‘Found’: Shanola Hampton on That Finale Cliffhanger and “Undefined Chemistry” With Co-Star Mark-Paul Gosselaar

[This story contains spoilers form the season finale of Found.]

Peacock’s most successful series launch to date, Found, has come to an end with a revelation among the crisis management team at Mosely & Associates that leaves the relationships of the recovery specialists and the future of the agency hired to find missing persons hanging in the balance. Conversely, NBC has already announced what lies ahead for the procedural TV drama led by Shanola Hampton, having picked it up for a second and expanded season of 22 episodes, up from 13 in season one.

At its core, Found highlights the stories of missing persons from marginalized communities across race, gender and class. The premise is what drew Hampton to the lead role of Gabi Mosely in the series created by Nkechi Okoro Carroll. It’s also what expands the show’s impact beyond pure entertainment.

“Even more important than the positive response to the series is the conversations that have been happening in these underserved communities about the media attention on those who are missing,” Hampton tells The Hollywood Reporter. “Those communities haven’t been having these conversations and now it’s opening up the dialogue in a way that’s been really refreshing.”

Behind the scenes of her crime-solving mission, Gabi harbors a secret and unlikely captive of her own in her basement, Sir (Mark-Paul Gosselaar), her former English teacher who kidnapped her as a teenager years ago. Relying on his insights to solve her own cases, an enthralling and peculiar relationship evolves between the two, the development of which came easily for the co-stars.

“We don’t rehearse, we don’t run lines together — not because that was even intentional, it’s just the way it’s sort of set up,” Hampton explains in the conversation with The Hollywood Reporter below. “As a whole, for the entirety of the season, those basement days were my favorite days.”

In the same way Hampton can’t quite put a word to the dynamic between Gabi and Sir, Gabi’s associates, all of whom are wrestling with trauma of their own, are rendered speechless at their boss’ confession to kidnapping Sir in the season one finale. Here, Hampton talks about what that cliffhanger ending could mean for the next season of the series.

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What has it been like playing a character like Gabi Mosely?

I love a beautifully flawed character. What happens and what we’ve been sort of conditioned in many ways to see on our screens are heroes that are too heroic, too strong. You don’t see the human in them. You don’t see their battles. You don’t see their struggles. So to be able to have your hero also not always get it right and not always make the right decisions, is so refreshing and so real. Sure, maybe it’s not a man being in the basement, but there are different struggles that you still have in your life; you’re not without struggle and I love that we get to see that in Gabi. I love that this first season we started out seeing how strong she was and by the end of it she’s in the fetal position. That is some good creation by NK [Nkechi Okoro Carroll]. And even as a person of color, you have to be so strong, right? So what happens when you’re not? That’s what we get to see in Gabi Mosley and, how lovely is that?

Gabi’s harboring of Sir is perhaps the biggest manifestation of her internal struggles. How do you and Mark-Paul Gosselaar find all of that layered emotion and tension between your characters?

Well, first, I’m finding it very easy because I get to work with Mark-Paul. He is the most giving person and one of the best partners I’ve ever had besides Steve Howey [from Shameless], my best friend. He and I were able to find that thing that is just organic. We don’t rehearse, we don’t run lines together — not because that was even intentional, it’s just the way it’s sort of set up. We locked eyes in the pilot, and we just got what we were doing and then the relationship develops as it does throughout the season and you realize, I can trust this person. If I throw him something, if he throws me something, he’s going to pick it up, I’m going to pick it up. And with that came what you see and what I have described as that undefined chemistry, because it’s not sexual. It’s nothing that people have seen before and it’s the most fun for me as an actor. I’m a child of the theater and the closest I come to that is when I’m in those basement scenes with Mark-Paul. I have some great scenes that I love with Karan Oberoi, who plays Dhan in the later episodes. But as a whole, for the entirety of the season, those basement days were my favorite days.

Sir isn’t your typical predator, which makes the kidnapper-victim dynamic between Sir and Gabi equally hard to define. What’s your take on the role he sees himself filling in her life?

