[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for the NBC series Found.]

The Big Picture

The NBC series Found was inspired by the disparity in how missing people are searched for, particularly the lack of attention given to missing Black and brown girls. The character of Gabi was created as a survivor who becomes a vigilante, determined to prevent others from experiencing the same trauma she did. The tension between Gabi and Sir in the basement is essential for the storyline and represents the internal battle Gabi faces in her healing process. The conflict will escalate in the remaining episodes.

The NBC drama series Found, which has already been picked up for a second season, follows recovery specialist Gabi Mosely (Shanola Hampton) who, along with her team that are all hoping to overcome their own trauma by helping others, is dedicated to finding the missing and forgotten that the traditional authorities tend to let slip through the cracks. But while the rest of her team is working through their trauma on a road to find healing, Gabi is holding her childhood kidnapper, known as Sir (Mark-Paul Gosselaar), in the basement and using him to help with every case, convinced that she’s dealing with her own trauma when, in reality, it’s preventing her from truly healing.

The thing I love most about Found is the fact that it’s a TV series with something to say that’s disguised as a procedural. Yes, each episode follows the team of Mosely & Associates as they work to find those who are missing and bring them home, but it also shines a light on the individuals mainstream media tends not to cover. And then, with a cast of characters working through trauma, it makes things relatable while adding a little sprinkle of spice from the story twists on top.

During this interview with Collider, showrunner Nkechi Okoro Carroll (All American) talked about how Gabi Mosely came to be, the big twist in the story, already knowing what five seasons of the series would look like, how Hampton came to be the show’s star, the push-and-pull between Gabi and Sir, whether Gabi’s decision is helping or hindering her healing, that the remaining episodes of the season will feel like two trains on a collision course, and that the essence of the show will still be there in Season 2.

Found (2023) Each year, over 600,000 people are reported missing in the U.S., but not all cases receive the proper attention. Gabi Mosely and her crisis management team make sure there is always someone looking out for the forgotten missing people. Release Date October 3, 2023 Cast Shanola Hampton , Mark-Paul Gosselaar Main Genre Drama Rating TV-14 Creator Nkechi Okoro Carroll Network NBC

For ‘Found’ EP Nkechi Okoro Carroll, The Series Started As a Story About Disparity
Image via NBC

Collider: There are a lot of layers to this series. What was the thing that started it for you? Was it the missing person aspect? Was it this dynamic between Gabi and Sir? Was it just that you wanted to create a show with a Black female lead? What was it that snowballed everything?

NKECHI OKORO CARROLL: Honestly, it started with wanting to do something about disparity and how we look for missing people. Most of my shows tend to start from some place of something I wanna say about it to the world, or some message I wanna send my kids, or something I wanna say to my mom. For me, it’s very simple. That’s usually the germ of an idea that starts everything going. And so, it really was about the disparity in how we look for missing people. Specifically, it was around the time that 14 missing Black and brown girls were being talked about virally on social media in a situation in D.C., but I wasn’t seeing anything in the mainstream media about it. I started digging into it and seeing whether there was actually some kind of epidemic happening and got me into more and more stories about the missing person cases we don’t hear about. That was what started the idea for the show. And in my process of doing research, I started to think of the character of Gabi. What if a teen girl who was kidnapped and had to save herself, grew and became a vigilante of sorts, adamant that she would never let what happened to her happen to someone else. What would that person look like? That’s how Gabi Mosley came to be.

When you got to, “And she also has the guy in her basement,” how did you feel about that?

CARROLL: Well, I knew that I needed something. I was like, “Okay, it’s great that we wanna make this show that has this message and hopefully the world, as they watch the show, will start to pay more attention to real-life missing cases and how they can be part of the solution. We’ve got that.” But it’s a TV show and we want people to tune in every week and we want it to be entertaining. So, it was like, “Okay, what’s a grounded, but exciting and unexpected twist we could have?” I started doing research into healing from traumas and what it looks like when healing goes right, which is a good portion of Gabi’s team. They’re on that pathway to when healing goes right.

