is keith really their son on alert

If the series didn't make a habit of naming each installment after the person they're searching for, this hour could have been called "Sins of the Father."

Non only did Jason lose his temper and misstep with his reaction to Keith on Warning: Missing Persons Unit Season i Episode 8, but Mike faced some hard truths virtually his father figure and a revelation almost his actual begetter, which had him regretting the past 2 decades.

Merely within all the strife the hour brought forth, in that location was an open door for forgiveness and healing.

We spend a lot of time with Nikki and Jason on this series, and we've learned a flake virtually both of them via their family unit and follow them domicile often enough.

Although, in that location's still an oddity to Jason's human relationship with June that was seemingly dropped along the way with no fanfare.

And we've too learned a bit more about Kemi via this situation with her male parent and had glimmers of insight into the forever quirky C.

But this was the first installment we got to peel back a few layers to Mike, the complete straight-man in this office full of mavericks, eccentrics, and loose cannons.

The case got a bit convoluted as Mike's mentor brought him something most a mutual friend and fellow cop, Craig, who had gone missing.

But somehow, it evolved into this conspiracy case total of corruption and deception. And Craig and Mike were the biggest victims of the situation.

Information technology was interesting that Craig was an informant for his handler at the FBI. The downside to how they were going near things was that she didn't ensure he would be protected if something happened to her.

The Feds immediately assumed that he was the one who murdered her, and they were practically on a total manhunt to find him and make him pay.

George: I raised you Mike. You know what kind of man I am.
Mike: You know the last thing I said to him was, "You're dead to me." Yep, George. I know exactly what kind of human y'all are.

Mike was right about how they were on the verge of playing judge, jury, and executioner if given a chance. They lost 1 of their own, and they got blinded by that.

It led to the typical disputes about jurisdiction issues, and Mike and the MPU were technically supposed to stand down as the FBI took over and potentially railroaded Craig.

The case became a mess of itself as Mike and the others got around to clearing Craig's practiced proper name. It took a bit earlier there was footage of what really happened to Craig, and we learned that he was a victim of a shady organization.

An inability to know who to trust while investigating a shady blackness-and-white dynamic caused so much mess. They couldn't only turn to anyone, including law enforcement.

Keith wasn't kidnapped. He died because of me.
Sidney

The vendetta against Craig over his handler'southward death clouded the FBI'southward judgment, so they were in no place to provide much assistance. Mike and the others essentially stealing the case from underneath them worked well.

Except it ruined Mike'south relationship with George. Mike was as well shut to information technology, allowing George to cloud his judgment the whole way through. Fortunately, Kemi was non having information technology, nor was Nikki by extension.

She sensed George was a liar, manipulator, and cheat, and she was correct. Trying to go Mike to encounter it was difficult, though.

Not only was George heavily decadent and involved in this organization that Craig was investigating, but he was also behind framing Mike's father.

Of all the offenses, leading Mike to believe for the by two decades that his begetter was a dirty cop while stepping in as a father figure, was equally depression as it gets.

And George wasn't above framing or having Craig killed, too. And Craig was supposedly almost equally shut to George equally Mike was.

The whole performance had Mike and the MPU racing confronting fourth dimension and working against the Feds to become to Craig in time to protect him.

And then they did that, and Mike confiding in George is what nearly got Craig killed once more.

Mike wasn't himself the whole way through, but knowing his background and how he believed his father was a muddied cop for virtually of his life, proved enlightening in understanding his character and why he is the mode he is in his approach.

He'due south typically the one who wants to go by the book with everything and rarely missteps. His reaction to Jason'south ways and the times when Nikki gives into some of her more than reckless impulses have proven to exist rooted in something deeper, and now we know what.

Mike has spent virtually of her adult life trying non to be similar the human being he idea his father was, and he's carried that into the field every twenty-four hour period.

And yet this was a case that brought out the side of him that was ruled by emotion. Kemi did most of the heavy lifting in trying to rein him in.

She's a good friend and colleague that fashion, although it was unusual that she took the atomic number 82 on that because Nikki was too preoccupied with the Keith fiasco.

Information technology was so unexpected to see Mike putting his gun in his mentor'south face and looking every bit if he was moments abroad from pulling the trigger. We've seen him well in control of his emotions throughout the flavour, but this was an incredibly badass, admitting unhinged version of him.

It was a version of Mike that yous can definitely meet being best friends with Jason, which is probably why the ii of them having a chat subsequently the case was wrapping was so interesting.

Jason is cocky-aware regarding his behavior and how he needs to command himself amend. He was in a decent position to requite Mike advice because he knows what that'south like and had a nasty tour of letting his rage fuel him earlier with Keith.

Coming home, being with my family, it'south all I idea about when I was gone. Having Sid doubt me was difficult; having you dubiety who I am is a whole different gutpunch.
Keith

It was shocking to run into Mike repeatedly punching the bad guy out until Jason pulled him off. It was some other affair that I didn't anticipate seeing.

