is not remotely acceptable, which makes Margaret’s strong indictments difficult to witness.

Amid Margaret’s anger and insistence on letting Gabi know how she feels, there’s a complete disregard for what was at the crux of Gabi’s initial choice to capture Sir.

In addition to that, we’ve witnessed Gabi’s grief compounded by Lacey’s disappearance and her guilt over that, which has had her taking on all the blame and responsibility for the actions of a madman.

Essentially, it’s retraumatizing a victim, which we’ve seen take place with Gabi for the past four installments.

And it’s not happening once, but twice, as in addition to Margaret’s wrath, Gabi faces Trent’s.

Trent is an established noble character, and Found’s rendition of “one of the good ones,” despite the agency often stepping into the spaces that a flawed law enforcement system leaves wide open, we know that Trent is passionate about his job and well-meaning.

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Trent Represents How Poorly Law Enforcement and Other Infrastructures Handle Trauma Survivors

But he, like all the other characters, is flawed as well.

Trent is the personification of a system that still isn’t adequately trained nor equipped to handle a wide array of trauma responses.

Ironically, we see hints of this in Found Season 1 in his sheepish pursuit of Gabi.

It’s evident that he has real feelings for her and desires something more from her, and he goes out of his way to make that known and show her that he’s available in that way.

But there’s also this frustration at times that Gabi won’t “let him in” and a constant insistence that he can be there for her romantically if only she lets him.

Again, the intentions are pure, and it’s no secret that Gabi has notoriously taken Trent for granted, which has been equally frustrating.

But Trent’s romantic pursuit of Gabi has always exposed that he’s someone who may not fully know how to deal with and what to expect from romantic relationships with trauma survivors.

Trent’s Misconception About Gabi is that Her Trauma Ended at Rescue

Gabi is a woman whose formative years of dating were in captivity with Sir, a man who groomed her and continues to actively do so.

Even out of captivity, her viewpoint on romance and love is heavily influenced and warped by her experience with Sir, who has loomed over her life for two decades.

By now, we can predict Gabi’s feelings for Trent are why Sir will likely pursue the man.

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It’s not a stretch that even in her 30s, Gabi hasn’t learned to navigate romantic relationships too well, so it’s always a bit off when it doesn’t seem like Trent considers that.

Because in Trent’s eyes, he, too, has put Gabi on a pedestal — views her as someone who has gotten past her trauma just because she survived it, which is rarely the case.

Sir’s Hold on Gabi Has Never Gone Away and Affects All Her Relationships

Trent carries this same attitude into his reaction to the Sir abduction.

He’s so morally righteous in this situation that he can’t even see the gray areas or fully grasp how Gabi got to that point.

Trent spent the majority of the season thus far talking and not listening to understand, subjecting Gabi to dehumanizing remarks and demoralizing statements about who she is as a person because of what she did to the man who has haunted her for 20 years.

It wasn’t until Found Season 2 Episode 3 that he actually listened to Gabi’s explanation about profound grief after her father’s death and, subsequently, what led to her holding Sir captive.

Trent, as a law enforcement officer, is so representative of an infrastructure that isn’t well-versed in how to handle trauma survivors, particularly when they don’t fit a narrow scope of what one expects.

Trent Unwittingly Perceives Gabi as Too Strong to Be Flawed

Whether with Gabi personally or anyone professionally, Trent immediately wants trust and confidence.

Still, he doesn’t always know how to create a safe space to accommodate the many factors that lead someone to need one.

Trent isn’t fostering any of that now, as his anger, hurt, and judgment have resulted in him berating Gabi at every conceivable turn instead of showing an ounce of professionalism or decorum.

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In that sense, Trent allows his disappointment over the shattering of his illusion of who and what Gabi is to override all sense and empathy, which comes across as ignorant, selfish, and shortsighted.

Trent has always been drawn to Gabi’s strength, and it’s undoubtedly a wonderful trait of hers. But harkening back to pedestals, it seems like he placed her on one himself, and now he’s angry that she fell off of it.

A woman like Gabi’s strength is weaponized against her, used to strip her of the same vulnerabilities that make her flawed or expose some of the ugly, dark sides of trauma.

