Diksha Sundriyal
Fox’s ‘Alert: Missing Persons Unit’ returns for the third season with a fast-paced episode that sets the tone for the rest of the season. The story picks up a short while after the events of Season 2. Nikki and Mike are still reeling from their wedding bliss and are fresh back from their honeymoon. Meanwhile, Wayne receives the news that she is now a free woman, which opens all sorts of avenues for her, but most importantly for her relationship with Jason. While the characters catch up with each other, five girls go missing, and it turns out that the connection to this case might be closer than the team imagined. SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Girls’ Rowing Team of the Gladwyn College Vanishes Into Thin Air
The episode begins with five girls on their morning practice, with their coach in tow on a different boat. It is a slow morning as the rowers— Genevieve, Amelia, Tally & Kate— don’t seem to have the energy for it so early in the day, while Bella, the coxswain, is trying to motivate them but is clearly failing. Their motivation dips even further when their coach’s boat suddenly stops due to a failed motor. They are told to row forward and meet at the dock, but they never arrive. In the middle of the river, their boat hits something, following which one of the girls falls into the water, and all five of them disappear.
When the girls don’t arrive at the dock, the coach immediately reports it to the cops, and the case comes directly to the MPU. Jason and Mike are immediately on the scene. They are told that perhaps the boat hit a stone, but Jason calls it an unlikely possibility in thirty feet of water. He notes that something was placed under the water by someone to upturn the boat, which means that this was no accident and someone kidnapped the girls. Sure enough, we later see a shot of the girls being herded through a forest into a secluded cabin. When one of them tries to run, she is shot, and her bloodied shirt is later found in the water.
The first people to be suspected of this foul play is the rival team, but it soon becomes clear that they wouldn’t do anything criminal to win the race. So, the team starts looking into the girls and their history. For the rowers, things seem pretty straightforward. But the cox, Bella, is the odd one out. A quick investigation into her reveals that she had a regular visitor who would show up at her dorm room every Sunday. Other girls believe that she sees a much older man who is also paying for her tuition and other stuff. After going through the CCTV footage from the college, it turns out that the said sugar daddy is someone that Nikki knows.
Charlie McGannon’s Connection to Bella Makes the Case More Complicated
The CCTV footage shows Charlie McGannon, the Irish mob boss, who visits Bella every Sunday. Nikki decides to talk with him directly, and he reveals that he is being blackmailed. The kidnappers have already reached out to him for ransom and have asked that the money be transferred through Bitcoin in a way that will make it untraceable. When Nikki wonders why he is going to such lengths to free his young sidepiece, he reveals that Bella is not his girlfriend but his daughter, whom he had out of an affair. This adds more gravity to the situation, and he is ready to do whatever it takes.
With Charlie and the Irish mob in the picture, the most likely suspects become the Polish mob, with whom Charlie has been in the crosshairs for a very long time. Evidence suggests that one of the Poles, named Caz, has something to do with the kidnapping. However, when Jason and Mike interrogate them, they discover that Caz left them a while back and is now freelancing. This leaves only one lead for them. They need to trace the Bitcoin. Meanwhile, they also look into other possibilities about the people who may have a beef with Charlie, and a very unlikely suspect comes to the fore.
It turns out that Charlie’s accountant, Renee Conway, is a disgruntled employee. Her husband, Sean, was an abusive man, and she asked Charlie to help her. He, however, turned a blind eye to her problems, so eventually, she found a way to take care of him herself. She hired Caz to kill her husband, but that was not enough. Having worked with Charlie for about two decades, she had hoped that he would value her loyalty and take care of her like she took care of him. But right when she needed him the most, he refused to help her. So, she decides to hit him where it hurts and has Bella, along with the rest of the team, kidnapped. This fact is also supported by Wayne, who finds a way to track the Bitcoin, which Charlie has already transferred to her.
Bella and Her Team Prove Instrumental in Solving the Case
While the MPU knows that Caz and Renee are behind the kidnapping, they need to figure out where the girls are being held because Charlie has already paid the ransom. This leaves no reason for the kidnappers to keep the girls alive, which means the MPU doesn’t have much time to solve the case. Fortunately, the girls come to the rescue. When their boat was sabotaged, and they were kidnapped, Bella threw the tracker into the water. Later, it is found by the cops, and through the timing recorded in the tracker, they are able to narrow down the range within which the girls might be held currently.
Because Renee works for Charlie, it makes sense that she would be aware of his hideouts and might use one of them. This turns out to be true as Charlie recognizes a location within the range. Mike and Jason are sent to check it out, and they confirm that the girls are indeed being held there. As Bella realizes that help has arrived, she tries to distract her kidnappers, who realize what is happening. While the rest of the girls are left behind, Caz gets a hold of Bella and tries to take her away, but Jason stops him. Eventually, Bella hits him in the head and saves herself. With the girls back home, everyone rejoices, including Charlie, who decides to be more involved in his daughter’s life.
He also shows an interest in Wayne, considering that her skills could come in handy for him, though Nikki advises him to focus on his daughter first. A few days later, Jason and Mike pay Charlie a visit, revealing that they cannot find Renee as she seems to have disappeared without a trace. Flashbacks reveal that Charlie had her killed and buried in a deep grave. At the same time, he also had Caz and his accomplices killed in prison while they were awaiting trial for the kidnapping. He has had his revenge by killing each and every kidnapper, and both Jason and Mike are aware of this but can’t prove it. So, they leave him with the warning to stay away from Nikki, as people close to him seem to get hurt pretty often. He agrees to it, but there’s a good chance we have seen the last of him.
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