Alert: Missing Persons Unit is a Cop Show drama airing on Fox and streaming on Hulu. It's created by John Eisendrath and Jamie Foxx.note It stars Scott Caan, Dania Ramirez, Ryan Broussard, Adeola Role and Graham Verchere. The second season aired on March 2024.
Jason Grant was deployed to Kandahar, working as a contractor helping American-led NATO troops stabilize the region. While on duty, he gets word from his (soon to be ex-) wife Nikki Batista that their son, Keith, was taken by an unknown kidnapper. This event soon resulted in their divorce. But years later, Jason works alongside Nikki to investigate missing persons case under the Philadelphia Police Department (PPD) and to find out what happened to Keith on the day he was kidnapped.
Alert: Missing Persons Unit contains examples of:
- Broken Pedestal: In "Craig," Mike is rocked to realize his mentor George, who taught him everything about being a cop and helped raise Craig after his father was busted for corruption, has been on the take for years from a criminal company. Even worse is the realization Mike's dad was innocent and George was the corrupt cop who framed him.
- Bulletproof Vest: Jason, Nikki and the other plainclothes officers in the Missing Persons Unit (MPU) wear them when they expect to get into a situation where firearms will be used against them.
- Changeling Tale: Sidney believes the Keith who was rescued was an imposter. The truth is complicated: That's a lie. Sidney's right.
- Driving Question:
- Who's responsible for kidnapping Keith? And what happened to the real Keith?
- In "Bus 447", how did the lone hijacker hijack a city bus and got away from Philadelphia's surveillance cameras?
- Easily Forgiven: At the end of "Craig", Mike discovers his father was actually innocent of corruption and he's been wrongly blaming him for twenty years. He comes to his dad, not expecting forgiveness but his father doesn't hesitate to do so and embraces his son.Mike Sherman Sr.: I think about you everyday. You're my son. Everyday for the last twenty years, I was hoping for this day.
- Green-Eyed Monster: In "Shannon", when one twin sister is found murdered, this is revealed to be the motive of her killer. Shannon killed and then took the identity of her twin sister Georgia after learning how successful and happy Georgia was, yet was seemingly squandering it by cheating on her fiancée. So she kills Georgia and leaves a fake suicide note to suggest "Shannon" killed herself before inserting herself into Georgia's life. When caught, she claims she was only taking what she was entitled to.
- Grief-Induced Split: Jason and Nikki divorced after the disappearance of their son Keith while Jason was on deployment overseas.
- I Never Said It Was Poison: In "Craig", Kemi realizes George was involved in a killing when she learned that he claimed the supposed killer Craig Fennessy "couldn't shoot a cap gun, let alone a suppressor with polymer tips", a detail he couldn't possibly have known.
- Karma Houdini: "Andy": Despite her sympathetic and justifiable motives, Pat Wells faces no consequences for kidnapping Andy from his drug addict mother Vicki Parsons, with Nikki's report branding Vicki and her lover Brad (assumed to be Andy's biological father) as an outlaw couple who kidnapped Pat and Steve's son for ransom.
- Myth Arc:
- In the various missing person cases, Nikki and Jason work to locate them and return them safely to their families. Meanwhile, they investigate who kidnapped Keith. Later on, the Keith who came back is an imposter who took on his name.
- The second season involves a carbombing incident. Jason suspects it to be tied up to a powerful Dirty Cop in the PPD.
- Only in It for the Money: "Andy": Vicki's lover Brad, implied to be Andy's father, only helped her take Andy from the wealthy Wells family to ransom him back for a payday.
- Properly Paranoid: From the start, Sidney refuses to accept that "Keith" is really him and warning her parents constantly not to trust him. It turns out she's sure of this because she accidentally killed Keith years before.
- Ransom Drop: "Gemma & Isabel" involves a ransom drop to release a surrogate mother. The boxer gets killed by a PPD officer during a hostage crisis after he got the money.
- The Reveal: In the first season finale "Keith" is revealed as Lucas, a boy pushed by his mother to pose as Keith to scam the family.
- Ripped from the Headlines: The episode "Zoey" is based on sexual assault/rape cases from Harvey Weinstein and other prominent celebrities.
- Spot the Imposter:
- In "Shannon," the team figures out Shannon murdered her twin because "Shannon's" body doesn't have the signs of a broken arm she suffered as a child from her abusive adoptive father.
- Luke, Georgia's fiancée, realizes something is off when Shannon kisses him. When her insulin monitor goes off, his suspicions are confirmed but is beyond horrified to discover what Shannon did.
Luke: Oh, my God. I can't believe I didn't see it sooner. I knew something wasn't right, but this is insane. YOU'RE INSANE!- Jason finally realizes something is off about "Keith" when the boy can't remember a single detail of the classic car they had spent hours working on together.
- Shout-Out: In "Maya", Mike wears a lethal jacket. He moans that he looks like Fonzie.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Discussed in "Andy". It's mentioned that if the truth comes out that Pat kidnapped Andy, he'll end up with child services. It's mentioned earlier that Pat's husband Steve adopted Andy when they married, but as Andy was never Pat's child to begin with, the adoption would be nullified by the truth being revealed.
- SWAT Team: The PPD's SWAT unit is deployed when they expect to face armed suspects.
- Twin Switch: In "Shannon", it turns out Shannon murdered her identical twin sister Georgia after killing the girl's stalker. They fought with Shannon killing Georgia and trying to take over the life she believes she could have had.
- Wham Episode:
- "Chloe": Keith is returned safely, but he's seen tearing up articles related to Keith's kidnapping.
- "Max": "Keith" is revealed to be an imposter named Lucas, who's accidentally killed by his own mother when he tries to end the scam.
- Wham Line:
- Sidney texting to someone she knows "Keith" is an imposter because "we know what really happened."
- At the end of "Shannon":
Sidney: I killed my brother.- The big turn of "Max" when "Keith" calls Evelyn "Mom."
- Wham Shot:
- At the end of the pilot episode "Chloe", Keith is shown looking through a journal packed with details on things he should know about his own family and tearing up articles related to the kidnapping.
- "Miguel" has Keith taking a gun from a gun safe. He tells his parents that it's just a pellet gun, which Jason confirms when he takes it from him.