Some of that most certainly has to do with some of the common misconceptions and expectations of Black women, and Found has shown that even the best of its characters (sometimes including Gabi herself) are guilty of acting on these prejudices and thought processes without even realizing it.

The False Equivalency Between Gabi, a Victim, and Sir, a Psychopathic Perpetrator, is Dangerously Problematic Yet Realistic

One of Trent’s most damning moments regarding this, particularly for him as an officer, is when he suggests that Gabi is just as bad as Sir and a monster just like him.

It’s such a dangerously, disturbingly ignorant equivocation that is patently untrue.

In no world would it make logical sense to compare a psychopathic child abductor and a killer who has stalked and harassed innocent people for decades and destroyed many lives to one of his victims who lashed out at him specifically.

Yet, these are the false equivalence arguments that far too many people make about things like this.

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Found brutally reflects this on viewers, and they manage to use beloved characters in the process.

One would hope that something would click after Trent witnesses Gabi and Sir’s interactions.

Maybe he’d learn to lead with more empathy as he realizes that Sir still has a hold on Gabi, and she’s still terrified of this man.

Via Gabi Mosely, Found Exposes How Much Farther We Need to Go in Understanding Trauma Victims

Hopefully, it will click that there is nothing Gabi could or couldn’t do to change Sir’s obsession and fixation on her.

As long as Sir is alive and breathing, he will always threaten Gabi and everyone she knows and loves.

Keeping him in a basement (which he relished as part of his sick game) wouldn’t have made a difference when it came to Sir tracking her down and eliminating everyone in her life.

Gabi’s actions haven’t invited Sir to do anything more than that, as she merely existed as a student who respected her teacher as a teen.

One can hope that the tides are turning in balancing the calling out of Gabi for her actions and recognizing her as a victim.

Because, again, Gabi is a trauma survivor, and that’s not always a pretty sight.

Over to you, Found Fanatics.

Found returns with an all-new episode Thursday at 10/9c on NBC.

Watch Found Online

The post Survivor, Not Savior: How Found’s Gabi Mosley Exemplifies the Complexities of Trauma appeared first on TV Fanatic.

Fortunately, Found didn’t spend much longer keeping Lacey apart from the rest of the M&A family, and we don’t have to wonder whether she’ll survive after Found Season 2 Episode 3’s bittersweet conclusion.

But this also means that Sir is in the wind, still unstoppable, and there’s no end to what he could do next.

Judgment Hung Heavily Around the Case of the Week

In many ways, when Found doesn’t use the cases in some desperate attempt to ensnare Sir, they’re background fodder.

And some of the cases have been more compelling than others.

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With Found Season 2 Episode 3, we saw a missing senior-aged woman disappear ahead of her jailhouse wedding to an incarcerated felon.

Regarding unexpected cases that resulted in those who slipped through the cracks, it makes sense why M&A would’ve had some interest in this case.

Anyone who looked at this case at first glance would’ve immediately got distracted by the fact that an older woman fell in love with a murderer behind bars and would’ve dismissed her as being “stupid” and not cared about her disappearance beyond that.

Frustratingly, even Trent, who has become the poster child of righteous judgment, couldn’t hold back on his strong opinions regarding the case, Ivan’s motivations, and everything else.

It’s both frustrating and realistic that these are the types of responses that those in law enforcement and positions of authority who can help in any capacity can offer.

And Trent is “one of the good ones.”

Love After Lockup: Sometimes You Can Find True Love in Unexpected Places

It was easy to assume the worst of Ivan, as the types of scams that prisoners run on those outside are notorious.

Anyone who has tuned into any rendition of Love After Lockup or its many spinoffs on WeTV knows that prisoners who only toy with someone for financial gain or security can be seriously shady.

Frankly, it only took one conversation with Ivan to confirm that he truly loved Betty.

When you understood why he was in prison in the first place and the context behind it, it made sense that he gravitated to a woman who didn’t excuse what he did but understood him.

Love is a crazy thing that way, and Ivan was a sympathetic person who did a horrible thing in grief, which was a great parallel for Gabby, who had to work beside Trent the whole case.