And then, what happens when maybe the healing didn’t quite take or didn’t quite eliminate all those little land mines that are sitting inside Gabi that inadvertently get triggered or tripped by something that happens in her life, and all of a sudden, she’s not this clearly thinking individual. To kidnap a man and keep him in your basement, it’s safe to say that is not the average person’s response. However, when you’ve been through the kind of trauma she’s been through and you’ve dedicated your life to this, and that person was never found, it’s something that is constantly swirling around you. Maybe all the work you did, and the therapy and the healing, made you a functional society-driven adult who is making a difference in the world, but it didn’t quite get to the deeper landmines that then got triggered as she got older and things happened and she was suddenly presented with this opportunity.

I love Gabi, but she clearly needs some more therapy.

CARROLL: There’s no magic to therapy. You try it, you hope you find the right person, you hope it takes, you take the tools they give you, you do the work outside of it, but maybe she didn’t do so much of the work outside of it. She was too busy saving people, which is admirable, but pain and trauma like that, that goes untreated, will manifest in very different ways. In Gabi’s way, it manifested into this mental break that happened that has her justifying what she’s doing. For Gabi, the ends very much justify the means. While most people understand that, especially when it comes to saving a life, Gabi is definitely pushing that line of how far is too far to save a life. It’s a battle that she’s having within herself, over the course of the first season. With each case, she heals a little bit. We wish that healing took 20 years ago, but it’s happening with each case that she solves and each missing person that she reunites with their family. As each person that’s part of Mosley & Associates, this family that she’s put together, all heal from each case, that’s healing Gabi. As she’s healing in the process, knowing what she’s done and what’s in her basement, that’s a huge push and pull for her, in terms of how she gets herself out of the situation she’s put herself in.

‘Found’ Showrunner Carroll Said She Has a Very Clear Five-Season Plan
Image via NBC

When that became part of the concept and you knew you wanted to have Sir in the basement, did you also know how that would eventually end up? Have you always known how that would play out, or have you been figuring that out along the way?

CARROLL: I’ve always known. It’s funny because when you shoot a pilot and you turn it into the network for them to decide if they’re gonna green light the series, you also put together a series document for them, of where the show could go. My series document was five seasons. At least for those first five seasons, I knew exactly how I wanted that to play out and how it was gonna go. You have to because it’s such an intricate puzzle piece. You have to know where the journey is going in order to fill in all the pieces and so that you can go back and look at a previous episode and be like, “Oh, my gosh, how did I miss that?” It’s very planned and very detailed. And then, the writers’ room that we brought on board once the series was greenlit added to that. They found new little pieces and better pathways to where we want these characters to end up. It really became a collaborative process, but from day one, I knew she was gonna have Sir in the basement, and from day two, I knew how that would play out.

The show has been building to this ticking time bomb feeling, as far as the Gabi and Sir dynamic goes. We’ve seen things building, from him getting mad about hearing a man walking around with heavy boots on, and then him realizing who Lacey is and poking at Gabi about it. Did you want to build that tension by continuing to threaten her team because they’re essentially her family? Did it feel necessary to keep pushing her further to that edge?

CARROLL: For sure. In a way, he’s being held captive, but in a way, he’s also getting what he wants, which is daily interaction with Gabi. But he’s seeing what we’re seeing. With each day that goes by, with each case she works on, and with the more time she’s spending with the Mosley & Associates family, she is healing and he’s seeing that he’s slowly but surely losing her. The minute that connection is broken and she’s like, “Oh, my gosh, what have I done? I’m willing to suffer whatever consequence, for him to pay for his crimes,” he senses that. And so, the more he senses that, the more he’s losing control, which is making him act out, threaten people, shake the dynamic between them, and try to keep Gabi off her feet, but it’s all coming out of the desperation of sensing what we’re sensing, which is that she’s getting better. And if she’s getting better, she’s gonna eventually realize that the dynamic that is happening in her basement is not healthy and is not sustainable. Quite frankly, it’s the ultimate barrier to her full healing and he knows that it’s only a matter of time before Gabi knows that, and that’s why he’s acting the way he’s acting.

