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SPOILER ALERT! This post contains details from Season 2 of NBC‘s Found.
While Gabi Mosely finally managed to save Lacey from Sir’s clutches, their kidnapper is still on the loose in Thursday night’s upcoming episode of NBC’s Found.
Mark-Paul Gosselaar, who plays the meticulous and unsettling Sir, tells Deadline that the first few episodes of Season 2 were some of his hardest episodes to-date, as his character held Lacey hostage and, both in present day and in flashbacks, psychologically abused her.
“A lot of the times that, physically, it is taxing,” he said. “I remember telling my reps…this is pretty dark, but it made for some good television.”
But, even though Sir evaded authorities, we already know he won’t be leaving the DC area, because he’s far too attached to Gabi to ever truly flee — and, as Gosselaar points out, Gabi hasn’t fully detached herself from him either. After all, Gabi did agree to run away with him in order to save Lacey.
As for whether their inexplicable attachment means his days as a free man are numbered remains to be seen. Gosselaar spoke with Deadline about the beginning of Season 2 and what’s in store for Sir as he tries to get closer to Gabi.
DEADLINE: How are you feeling about how Season 2 is shaping up?
MARK-PAUL GOSSELAAR: We’re two away from finishing. It is a happy grind. I mean, I feel so fortunate to be able to do 22 [episodes] in the modern television landscape. It feels like a unicorn that we’re riding. [Last week’s episode] feels like a lifetime ago, but I’m very happy with how everything has gone so far. I think the audiences will appreciate what we have planned for the rest of the season.
DEADLINE: What was it like for you to be out in the wild, so to speak, instead of trapped in the basement for the majority of the season?
GOSSELAAR: Admittedly, the first three or four [episodes], it was really rough for me, physically, emotionally, playing the character and locking Lacey up, torturing a little girl. It was pretty dark, and a lot of the times when I play Sir, there’s so much anger behind his demeanor, and he carries himself with such rage. A lot of the times that, physically, it is taxing. Sometimes those first three [episodes] were pretty bad. I remember telling my reps…this is pretty dark, but it made for some good television.
DEADLINE: The scene where Lacey stabs Sir, and Gabi intervenes, is a pretty intense one, to your point.
GOSSELAAR: That was an intense scene. It was just everything leading up to that, because he just starts to spiral, and he starts becoming extremely OCD about things. But it was just the rage that I had to to express to Lacey that was pretty [hard], and then, in turn, to Bella, when she’s young, that is probably the part that I have a hard time sometimes doing, because it’s just so nasty.
DEADLINE: The part of Sir that I find so interesting is that he has an opportunity here to escape into oblivion, but he just cannot give up Gabi.
GOSSELAAR: Yeah, because he believes that they’re destined to be together. His end game is being with Gabrielle. And so there is no other option. He doesn’t see what everyone else sees. He only sees what he’s sees with Gabrielle. It’s a weird thing for a man who’s so intelligent to be in this situation, but yeah, for me, it’s exhausting.
Just…find someone else, you know? I mean, but again…I never played the character as if he was solving these cases for redemption. Like people said, ‘Oh, he’s redeeming himself.’ I’m like, ‘No, it’s just to have that connection.’ And we finally stated that.
DEADLINE: Well, and it seems like he really enjoys teaching Gabi…leading her to the answers, rather than giving them to her. We saw that in the last episode.
GOSSELAAR: I have a theory. Okay, I’m probably not popular in this theory, but that was pretty one-sided [perspective] of Sir. But what about Gabi? Does she have the answers and she’s not…?
DEADLINE: I actually agree with you. Gabi can’t stay away from Sir either.
GOSSELAAR: That’s how I feel. If you had this conversation with Shanola [Hampton], she’s like, ‘No, no, no. I don’t play it that way.’ And I’m like, ‘Well, whatever.’ There’s a quote from the Rolling Stones, ‘Sympathy for the Devil,’ where, I forget what it is. I’m gonna hack it, but…something about all cops are criminals and criminals are saints. That’s just the way it is. We’ll see later in the in the season, how hard it is for her to break that contact. In the last episode, Lacey stabs me. That could have been the end of it, and Gabrielle gets in front and stops it.
