Margaret reopens a teenage girl's missing person case after a 4-year-old unidentified boy appears in the D.C. area. Lacey recalls a memory from her kidnapping that leads to a clue in the manhunt for Sir. Gabi makes plans to right her wrongs.
Law enforcement failed Sofia and Mateo Diaz. Their daughter Adela went missing. The case was assigned to a detective who got blackout drunk every night. The notes detailing his investigation don't accurately reflect what he did and didn't do. Gabi and her team search through the mess to make sense of what happened. The parents were victimized. They were used as convenient scapegoats. Instead of looking for the truth, the police and the media targeted their vitriol against the parents. Mateo was made out to be an abusive parent who killed his daughter. That wasn't the truth. Sofia and Mateo fought for answers for seven years. Margaret calls them believing she has found new evidence. She doesn't consult the team first. Her animosity towards Gabi is causing her to spiral. She has stopped going to therapy. She is becoming more disheveled. Everyone is worried about her. She insists she's fine. She isn't. She invests in the work to prove she can still do the job without Gabi. She can function despite the huge betrayal. And yet, that too isn't an adequate outlet for all the emotions she's bottling up. She bursts. She provides clarity to the Diaz family. They are reunited. That's a joyous celebration. It's only one aspect of this story.
Margaret's hunch was right. Her keen instincts are still powerful. She gets distracted whenever Gabi is around. However, she trusts her ability to read people. She knows the parents are emotional and anxious. They don't want false hope. Adela had a son while in captivity. He ran away from their imprisonment. He was discovered by the police. Margaret saw the resemblance. A DNA test eventually confirms it. The team doesn't wait until then to begin investigating. Gabi doesn't play by the same rules that govern the police. She's bold. That's reckless a lot of the time too. The urgency of the moment means she frequently doesn't have to explain herself. She doesn't need to justify her actions all the time. No one is holding her accountable. The team is still together despite her confession about Sir. He continues to torment them. Trent can't get anyone to cooperate with his investigation. His trust with Gabi has been broken too. They no longer present as a united front. In fact, his way of holding police accountable is to call out Mosely & Associates for being vigilantes. The police wouldn't have been able to find Adela without these private investigators. But now, Trent is taking his animosity out on their entire business model.
Similarly, Gabi has contempt for the police. She faults them for overlooking marginalized communities. They rarely provide justice. Too many people don't trust them. They are built up as a beloved institution. They deserve criticism. Trent arrests the former detective who failed at his job. He was only one part of this system. However, he had a devastating impact on the people who trusted him when they needed help the most. The Diaz family is just one of his victims due to negligence. The inclusion of Trent's father allows the narrative to better connect his worldview with Gabi's. He sees the power in how she transformed her trauma into action. He commends her. He also views them as the same. They will do whatever it takes to get the job done. Trent is different. He believes in morals. He leads with compassion. That is a crucial quality that informs how he conducts himself on the job. He calls Gabi after Margaret has been arrested. He still has that empathy. However, he can no longer trust Gabi as operating in good faith in their partnership. They are simply too different. He grew close to every member of the team. But now, he's trying to get any information to incriminate Gabi. He is suppose to be providing a follow-up interview with Lacey about her time with Sir. His focus should be on capturing him. And yet, he pivots the conversation back to Gabi. That's a priority for him.
Lacy continues to struggle too. Sure, it was cruel for the show to tease she was taken again when she simply got up in the middle of the night. It was a dramatic setting that caused real concern from Zeke. Her reaction now is different than her experience twenty years ago. Her joy can never be stolen by Sir. However, she is still driven by getting him behind bars. That's the punishment he deserves. He continues to insert himself in Gabi's life. He believes their connection defies any kind of understandable explanation. No one outside of them gets it. Plenty want to protect Gabi from the danger that surrounds her. Sir issues many threats. People are terrified of him. He always manages to escape. Gabi would never help him in that regard. Someone might be. Gabi believes she understands Sir better than anyone else. And yet, Lacey heard him asking for help. That doesn't line up with how Sir has always presented himself. Having an ally would explain how he evaded capture for so long. Dhan eventually found him. That too was a failure of law enforcement. Gabi tasks Dhan with doing so again. This time she wants his energy focused on finding Jamie to ease Margaret's mind. That may be the only way of restoring trust. Whatever dynamics the team previously enjoyed are gone though. They are building something new. The work matters. That keeps them together. It's tentative too. Any mistake can have devastating consequences. Even success proves to deliver complicated reactions.