The case took its many directions, with Eric as a pitstop as the son who wanted to blow through his mother’s money and got angry that she willed everything to this killer in prison.

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But then, at some point, it clicked before they confirmed that the lawyer was likely responsible for Betty’s absence.

Some of my frustrations with Found Season 2 Episode 3’s execution also came about here.

Found Season 2’s Cases at Times Disappear Because of More Pressing Plots

What was the lawyer’s plan? Did he think he’d keep holding Betty hostage for however long and that she’d change her mind?

What type of “intervention” did he expect to happen anyway?

Wouldn’t she have just lied to them, gone home, called the police, and gone about her life?

How long did they think they could keep her hostage when they knew the police were looking for her?

It was all a bit absurd, but in the end, things worked out, and I’m glad Betty and Ivan reunited.

Found is a fascinating series because there are at least three solid reasons that people gravitate to it.

Many are intrigued by the missing person angle, primarily as the series focuses on the disenfranchised populations that fall through the cracks.

Others are all-in with the Sir/Gabi dynamic and how that twisted bond plays out throughout each episode, evolving into a cat-and-mouse.

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Many others lock into the series because of these compelling characters, their found family dynamic, and the exploration of trauma survivors trying to make it through life in all its good, bad, and ugly ways.

I’m a character girlie, so I adore these characters and how the series opts to explore and dig into them and their respective dynamics and issues.

Is Found Season 2 Forgetting its Theme of Centering Voices of Disenfranchised Missing People?

In that sense, even with an appreciation for their methodology pertaining to which cases to choose, it’s perfectly fine that the cases often coincide with how they can expand upon these characters we already love.

However, what Found Season 2 Episode 3 and the installments before it have shown is that the series could come dangerously close to losing that strong case format of the first season by making every single one the backdrop to the larger arc.

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It’s not that I don’t appreciate how the cases have come to connect to these characters, prompting the type of character exploration and conflict revelations that make for good television.

I certainly appreciate that. However, I also miss the days when there were truly fascinating cases that received a lot of attention and showcased what this agency could do.

The series centers around people and voices that often get lost in the wave of what society deems more important.

The series has always strived to center those voices, people, and stories, but this season, they’re unfortunately taking a backseat to the larger arc of Sir, Gabi, and Lacey.

Perhaps, with Lacey back, we’ll get a bit more return to form regarding those cases, even as this poor woman must work through more trauma and the entirety of M&A lives in fear of when Sir could strike next.

Christian’s True Motivations Still Remain a Mystery

After Sir’s scary moment with his brother, one wonders if Christian will become one of his brother’s victims.

He didn’t handle the news that his brother may have killed their mother well.

Fascinatingly, he still has some hope that Sir is a good person capable of goodness if only he tries hard enough and leaves Gabi alone.

In some ways, Christian makes a great audience stand in for those who aren’t so quick to write Sir off as a master manipulator, psychopath, or all-around evil person.

Christian still has this idolized version of Sir, who managed to rescue him from their burning home and never directly caused him any harm.

He’s still a cipher, though, Christian Evans.

It’s hard to know what motivates him and if his words are always authentic.

And there has to be more to his arrival than this half-hearted attempt to find Sir and make things right on behalf of the Evans family, right?

Sir’s Unraveling Shows Just How Unhinged He Really Is

Did Christian leave DC for good, or is he still out there processing and ready to make a move against his brother, or for him, or with M&A?

It’s truly hard to say where he goes from here.

Sir was particularly unhinged during this hour, leaving Gabi terrified of what he intended to do next.

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She couldn’t make sense of where his head was and if it meant that he was closer to killing Lacey or letting her die.

The man left that poor woman on the floor with a bleeding head wound and never bothered to check on her, clean her up, or ensure she was okay.

All Sir could focus on was Gabi, and we’re starting to see how deeply his obsession is, as he sounds increasingly unhinged with each moment spent with him.

He almost had a conniption when he saw her “faint” at the press conference, and his face lit up at the prospect that she would be joining him in the next chapter of their lives together.