I know people talk about their shows and why it’s so different and why theirs is so unique but for real you have not seen a male and female dynamic in this way before. As a people, we’re so used to sexual chemistry and the obsession that Sir has with Gabi goes in so many directions that you can’t put your finger on it. At one point early on, you’re like, “Oh, okay, he has a thing against her father. He wants to be her father. But wait, nope; he doesn’t want to be her father.” And so you ask, how I would describe it? I don’t know! Weird, crazy, odd, what the hell is going on? The thing I do know is this, he doesn’t want to jump in the bed with her, but he would love a life with her. If he could have her every day and they could just solve cases that would be enough for him. If she could just love him because he didn’t get it as a child and just say, “I love you,” not in a sexual way, but just, “I love you.” To hear those would make his entire life. So whatever that means is what it is. And I don’t know what that means. And that is Found.

The chemistry between Gabi and Trent is much clearer and there’s a lot of anticipation for them crossing that romantic line. Do you think they should? Is there a world where Sir would even allow that?

I don’t think Gabi would allow that and here’s why. You know that song [by Erykah Badu] where she sings, “I guess I’ll see you next lifetime/No hard feelings.” That’s where Gabi is in life, and also something that we don’t get to see on television. Gabi can’t be in a relationship with anybody. She is so aware of people and their healing process, to bring someone into her chaos — as much as flesh would like to make that happen — it wouldn’t be fair to Trent. And the one thing she is is a protector of those she loves and cares about. So to have Trent come into her “cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs” world and she hasn’t even healed yet? That’s not fair. We need to do more of that in real life, right? Where it’s like, let me just focus on healing before I jump into this relationship, before I jump into bed with you. I feel like Gabi has the awareness that there’s a certain line I cannot cross so I’ll see you next lifetime. You probably need to go find somebody who didn’t lock a man up in her basement. That’ll be good for you.

Gabi’s relationship with her team overall is uncertain and we’re left with a bit of a cliffhanger at the end of season one regarding the future of the agency. What are your thoughts on how that might play out in the second season?

I think NK is a genius. Let me get that in there. When we were shooting that last scene, there was something written that I was saying, but it was always going to just be their reactions on-screen. And to see each individual process what she said and then leave Gabi that gutted is just so emptying. The room got emptied out; everything got emptied out.

So what I know NK does and does well is, and what I think makes her different from a lot of creators, is she never rushes to the healing. There’s never a rush to the fix. That’s why there’s so many cliffhangers in every single episode. And because NBC, in all their genius, has given us 22 episodes for season two to flesh out what that process looks like, my hope is that we, the audience, the characters, get to actually go through that process, because you don’t forgive your friend who lied to you on Monday on Thursday. We’re still going to be hashing it out.

The other part is the relationships can never be the same after that. There’s no going back to normal. It’s, what’s the new normal.?And I’m excited that we get to discover that all together in season two, and my character will have to deal as you’re supposed to. You do wrong, you admit you’re wrong, you deal with the consequences of your actions. But at the end of the day, all of these people love each other and there’s still this underlying non-judgment, even though you can’t help but judge, right? So what I’m most excited about is the process, not the end result.

Dhan (Karan Oberoi) is the only one Gabi confides in about kidnapping Sir initially. Will we get more backstory on their connection?

I think that’s another thing that you’ll see in season two, because you’ll have time to really get to know how all of these relationships came to be. I just love that best friend, brother, still mother-like Dhan and Gabi relationship. I find it to be one of the purest of pure, even with their fights and how they come back together. So that’s something that we’ll get to know and want to know more of in season two.

These types of dramas can go on for several years, even decades in some cases. Could you see yourself playing Gabi Mosely for years and years to come?

Well, I’m going to the 25th celebration of Law and Order: SVU and my plan is, is to say, “Mariska, you did it girl!” (Laughs) Here’s how I’ll answer that questions and here’s how I see my life and my career. If I can continue to entertain audiences and tell great stories and make people care, I am happy to be on this train until it falls off the tracks, jumps the track, and then we rebuild the track and get back on it, whatever that means, as long as the audience is still thirsty for it. I am so grateful for having 11 years on Shameless. I could have done it for 11 more. That’s the truth. When you work with great people and kind people and people who lead with love, like the Greg Berlatnis of the world, the NK Carrolls of the world, you don’t want to leave that and then go to some jerkoff. I have a “no jerk” policy. So yeah, I would ride this until the wheels pop off.

Any word on when filming will start for season two?

The first week of March, we’ll be back in production. We shoot in Atlanta, and I’ll be doing the mommy thing again where I fly home every weekend to Los Angeles to be with my kids. That’s probably the toughest part about what I’m doing, but I’m excited to get back to it.

Found is now streaming season one on Peacock.