Alert: Missing Persons Unit Season 1 Episode 4 Review: Andy
It's only a matter of time before Nikki and Jason somehow end up together again, right?
Despite the teams splitting up, with Nikki and Kemi working together and Mike and Jason teaming up on Alert: Missing Persons Unit Season 1 Episode 4, Nikki and Jason continue to have these moments that suggest an open door for them.
And Mike and June are often left on their own to navigate issues with their respective partners, seemingly on their own.
It's hard not to be Team Mike during this installment. He's crazy about Nikki and wants to take the necessary steps forward in their relationship.
He's ready to become a family with Nikki and the kids, and while he clearly has issues with Jason, he doesn't let it interfere with working with him, and he's mostly come to accept it.
That said, it doesn't feel like he's compatible with Nikki for a few reasons. Even if we exclude the Jason component of matters, other issues that felt glaring during this installment come into play.
Mike is a young guy, younger than Nikki, and with that comes a few questions about what he expects out of their future together.
He doesn't strike me as the guy who can successfully pull off being a stepfather to two average teenagers, let alone the complex ones here. Would there come a point where he would want kids of his own, and if so, what would that entail when Nikki is all over the place sometimes?
But some of their fundamental differences could be an issue for them as a pairing. With Jason's presence in the MPU, we get the impression that he exacerbates Nikki's penchant for rule-bending, going rogue, impulsiveness, and other such things.
If Nikki's relationship with Jason doesn't kill her and Mike's relationship, trying to work together while balancing out their relationship and butting heads on cases like this one will.
Mike has the daunting task of reining in both Nikki and Jason, no matter which one of them he's paired with at the time. It's a necessary balance for functioning as a team, but it's also exhausting and is sure to have drawbacks.
He was right about Andy's case. Part of the reason it took them so long to find the kid was because Pat wasn't honest with them about everything.
She lied about the ransom, and they had to find out via other means. She didn't tell her husband the truth either. Pat disappeared mid-investigation.
And then they discovered that she kidnapped Andy long ago, changed her name, and had a whole new life with someone else's child.
Getting Andy back was imperative, and Vicky was not a good woman or in a healthy mindset. She never would've gotten her child back.
Grief is the price we pay for love.
Jason
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But as great and happy as Andy grew up with Pat and her husband, there's no way she should've gone on without any consequence.
Who's to say she wouldn't have gotten Andy anyway if she had been fostering him before? It felt rather twisted that Nikki "played God," as Mike implied, and decided to give Andy back to Pat and not mention anything about her abducting him.
It's based on her impression of Pat as a good mother and what she knew of Vicky as a troubled one.
Perhaps she got too personally invested in this case by applying her situation with Keith to it, and that's why she thought it was okay to cosign Pat's initial decision and cover for her.
It wasn't her decision to make in the least, even if she thought it was in Andy's best interest. Mike was right about the whole situation, and it sucked that everyone was dismissive of his desire to follow protocol.
Kemi: There's a darkness in her eyes. I believe she's haunted.
Nikki: She's been having trouble processing Keith's return; let's just say she's a tad overwhelmed.
Kemi: Do you mind if I pray with her?
Nikki: I'll leave that up to her if she's open to it. You know you have my blessing.
Nikki didn't even bat an eye about her decision. She had people like Jason validating her, adding more tension between her and Mike.
And she didn't once consider his input or why he felt as she did. She was so stubborn and unapologetic about her choice, and she didn't seem the least bit fazed that he needed time and wanted to refrain from sharing the news about their engagement that it was hard to root for them as a couple.
By now, it's abundantly clear that Mike cares more about Nikki than she does him, and the imbalance in their relationship on a personal and professional level is hard to watch during moments like this.
The guy is destined for heartache and heartbreak.
Nikki was back to seeming more invested in this case, which was cool. And her reckless game was strong, particularly when she hurled herself over a bridge to save Andy.
The case had shades of the Kamiyah Mobley abduction. That incident involved a nurse who stole a baby from a hospital and raised her for nearly 20 years. And that story also consisted of the abducted girl choosing her abductor over her birth parents.
