[SPOILER] Just Made a Surprise Return in the Latest Episode of Found; Showrunner Teases What's Next
A reunion nearly two seasons in the making!
**SPOILER WARNING! The following contains major spoilers for Found Season 2, Episode 11!**
For nearly two full seasons, we've watched Found character Margaret (played by Kelli Williams) agonize over the abduction of her 6-year-old son Jamie from a bus station 13 years before the events of the show. As viewers are aware, the unbelievably traumatizing loss destroyed Margaret's marriage and the parental relationship she shared with her two daughters.
Determined to find Jamie at all costs, Margaret visited the bus station every single night and developed a highly acute sense of observation, lovingly dubbed "Margaret Vision" by the other members of Mosely & Associates, who embraced the grieving mother with open arms and gave her a new sense of purpose. Things went sour for Margaret early in Season 2 when she assaulted a custodial worker at the bus station and found herself permanently banned from visiting the place. Coupled with Gabi Mosely's admission about Sir at the end of last season, the restraining order sent Margaret over the edge and she nearly took her own life until Dhan (Karan Oberoi) intervened.
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Tonight's episode — "Missing While Misunderstood" — carried a much-needed note of optimism for Margaret, who receives a tap on the shoulder outside the bus station from a young man (Parker Queenan) claiming to be Jamie.
Found showrunner Nkechi Okoro Carroll on what fans can expect from Jamie's surprise return
Speaking with NBC Insider over Zoom, series creator, showrunner, and executive producer Nkechi Okoro Carroll reveals that Jamie's much-anticipated return was in the works long before Found was picked up by NBC.
"Jamie was one of the first characters after Gabi and Margaret that I came up with, knowing we weren’t going to meet him until Season 2; knowing we likely weren’t going to meet him until the back half of Season 2," she says. "But he’s been a character that has sat in my heart for seven, eight years. And so, to see it come to life was just… my poor assistant can testify, I was a complete wreck. Because I’d be writing scripts and crying, then watching cuts [and crying more]. They were like, ‘Are you okay? Do you need air?’ Just watching it all come to life and fleshed out really was every dream come true for such a complicated story."
But even if this young man really is Jamie, so many questions remain. Who took him? Where has he been all this time? Was he abused? Why did he return now? Can he resume his relationship with a mother he hasn't seen in almost 15 years?
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"The story doesn’t end when you return a person to their life," Carroll explains. "Gabi is the poster child for how it continues, the trauma that needs to be dealt with, the healing that needs to happen. We get to see that in real-time with Jamie. We’re with him from day one of his return and watch him try to navigate [his abduction]. He was taken just before his seventh birthday and he’s now 20. That’s a long time to be away from your family and to have grown into an adult and now have to navigate people who only remember you as the 6-year-old version of you."
She concludes: "I’m excited for the audience to take this journey with Margaret and, as is the formula of our show, we’ll be telling that story in present day with his return and we’ll be telling it in flashbacks, picking up from the day he went missing and unfolding the story from there until we solve the case."
New episodes of Found air Thursdays on NBC at 10 p.m. ET.
