[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Alert: Missing Persons Unit Season 2 Episode 2 “Benjamin Franklin.”]
After the latest Alert: Missing Persons Unit episode, we have so many questions about Nikki’s (Dania Ramirez) history with Irish mob boss Charlie (Ian Tracey).
The two cross paths due to the investigation, but it’s not the first time. Rather, after she busted him for drugs and flipped him to be her CI (confidential informant), he treated her like a little sister when her marriage (to Scott Caan‘s Jason) fell apart and fed her tips while she was climbing the ranks. His intel led to a lot of arrests. Now, she realizes he killed his own dad and let someone else take the blame. Though Nikki doesn’t plan to do anything with it, she does use it as leverage to ensure the safety of a couple of people (the victim of the episode and his daughter). She declines Charlie’s offer for a drink at the end of the episode. It’s different now, she explains. She’s getting married (to Ryan Broussard‘s Mike), and he’s rocked the boat enough.
TV Insider spoke with showrunner Carla Kettner to get the scoop on Nikki and Charlie as well as what’s coming up in the rest of Season 2.
You introduced this new element to Nikki with her past with Charlie. What excites you about what you’re able to do with her this season as a result?
Carla Kettner: What really excites me about the introduction of Charlie is we get to know more of Nikki’s backstory and how she got to where she is, and her relationship with Charlie as we introduce it in Episode 2 is a very complicated one. They clearly have a bond, but on the other hand, Nikki knows how dangerous Charlie is. Charlie will return later in the season, and I like that we begin, through him, to understand the challenges and choices Nikki made as she moved up to the ladder. I think he’s a great character. We all loved his introduction, and I’m hoping the audience will want to see more.
He mentions that he treated her like a little sister when her marriage was falling apart, and then they have that conversation at the end. There’s this tension between them that kind of seems undefined?
I don’t know if I would use the word undefined. I think I would use the word intriguing. Charlie is someone who meant a lot to Nikki, both career-wise and personally. When she was in her darkest place, Charlie was there to help dig her out. So they really are frenemies, and we’re going to understand more of that dynamic later in the season.
Their history and then anything in the present is something that Mike seems to be struggling with. How is that going to affect Nikki and Mike’s relationship?
There are going to be a lot of challenges to Nikki and Mike’s relationship. Mike is much more of a by-the-books kind of cop, and Nikki has not been entirely transparent with him about her past, and Charlie, I think, is emblematic of that. Mike worries about Nikki, and seeing this relationship she has with an Irish mob boss is frightening to him. So it’s always going to be a struggle for Mike that, as Nikki’s love, he comes naturally from a protective place, but as a cop who reports to Nikki, you sort of have to follow the boss’ orders. So that’s going to be something that Mike will have to juggle through the season.
Then you introduced the new forensic scientist assigned by Braun (Gil Bellows). Should we be wondering if he’s trying to spy on the team with this new addition?
No, he is not trying to spy on the team. What he’s doing is giving them another challenge, shall we say. Braun knows that Helen, played wonderfully by Diana Bang—
So fun.
Right? She’s so much fun. He knows that Helen has been a challenge at her prior work assignments. She may be fantastic, but she’s an acquired taste. So it’s a bit of a test for MPU, just in terms of, “Okay, you guys are so great. How are you going to manage this new girl?” And we will continue to have loads of fun with Helen as we move deeper into the season.
Katie Yu/FOX
What’s coming up with Kemi (Adeola Role) this season, especially anything with her father?
Oh, we have the most gorgeous arc for Kemi this season. In Episode 4, our team investigates a missing young queer runaway. Kemi will recognize in this girl someone who, like Kemi, did not have the love and support of her parents. They’re going to bond, and that’s going to be an arc throughout the season, Kemi’s relationship with this girl who really has no one in her life to care about her, to show her love, and she’s going to eventually find that in Kemi. She’ll bring out Kemi’s mothering instincts.
To me, our headline is the future and moving forward, not looking back to the events of Season 1. I want the audience to be able to jump in at Season 2 and not feel a bogged down with trying to remember the relationships from Season 1. So in that spirit of being forward looking, we are playing out Kemi’s tragic childhood through her relationship with this young queer girl and are really, really loving what that brings out in Adeola. It’s a beautiful relationship. I cannot wait for people to see Episode 4 because I think they’re going to love it.
Oh, I can’t wait to see it. It sounds so good,
Juicy and good and touching. Even though I’m so familiar with that episode, I cried at the end of it when I watched the latest cut. I wept. [It’s] really moving and exploring a subject matter that matters.
Alert: Missing Persons Unit, Tuesdays, 9/8c, Fox