In this instance, they tried to make their case to garner sympathy for Pat after we learned what she did and to justify her actions by making Vicky the poster child for unfit mothers.
In this hamfisted case, Vicky didn't have anything going for her. She was a woman who battled addiction, which was very much used to demonize her, which was an archaic take than the norm these days.
Sidney: Every time I close my eyes, I can still see him. His face, the way he looked at me, the surprise, the terror.
Sid's Friend: Sid, we were 12.
Sidney: Yes, but you didn't have to look your parents in the eye every morning and lie to them, watching their hope fade day by day, hoping they'd see Keith again, and watching their marriage fall apart because of the horrible thing you did. And then this guy shows up looking like Keith and acting like Keith, for God knows what reason, and it just took so long to move on, and now it feels like it's happening all over again, and since I didn't say anything, then, I can't say anything now, and I'm just trapped.
She was why Andy was a premature baby in the NICU, presumably because of her drug and alcohol use. She abandoned him in the hospital most of the time before she temporarily got herself together and took him home.
She lost Andy repeatedly because of her addiction issues, and the last straw consisted of her leaving him a hot car she was operating while high.
We then watched her kill her co-kidnapper, put a gun to Andy's head, and then jump off a bridge with him.
Everything was designed for us to loathe this woman with no semblance of nuance. Instead, that nuance was reserved for Pat, in some ways, justifying her own actions.
Unfortunately, Pat wasn't an easy character to root for either, so by the end, you wanted better for Andy all around. And that was another reason Nikkie's choice to "play God" didn't have the appeal it probably should have.
Via the case, it prompted Jason to reach out to June and apologize again, attempting to make amends and reunite. But, much like Nikki and Mike, June keeps coming across as an afterthought to Jason.
At no point, since their separation has it felt like Jason missed her or the next phase in their life.
Someone else had to get him to apologize to her again, and he did it to get assistance with his case.
No wonder June decided to get a sperm donor and have a child alone without Jason. I can't say I'd take a risk with him either when he doesn't seem invested.
On the homefront, we got some more information supporting why Sidney has reservations about Keith, but it's also still cryptic.
It sounds like Sidney, her friend, and Keith sneaked out of the house and went swimming or something when they were 12. And she watched Keith drown, but she never told her parents the truth.
Because she believes Keith is dead since she feels she watched him die with her own eyes, she suspects that Keith is some impostor who chooses to take over her dead brother's life for unknown reasons.
Knowing what Sidney feels she does, you can understand why she's been behaving as she has. And her fears and trepidation over this stranger in her house are valid.
Her behavior is enough to trigger whatever abilities Kemi has and prompt more rituals with eggs, painted rocks, and limes.
You guys, there is nothing else one can say about this Kemi situation without becoming redundant. Unfortunately, it's still pretty cringe-worthy.
Nevertheless, Sidney has opened up a new can of worms now that she's called in a dead body in the lake. It can go several ways.
Keith: You didn't believe me?
Nikki: Oh, you heard us talking.
Keith: I can't believe you thought I was an impostor.
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If they respond to the situation, they'll search for a body and not find anything. They could also find something, but it won't be the match she expects.
She's operating under the assumption that Keith somehow faked the DNA results, but it still hasn't crossed her mind yet that Keith could've had a twin brother out there the whole time, and that's who is with their family now.
Impostor Keith is taking Sidney's attitude in stride; surprisingly, he did well on his first day of school. Does that mean Sidney was in summer school when he wrote her book report?
He could anticipate and accept that Sidney would have her reservations and treat him a certain way, but he lost it when he overheard that Nikki had him tested.
Nikki's efforts to appease one kid further alienated the other.
Now, she'll probably go out of her way to make amends to him, and she'll let her guard down further and not be open to whatever nefarious or mysterious things are around the corner pertaining to Keith's resurgence.
Keith has kept his cool rather well since he arrived, but now that he knows that the suspicions went beyond Sidney, how will it affect his behavior?
Over to you, Alert Fanatics.
What are your thoughts on Nikki and Mike's relationship and Jason and June's future together? Were you surprised by Sidney's revelation about Keith drowning? Sound off below.
You can watch Alert: Missing Persons Unit online here via TV Fanatic.