Saagar Kote
In Lifetime’s ‘Taken in Plain Sight,’ a mother named Abby Anderson deals with the aftermath of her daughter Zooey’s kidnapping at an isolated rest area. Without any clues about the whereabouts of her kid, she obsessively tries to get to the truth. Her husband Mitch grows worried about the risky actions taken by his wife. While the cops try to find more about the case and the media gets involved, there seem to be no clues anywhere regarding the fate of the child.
Six months into the incident, when it looks like the mother has reached a dead end in the case of her daughter, she comes across happenings that could change the situation and provide her with some hope. As she steps away from her house and temporarily checks into a motel to investigate the case, she crosses paths with a strange man, who seems to be keeping secrets. As the narrative reaches its concluding phase, Abby finds herself in the middle of a mystery that could decide the fate of her young daughter. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Taken in Plain Sight Plot Synopsis
Zooey Anderson and her mom, Abby Anderson, stop by an isolated and empty building called Pine Lake Rest Area on the way home. When Abby comes back to the main area after using the restroom, she finds her daughter missing. Mitch Anderson, Zooey’s dad and Abby’s husband, arrives to comfort his wife, and the police start to investigate the case. Media outlets start to report on the case, but there’s no clue about the missing girl for six months. With no answers about their daughter, the couple is pushed into a difficult emotional zone. Mitch tries to convince his wife to take therapy to deal with their minds. In the past, Detective Doyle had tried to find any details about Zooey but was unable to do so.
Abby keeps a map handy in the car and continues to look for clues near rest areas, possibly hoping to spot adults targeting children. She sees a missing poster for a girl named Emma Gibbons, who is reported to have gone missing just like Zooey, from a rest area. Mitch and Abby attend a group therapy session with fellow parents to deal with their grief. Dolores, an older woman, meets the couple and tells them that her daughter went missing from a gas station two decades ago. She tries to console the couple and tells them not to obsess over the case, as it may ruin their lives. Dolores hands over her number to Abby. Abby continues to visit rest areas in search of clues, and during one of her routine visits, she is stalked and later chased in a car by an unknown driver, who damages her vehicle.
On the pretext of going to a photoshoot, Abby checks into a motel and uses it as a kind of base to investigate her daughter’s disappearance. In the parking lot of the Pine Lake Rest Area, she spots a man spying on a happy family. A day or two later, Abby breaks into his house when he is away, and spots maps on his dining table. At the gas station, the strange man comes face-to-face with Abby and tells her that he spotted her in one of his property cameras. When asked about his daily presence in the Pine Lake Rest Area, he warns her not to interfere in his life. Abby finally returns home, where Mitch tries to reason his wife out of her obsession, but she says she has evidence that could save their daughter and possibly implicate the strange man for his crime. Mitch agrees to help his wife with her mission, after which he accompanies her to Detective Doyle.
The couple presents some clues to the cop and asks if he can obtain a search warrant for the stranger’s place. Detective Doyle obtains a search warrant for the stranger’s place and reveals that his name is Douglas Leto. He takes his police partner and heads to Leto’s cabin. However, Leto shows up at Abby’s place and shows her a diagram of a map. When the mother asks if her daughter is still alive, Leto tells her to follow the map and follow some rules that he sets. He tells her not to tell anyone, including her husband and the cops. Leto orders Abby to leave the phone and follow the paper map right away. Before leaving, Abby secretly points the paper at her doorbell camera. Leto says everything in his life has been taken away, and forces Abby to go to the destination shown on the map.
Taken in Plain Sight Ending: Who Kidnapped Zooey? Why?
Doyle and his partner reach Leto’s place to investigate the case and hopefully find Zooey. The detective finds the room of dolls, and his police partner calls him outside near the garage. They spot what appear to be burial sites. Mitch, unaware of his wife’s predicament, tries to call her, but spots the paper map on his doorbell camera phone app. He deduces that his wife is probably in trouble and drives towards the route. Abby, in a state of panic, drives towards the destination on the paper map, without any clue about her or her daughter’s fate. As Doyle and his partner continue to dig the burial site-like ground, Leto suddenly appears, telling them that they won’t find anything of interest in the ground. He calls it a pet cemetery and claims that he never hurt the girls and that they are in a better place now. Doyle gets a call from Mitch, who tells him about the map and Abby’s ordeal.
Leto says the universe will take the mother exactly where she needs to be. Abby drives to the end of the destination and arrives at an isolated cabin. There, she spots a car, which looks similar to the one that chased and dented her car in the past. She sees Emma, the other missing girl, near the cabin. The little girl says that the “Auntie” is really nice and she saves her and the others from the “Bad Man.” Abby spots a tracker in Emma’s foot, and then is overwhelmed when she sees Zooey running towards her. The mother and daughter exchange a deep embrace, after which Zooey tells her that she tried to run and escape, but couldn’t do so. She apologizes to her mother for the ordeal, following which the mother heads towards the car with the two kidnapped children.