Only Sir would convince himself that after all that he’s done to those she loves, he was really giving Gabi a “choice” in coming with him rather than just taking her again.

It’s no more a choice than someone making you choose between a knife or a bullet. It’s all bad!

The Constant Browbeating of Gabi Continues to Be Incredibly Frustrating and Short-sighted

The browbeating of Gabi continued, and frankly, it’s increasingly agitating how little grace people extend to this woman that they all know and love.

Every chance Trent had, he took a potshot at her over this case, and they surpassed the point of beating a dead horse. Yes, I know in their time, it’s only been a few days, but I still feel strongly about this.

At some point, whether he realized it or not, it reads as harsh judgment and emotionally eviscerating an already vulnerable trauma survivor.

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He’s not looking the greatest when he allows his disappointment in Gabi to come through in this multilayered and challenging topic and situation.

On top of that, he kept doing things like spending an entire day nitpicking at her and making her feel horrible when it’s clear from Mars how guilty she already felt and then ending yet another lashing with an assertion that he wished she would talk to him and trust him.

Trent’s Constant Gabi Gripes Reflect Poorly on Him in Found Season 2 Episode 3

I understand and appreciate that the series is delving into the nuances of this, and that includes using beloved characters to show how ill-prepared the general public is when it comes to understanding trauma and how it works.

Also, I will never lie and act like I didn’t find Gabi’s treatment of Trent annoying as heck.

All the man has ever done is love her, and she’s mostly used him, regardless of how well-intentioned she was in doing so, as I don’t doubt that she cares for Trent.

But the strong case Trent made starts to dwindle and fade away when, as of late, all we see is a man who doesn’t have a full comprehension of what it’s like for some trauma survivors.

And before any of you assume that I’m excusing Gabi’s Sir imprisonment, this has even extended to how often he pleads that Gabi lets him in or tries to pursue her romantically when it’s evident that she’s not in that headspace and maybe doesn’t have the capacity for a serious, healthy romantic relationship.

It’s totally fair that Gabi’s rejection hurt Trent.

Still, he rarely pushes it further to consider how an adult man kidnapping and holding a young woman in her formative dating years hostage for over a year could have seriously impacted her perception of love from that point forward.

Trent’s constant, unprompted, snarky comments have grown increasingly grating, making some of their scenes difficult to watch, but I imagine that’s largely the point, no?

Nevertheless, we always have to have hard conversations with the people we love most, which doesn’t change the fact that we care about one another.

Nevertheless, Gabi and Trent Remain a Formidable Duo

Trent’s concern for Gabi was evident when she passed out, and he immediately had to whisk her away and check on her.

Gabi considers Trent part of her circle. She goes out of her way to insist he is nothing to her for Sir’s benefit if it means protecting him, and she is certainly willing to fight a man to protect Trent literally.

Their team-ups, even when they’re on the outs, can be pretty badass.

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Margaret was still hard on Gabi, not letting up with her biting comments and blaming her wonky Margaret Vision on Gabi.

It’s such a difficult situation because as angry as Margaret has consistently been too frustrating levels; we know now she would’ve lost her mind if something bad happened to Gabi.

Gabi’s Desperation for Redemption Results in Self-Sacrifice

Is it wrong for me to wonder why those hardest on her never considered how an already guilty Gabi would do the unthinkable and even sacrifice herself as penance if it meant sparing her loved ones and saving Lacey?

They weren’t leaving her with much other choice.

But alas, both Lacey and Gabi are under the same roof and away from Sir right now, but we need to find out how long that’ll be the case.

If Gabi’s 72 hours are up, does that mean Trent will turn her over now, or will something prevent him from doing so?

And with Sir on the loose and more unhinged than ever, where does that leave Gabi, Lacey, and all those she holds dear?

Over to you, Found Fanatics.

Are you relieved that Lacey is finally back home?

What do you think Sir will do next?

Will Gabi face consequences from Trent now that Lacey is found?

Hit the comments below, and let’s discuss it all!

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The post Found Season 2 Episode 3 Finally Resolves the Lacey Plot, But Sir is More Terrifying Than Ever appeared first on TV Fanatic.