Alert: Missing Persons Unit – Season 1 Episode 3 “Zoey” Recap & Review

Zoey

Episode 3 of Alert: Missing Persons Unit season 1 starts with a man in a car. A girl asks for help and it sounds like she is in the trunk of his car. The man turns up the music and ignores her. The young lady breaks the taillights and tries to peep outside. She throws out her driver’s license through the crack as the man drives off.

Elsewhere, Jason tries to ask Keith about his kidnappers and what he remembers from the night they got him back.  Nikki comes in with Keith’s breakfast. She and Jason are not on the same page regarding how Keith should heal. Jason thinks Keith should talk about his kidnapping while Niki wants to move ahead never looking back.

On the other hand, Sidney wants a lock for her room. She wants nothing to do with Keith even giving him a ride to school. Jason and Nikki disagree on whether Keith is ready to resume school but Nikki convinces him that the earlier he resumes normal life, the better.

Nikki gets a case alert and heads to the office. Mike and Kemi update Nikki and Jason about Zoey who was abducted after a big party at the home she shares with four roommates. They show the roommates the video of Zoey being abducted and ask if they can identify the car or the man.

According to her roommates, Zoey quit her job (she is an artist) and school a month ago and never talked about what happened. Her roommates refuse to talk more about what was going on in Zoey’s life. Mike finds a video of Zoey disagreeing with a mysterious person (they couldn’t see the other person’s face in the video, only the jacket the person was wearing)  at the party but the roommates continue to stay silent. Jason asks them for their phones to check the photos from the party.

They learn that the mysterious person was Zoey’s ex, Matt and he didn’t take the breakup well. Kemi suggests they take a look at Zoey’s school file. Zoey’s parents are surprised that she was not attending class or work for the past month. Jason insists they need to find out what happened a month ago that led to Zoey changing everything in her life.

Away from the case, Nikki admits he misses Mike and asks him to understand that Keith coming back will require some adjustment.

At school, Keith takes a placement test and even tries to help his sister with her project. At the office, his parents wonder if they should homeschool him. They joke that if Keith passes the test they can be sure he is not their son and they should do a DNA test. Their son had terrible grades.

Back to the ongoing case at hand, Zoey is taken to a mansion by her kidnapper and he gives her a beautiful black dress to change into.

Nikki interrogates Matt and he says that Zoey wanted to protect her friend Sara who had suddenly gotten a lot of money from an anonymous source. Kemi goes back to Sara and asks about the money and its source. Sara admits that she got money from one of the rich men Zoey disapproved of.

Jason against Niki’s advice pays a hacker to get Sara’s bank records. He learns that Sara lied about how she got the money. She and Zoey have been getting paid by a Swiss account. Kemi thinks that Sara wants to help Zoey but doesn’t dare to do it. Jason investigates further and learns the account belongs to a financial company and one of the directors gets their attention.

His name is Schleierkraut, a billionaire and he and Zoey have one thing in connection, their art dealer Jacqueline Phillips. Nikki visits Schleierkraut and asks about Zoey and the nature of their relationship. They also show him the messages Sara received after Zoey was kidnapped asking her to keep quiet. Schleierkraut kicks them out of his office and brings up Keith.

In the meantime, Mike finds the car used to abduct Zoey and asks the highway patrol to bring the driver in. Nikki realizes that Sara has been abducted too. They issue a missing alert for Sara.

It turns out the police were right, Jacqueline is involved in Zoey’s kidnapping. She wants Zoey to entertain another rich man and in return, she promises to set both girls free.

The police alerts lead them to the kidnapper’s location. Nikki and Jason track him down and he opens fire forcing them to shoot back. The kidnapper dies in the shooting and Sara is rescued.  Sara opens up to Nikki, she says that Schleierkraut pretended to care about her and Zoey. This was until he and Jacqueline turned against them and they ran away.

Jacqueline later called and offered Sara money to sexually entertain a rich guy known as “the minister”. She took the money but changed her mind about sleeping with him. Sara ran to Zoey for help and Zoey insisted on talking to Schleierkraut.

Mike learns that Schleierkraut and Zoey’s dad are close. Zoey’s dad is angry that his friend betrayed him and lashes out in anger. Kemi uses one of Zoey’s paintings to find out where Schleierkraut might be keeping Zoey. They get to her in time to save her from a perverted old man but another problem arises.

Zoey’s dad visits Schleierkraut and shoots him twice in the leg. Zoey tries to calm him down but he is set on killing Schleierkraut. Nikki talks him down and they arrest Schleierkraut.

After talking to Zoey’s dad, Jason admits that he has been pushing Keith hard because he felt guilty for not being there when he was taken. They get the results of Keith’s placement test and he aced it. They are shocked because before being kidnapped Keith was failing his studies.

At home, Keith tries to get close to Sidney but she pushes him away. Nikki decides to take Keith’s toothbrush and hair for a DNA test and Sidney is glad she believes her.

The Episode Review

This episode is a bit better compared to the last two. I am glad that Nikki has started seeing the light as it’s clear that Keith is not the person he claims to be.

Unfortunately, I think Keith is already more than two steps ahead of her and has probably switched the hair in the album with his.

Sidney is so sure that the real Keith is dead and I wonder what role she might have played in his death. At the end of it all, I worry if Nikki and Jason will be able to survive the truth.

I understand Jason’s desire for revenge, just because he is part of the police force doesn’t mean he is not human. Someone took and hurt his child, any parent would want to see the perpetrator in pain too. However, there is a difference between justice and vengeance. I hope he won’t get carried with his emotion and jeopardize the case.