But one of the most satisfying moments for Mike was when he got to talk to his father for the first time in years. He hadn't seen or spoken to the man since he was a teenager, but there he was at his doorstep, ready to repent for believing everything George had told him.

And Mike Sr. didn't fifty-fifty demand that apology. He just needed his son dorsum. Information technology'south too bad we missed out on the conversation afterwards. Spending more fourth dimension with the two of them would be nice.

And, good grief. How quondam was Mike's father when he had him? He didn't even look like he was old enough to have a kid in his 30s.

Mike: Hey, dad. I, um, I sympathize if you lot don't want to see me.
Mike Sr: I recollect you everyday, youre my son. Every day for the terminal 20 years, I was hoping for this twenty-four hours.

In some means, I wish this was a situation where Nikki could counterbalance in and support Mike more since they're supposed to exist getting married. Mike has felt then isolated from the family unit in all ways, and that's been disappointing.

Kemi's forgiveness ritual was definitely a necessity for this group of individuals who willingly partake in these things, even if they're indulging Kemi.

But was anyone else chuckling at the irony of Kemi instigating a forgiveness ritual when she spent then long going off the rail over her begetter'southward clan with the man who kidnapped and assaulted her?

Perhaps it was her mode of letting go of that too.

But the Bautiste Grant family badly needed some healing since they had get almost irreparably fractured.

Unfortunately, most of Sidney's conversation with her parents took place offscreen. But she got to reiterate her issues with Keith in front of him when she spoke almost how he died.

And now that nosotros know the context of it, there'due south so much possibility. Near of Keith's story has always been a matter of things being possible enough to have happened while still leaving room for dubiousness.

Sidney felt guilty that she pushed Keith away when they were on the frozen lake, and he fell through the ice. She couldn't go to him and thought he had drowned and frozen to expiry down there.

It'due south withal bonkers that she never told her parents that, thought he was dead, led them to believe that he wasn't for all that time, watched their unabridged family fall apart, and her parents suffer from a lack of closure while she kept her mouth close.

And it was considering she feared that they would send her dorsum. Information technology'due south a genuine fear for a foster/adopted kid, but information technology's nevertheless unfathomable that she managed to get abroad with this for six years.

The more than time we spend with Sidney, the less likable she becomes, even if we can sympathise her position and her doubts.

And the worst role about all of this is that there were no real repercussions for her. Nikki and Jason barely batted an eye over the mere thought that she lied about what happened that nighttime and Keith being dead and fifty-fifty went all this time not telling them the truth but wanting them to act on her doubts.

Nikki: Whoever he is, even if he's not our son, there's good in him. Yous know I tin experience it.
Jason: I can feel it besides.

Instead, she got the reassurance that they would've never given her back, and they moved on from that likewise quickly.

As for Keith, he ever has an reply for everything. It's every bit baroque that even when Sidney was at her worst, he didn't mention that he fell into the lake and found a hole out, and got into the starting time warm car that would take him.

Everything Keith said felt reactionary to what Sidney presented to them.

And and so he, too, forgave Sidney nigh instantly later figuring that upon learning the truth, she felt guilty and blamed herself.

It was awful to encounter Jason confront Keith the way he did. Whether he knew for certain that was his son or not, he was still a teenager.

It would've made more than sense if they had waited for official confirmation and identified the body before reacting. And Nikki was so decorated playing defense to Sidney and Jason's emotional reactions that we barely got to meet her procedure her own or where she stood on the affair.

C's piece of work proves that even with all the science, things aren't fool-proof and tin can exist interpreted differently. Sometimes, people see what they desire to see, and the presumed paradigm of the lake boy looked close enough to Keith to requite them pause.

But, weirdly, the realization that the lake boy had os cancer came and then belatedly into the game. And so much of this could've been avoided if they had led with that information.

It was used to make things more official and remove doubts that the body in the lake wasn't Keith'due south, but it came too belatedly into the game and was a contrivance for drama.

And then, later all that speculation, we're supposed to believe with 100% that this kid actually is Keith, and all the evidence supports it.

And now, with that mystery solved, nosotros must face new ones about who held him for vi years and how they're stalking him and the family.

It took most of the flavour, just now Keith is going to tell his family what really happened to him in the years that he's been away, and hopefully, past doing then, he'll enlist his parents' help in communicable these people and protecting their family unit.

Information technology felt like the catching the kidnappers portion got put on the back burner, so it'll be overnice to go back to that.

Over to you, Alert Fanatics. Do you believe that this is actually Keith, like they've proven? Did you savor this Mike-centered episode? Sound off beneath.

Jasmine Blu is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. She is an insomniac who spends late nights and early mornings binge-watching way too many shows and binge-drinking way too much tea. Her eclectic taste makes her an unpredictable viewer with an appreciation for complex characters, diverse representation, dynamic duos, compelling stories, and guilty pleasures. Y'all'll definitely find her obsessively alive-tweeting, waxing poetic, and chatting up boyfriend Fanatics and readers. Follow her on Twitter.

Source: https://www.tvfanatic.com/2023/02/alert-missing-persons-unit-season-1-episode-8-review-craig/