Is ‘Found’s Gabi Mosely Justified In Her Revenge?
Image via NBC

Yeah, I was going to ask you, can she even still be healed while he’s chained in her basement?

CARROLL: In my opinion, absolutely not. You can’t be keeping a man against his will in your basement and be like, “It worked. I’m healed. Everything’s good.” However, other people have different opinions on that. That’s the beauty of a show like this. I know what my intention was with the characters I created and with the dynamics I put them in, but that’s why I love TV because the audience worldwide who’s watching it gets to experience it through whatever filters they have, whatever filters they’ve grown up with, and whatever lens they see the world through. Some people feel this is justified revenge. Some people are like, “Gabi, what are you doing? We were rooting for you!” And some people are like, “Hey, there’s a chemistry there and good men are hard to find.” I worry about those folks. They’re the same ones that talk about Joe in You and are like, “Oh, he’s so communicative.” No, he kills people. But no judgment. I just love that it’s creating so much engagement from the fans across all walks of life, who all have their opinion on this dynamic.

When did Shanola Hampton come into play with us? I love her and think she’s fantastic. How early on was she involved and how has she helped shape the character, as it evolved?

CARROLL: Shanola is such an effervescent force. The world needs more Shanola, quite frankly. The role of Gabi was actually originally written for a younger Gabi. She was only 10 years out from her kidnapping as a teen, in my original conception of the show. And then, I met Shanola for a directing gig, because she also directs and was interested in directing on one of my other shows. We did a Zoom, and poor Shanola because she was doing her thing, giving her presentation and being so smart with all the director talking, and I was just staring at her. She must have thought, “What is wrong with this woman?” And then, the meeting ended and I was like, “Please don’t think I’m crazy, but can I send you a script to read?” And she was like, “Sure. To direct?” And I said, “Just read the script, and then we can talk.”

So, I emailed her the script, and in the time between when I left the office and got home, the email from Shanola said, “Oh, my God, I can’t believe this. Gabi Mosely, I have to play her. This is crazy. Call me.” I thought, “Okay, I’ve got her hooked. She likes the story.” And then, I texted my fellow producers and I was like, “I found our Gabi,” and the rest was history. The network and studio agreed with us wholeheartedly. Everyone felt that she was so right for the role. So, I made the character a little bit more mature and wiser than I’d originally conceived her because it was Shanola Hampton playing her. She brings all that she is to the role. She’s just phenomenal. She’s a phenomenal actress, but is also the type of human that you want to be the lead of your show and to be a leader on set with our cast and crew. She is everything and more.

Mark-Paul Gosselaar Was a Prototype that Became Reality for the Character of Sir
Image via NBC

As an audience member watching this show, there is that strange internal battle over not wanting to find this bad guy chained in the basement hot, mainly because it’s Mark-Paul Gosselaar. Was that intentional in casting him? Did you want to play with how his fan base thinks of him?

CARROLL: Mark-Paul Gosselaar was super high on my wish list. He was one of those actors who was on the wish list, but then we put it aside to realistically cast the role. So, when I got the call from his agent that he was interested, I was like, “Who’s interested?” And they were like, “Mark-Paul.” And I was like, “No, he was a prototype. We never thought he was gonna say yes. Oh, my God! Is he saying yes?” And they were like, “He wants to talk to you.” And so, I had my whole moment, and then I had to pull myself together. I talked with Mark-Paul, who’s truly one of the most phenomenal human beings and so dedicated to his craft and such a professional and just a really great person. We talked at length about this character.