I said it to Shanola last season. I said, ‘You’re just as bad as Sir.’ She was like, ‘You’re crazy for saying that. That’s not true.’ Then she gave all these reasons. I was like, ‘Yeah, but I think you’re just as terrible as he is.’ I still think Sir is horrible. There’s no doubt about it. It’s just, she rides the fence of, how complicit is she?
DEADLINE: I find Sir and Gabi’s relationship so interesting. It’s hard to watch unfold, but like you said, it makes great television.
GOSSELAAR: Well, I don’t have horrible things with her, right? My scenes with her, generally, my Sir demeanor is very bright, because I’m getting what I want. So when she sees me, or I see her in any capacity, even with our backs turned to each other, there’s an effervescence about Sir, because he’s exactly where he’d want to be.
But it’s with everyone else. It’s with heavy boots. It’s with Lacey. It’s with whoever he comes into contact with that’s not Gabrielle. Those are the scenes that there’s just that bubbling disgust and rage and just negativity towards that person.
DEADLINE: I hear you directed an episode this season. How was that? What can you tell me about your episode?
GOSSELAAR: We have a really great cast and crew. I think that when you’re on the other side of the camera, you’re much more involved in a certain aspect. I wasn’t surprised, I just really fell in love that much more with our cast. Having to tackle some of the situations that we put them in, it’s a lot. I definitely tip my hat to them, and really thank them for giving me everything that was on the page and more. Then our crew as well, like we’re really ambitious show to shoot. I’ve directed some, and I would say by far, this is the most ambitious production. We don’t have a lot of time, 42 minutes, and we get these scripts from NK that are just epic, and they’re amazing. The fact that we can shoot it all and get it out there is a miracle every week. So I have a lot of respect for everything. I have more respect for the work that goes into it. It was great. It was fun to be on that side and boss Shanola around, tell her do better. Those are my notes. My directing style is, ‘Yeah, whatever, you just do better.’ [Laughs]. It was fun. I had a good time.
DEADLINE: How did the opportunity come about? Was it something you were already interested in, before it presented itself?
GOSSELAAR: I always want to on every show. There’s a precedent that most networks [and] studios have is that first season you don’t direct. I’ve just been unfortunate to be on shows that were canceled after one season. Then, Mixed-ish I was set to direct, but COVID…
DEADLINE: So, in last week’s episode, Sir tells Gabi she can’t trust Trent. Does he know something Gabi doesn’t?
GOSSELAAR: Yes. Here’s the thing. He’s not a liar. That’s a well documented thing. Sir will say that throughout this entire season, he has never lied, which, okay, I mean, if I go back, and I don’t know if I will catch him, I would believe that about him, that he’s not a liar…although, I’m not really sure about the killer part yet.
There will be more information about Trent. We have dragged that on for a lot, you’ll see in Episode 8, I believe. I think Episode 8 is where I present something. We’re in 20, and I’m still presenting that, so it dragged for a long time.
DEADLINE: Well, a slow burn can be good.
GOSSELAAR: This is a real slow burn, because there is no real rush with that character.
DEADLINE: So, what are you still waiting to learn about Sir?
GOSSELAAR: I’d obviously I’d like to know what the end game will be like. Am I sticking around for five seasons? And if so, how? Because I think initially, Sir was conceptualized as only being a two year kind of thing. That’s what I was told. When you read the first script, it seemed that that was the case. But this is all in NK’s head. There is something that happens this season that I think will be a huge payoff for sticking around. There is a very big payoff on the Sir end. There’s a very big payoff on other characters as well. There was something that, when I read it, I was like, ‘Oh, that’s pretty cool.’