Just as they are about to leave, the tires are shot. It is shockingly revealed that Dolores is the one behind the gun and Leto’s accomplice in the kidnapping of the children. Dolores chases the three people trying to escape. Meanwhile, Mitch and Doyle desperately try to reach the cabin. Dolores walks into the garage with the gun and says that she tried to warn Abby about the consequences of looking for her daughter. Even as Abby hides behind a wooden structure, the older woman narrates her story. Abby deduces that Douglas Leto was the kid who was kidnapped two decades ago, and that Dolores was the one who did it. Dolores says she can take care of Abby, and also says that she saved Leto in the past. Flashback sequences reveal that Dolores stalked Leto as a kid in the past and kidnapped him when he was all by himself in the yard. She says Leto’s parents were abusive and that she saved him from them.
However, Leto grew up to believe that others, too, had to be “saved” just like him. This is why he and Dolores planned the kidnappings together. Leto’s obsession with dolls stems from the fact that he felt protective of children. However, when he decided to move out of Dolores’ house, she couldn’t bear to be away from him. She reveals that she used his urges to her advantage and motivated him to save others. When Zooey spoke about wanting a sister, Dolores and Leto kidnapped Emma to become Zooey’s sister. The old woman also reveals that she stalked Abby during the therapy sessions and also dented her car as a warning. Thus, Zooey and Emma are kidnapped due to Dolores’ twisted sense of “saving” kids, which is also a sentiment echoed by Leto, due to his brainwashed childhood.
Are Zoey and Emma Alive? Who Saves Them?
In the garage, Abby tells the girls to hide at any cost, and they run out of the garage through a hole in the wooden wall. When the foot trackers reveal that the kids have run away, Dolores begins to panic and starts to get aggressive. Using this as a distraction, the kidnapped girls run as far away as they can from the presence of Dolores. The angered old woman starts to feel that she has lost everything, following which she tries to find and shoot Abby for ruining her plan. Abby tries to escape despite the threat posed by the old woman. It is at this moment that the younger mother comes up with a clever plan to distract the old lady. She throws an object in the direction away from her place of hiding, which makes Dolores look the other way.
Using this distraction, she rushes towards the old lady and hits her from behind with something heavy. With the kidnapping mastermind temporarily incapacitated, the younger mother runs outside the garage to ensure that her daughter and Emma are safe. The kidnapped girls run towards Abby, and she hugs both of them, breathing a sigh of relief after more than six months of doubt. As the mother hugs the girls, Detective Doyle and team arrive on the spot, find the three unharmed and liberated from the clutches of a dangerous person. Mitch arrives on time and gets overwhelmed when he sees his daughter and wife safe. This is something that he never thought would be possible.
Zooey rushes towards her dad and gives him a hug. Emma is promised by Doyle that she will be safe, and that he will inform her parents to pick her up. Doyle expresses happiness seeing the Anderson family reunite. Thus, the girls are saved due to the act of courage shown by Abby, without which it would probably have been impossible to get the kids out of the ordeal safely. The narrative offers a poignant commentary on the lengths that mothers go to in order to protect their children.
Will Dolores and Leto Face Justice? Why Does Leto Faintly Smile in the Police Car?
After the altercation between Dolores and Abby in the garage, the cops arrest the former and take her away. It is revealed that Leto has also been arrested by Doyle’s partner and is being transported in a car. The arrest of the two criminals happens at a critical point of the story as it brings an end to their twisted relationship. Though the narrative ends with the two criminals being arrested by the cops, it can be presumed that they will face a trial. It can be presumed that the two of them will be punished according to the level of their crimes, as there is plenty of evidence to prove their involvement. Despite not killing anyone, Dolores and Leto will face a harsh sentence, which is even more relevant in the case of the former. Dolores kidnapped Leto when he was young and corrupted his mind, filling it with violent thoughts.
This makes her the mastermind of the crime and also guilty of manipulating the mind of a young boy. Despite his role in the kidnappings, it can be presumed that the court will consider the mental health of Leto and show some level of mercy. A strange moment towards the end of the narrative occurs when Leto finds out that Dolores has been arrested, after which he gives a faint smile. This particular moment highlights the complexity of the young man’s character arc. He is most likely smiling due to the fact that the person who ruined his childhood has finally been caught.
Despite his mental health issues, he recognizes the reality that Dolores controlled every aspect of his childhood and kept him away from his real parents. Though he colluded with the old lady to kidnap the girls, it can be presumed that he secretly wanted Dolores to be punished for what she did to him, which is why he led Abby to the cabin in the first place. He could also be smiling due to the fact that he has finally been liberated from Dolores and can finally live life as a different man. Thus, the motivations of both Dolores and Leto are a combination of complex mental phenomena.
Read More: Are Douglas Leto and Dolores Based on Real People?