One of the things about Sir that was always part of the matrix, regardless of who we would have gotten in the role, is that there is a charisma to him. Ted Bundy got away with so much of what he got away with because he was a very charismatic, attractive male. People trusted him, as a stranger. When they saw him outside, women trusted him and were attracted to him. That creates a different kind of danger and a different kind of cat-and-mouse game that I was always very fascinated by, so Sir was always gonna have an element of that. But then, when we got our dream of Mark-Paul Gosselaar, that took it to another level. And then, I was like, “Oh, my gosh, I made Zack Morris a serial kidnapper!” To my childhood and all my friends, I’m sorry. But also, I’m not sorry because Mark-Paul Gosselaar is so phenomenal in this role with the little things he brings to Sir that just elevated off the page. I truly could not have asked for more from anyone else.

Do you have any favorite moments between Gabi and Sir?

CARROLL: That’s like picking a favorite baby. I don’t know how to do that. They’re just so incredibly phenomenal together. I’ll never forget, I was in my office in Los Angeles and they were still shooting in Atlanta. I had a scene with Sir and Gabi up on the screen in my office, and they were acting their butts off. I was riveted, sitting at my desk and watching this whole thing, and then the director yelled, “Cut,” but the camera was still running on Mark-Paul and you could hear Shanola screaming off-screen, “You better act Mark-Paul!” He was still in the role of Sir and he was so serious, but then, all of a sudden, he looked to the camera and started laughing. I called him immediately and was like, “Did you just raise the roof?” They felt the magic of the scene they had just done together. That dynamic is what I love so much about our show, about this cast, and about the phenomenal work, and the process of making that work is so much fun. It’s been a dream come true. It truly has.

Each of these people in Gabi’s life seem to be a little bit broken in their own ways, including her. What do you most enjoy about exploring and creating story for this team? What have you learned from those dynamics that you didn’t realize until seeing those characters interact?

CARROLL: Look, humans aren’t perfect. So much of what our youth struggles with and what we struggle with as adults, especially in this age of social media, is striving for perfection and feeling like we’re falling short. I wanted to put this nontraditional family on TV, that are anything but perfect, have had bad things happen to them, have risen from the ashes of that, have turned their trauma into purpose, and are doing the best they can to contribute to the world being a better place. They’re not perfect, but that’s okay. I think it’s so powerful to see that on TV. For me, it’s powerful to write characters like that because it makes me feel better about the world I live in and about the difference I think I can make. Hopefully, that’s doing the same for the people who are watching it.

In episode 11, we were left with this moment of her saying on the phone to someone, “It’s me. I need you to come over. It’s about Sir.” Since that’s where you’re leaving viewers before the holiday break, what would you say after that episode to tease what’s to come after that moment and what fans can expect from the remaining episodes?

CARROLL: I would say, be ready because all hell is about to break loose in the final episodes.

Creator Carroll Said Fans Will Be On the Edge of Their Seats With the ‘Found’ Finale
Image via NBC

Will we be surprised by how things play out?

CARROLL: I hope so. My hope is that people will be surprised and on the edge of their seat. We have a lot of twists and turns in this series as a whole. It starts in the pilot with the reveal that our hero maybe has some non-heroic tendencies. That is very much a fabric of the show and we do continue that right into the finale. When I was pitching it with the studio and network, I used to describe Season 1 as, “We’ve got these two trains in two different timelines that are on a collision course for present day.” It will very much feel like that, as we barrel towards those last episodes.

With where you leave things at the end of the season, will the second season feel very different, or will it still feel very much like the same show?

CARROLL: Absolutely, it will feel like the same show. The essence of the show is always going to be the same. The heart of the show is always going to be about this nontraditional family of “heroes,” whatever defines a hero, and their shared mission to bring the forgotten missing people home. That will never change for them. And so, because that will never change for them, the heart of the show will never change. There will always be twists, turns and drama, and there will always be a little bit of a psychological thriller aspect to it. From that perspective, absolutely, it will feel like the same show, which will continue to be surprising.

Found airs on NBC and is available to stream on Peacock. Check out the trailer:

Watch on Peacock