Everyone loves a good mystery.
FOX stumbled upon gold when Alert: Missing Persons Unit hit the network and became one of the year’s biggest and best new series.
Viewers can’t get enough of following Nikki, Jason, and the rest of the MPU as they search for missing persons in hopes of getting people to their loved ones in time or, as Nikki often says, “bring our babies back.”
Alert: Missing Persons Unit Season 1 took viewers on a ride, diving into the more procedural elements of the series with a bunch of different cases that ranged from action-packed and utterly wild to truly emotional.
The procedural element of the series definitely grounds it and makes it standard broadcast fare that appeals to a larger audience and demographic.
But many fans would probably agree that the biggest hook for the series was the puzzling mystery behind Nikki and Jay’s missing son, Keith, whether or not he was alive or dead, and if the boy they found was actually the son they lost many years ago.
After tuning into the action-packed Alert: MPU season finale, we got our answer regarding whether “Keith” was really who we thought.
And it ended tragically, confirming some viewers’ suspicions while giving us surprises along the way.
But there was some finality to the finale that made one wonder what could possibly be in store for Alert: Missing Persons Unit in Season 2.
Fortunately, we got the great news that one of FOX’s biggest successes will return for a sophomore season.
But now, one must wonder what a sophomore season would look like.
The procedural element of the series is solid, and there’s undoubtedly some intrigue in the ongoing love triangle between Nikki, Jason, and her fiance and partner, Mike.
But Alert’s best-known secret is that the Keith mystery was its most compelling element.
Should the Keith Mystery Continue In the Second Season?
Another mystery is essential to solve and theorize about as the season unfolds to keep viewers returning time and again.
And the question becomes: is there more story and plot the series can mine from the Keith mystery?
Frankly, I believe there is!
As Alert: MPU Season 1 spun a complicated narrative web that had us dissecting every aspect of Imposter Keith’s actions to determine if he was who he said he was; even when we got confirmation, certain things remained in the air.
What Happened to Keith?
Season two will require a new mystery, but part could connect to the old one.
We still don’t know for sure what happened to Keith. We only know what we’ve been told.
Sidney claims that Keith is dead and she was there when her brother drowned.
From a familial standpoint, it would be nice if the show spent more time delving into that during Alert: MPU Season 2. Sidney harbored one hell of a devastating secret for years, keeping it from her parents despite the closure it could’ve given them.
And while there’s no doubt that Nikki and Jason would love Sidney no matter what, there wasn’t enough reaction from them or exploration of how conflicted they would feel about their daughter keeping something like that from them for so long.
It also would be nice if the series tapped into the emotional and traumatic toll that drowning and Sidney’s truth had on her over the years.
One doesn’t witness something like that and keep that type of secret without it eating up at her in many ways. Most of Alert MPU touched on how everything affected “Keith” when he returned and the impact on Nikki and Jason.
But there’s another angle they could spend more time diving into regarding Sidney.
What Does Sidney Know About Keith? Will We Get More Sidney and Keith in Season 2?
She’s surprisingly well-adjusted and most unfazed by everything she’s gone through, and while not everyone wears their trauma on their sleeve, it would be nice and do wonders for her character development if we explored more sides of Sidney.
With “Keith” gone, there’s ample time to spend on Sidney whenever the series focuses more on the blended family element with Nikki and Jay.
Related: Grey’s Anatomy, One Chicago, & More Return to Set for Truncated Season
But it would also be nice if the series unsettled Sidney, who was so confident that her real brother perished in the water.
Even though she claimed that to be so and they found a body, it wasn’t Keith’s remains.
Is Keith Really Dead?
They’ll likely dredge the entire lake in search of that body, but a nice twist would be if any remains they did find weren’t Keith’s at all.
There are a few ways the series could explore this Keith angle and make it the secondary mystery throughout the sophomore season.
A role reversal between Sidney and her parents would be interesting, with Sidney suddenly coming to grips with the fact that her memories didn’t serve her well and her brother didn’t drown as she thought.
It would give Sidney something juicy regarding the storyline and introduce a new dynamic with both of her parents when they decide they cannot go through what they did with Lucas all over again.
By now, the two have made peace with the fact that Keith is dead, but there’s nothing like shaking things up by introducing the possibility that Keith isn’t deceased after all.
They have more information than they imagined about what happened the day Keith disappeared. Still, it would open up another avenue when the entire family would have to consider how Keith got out of the lake, where he would’ve gone, and who could’ve possibly taken him.
It doesn’t even have to be a matter of someone knowingly kidnapping Keith. If someone found his unconscious body somewhere, or they managed to rescue him sometime after Sidney fled the scene, then they may not have considered how taking this kid in would’ve been a problem.
We came into the series at a time in this family’s life when they had mostly given up on finding their son. The search had left a lasting impact on them and even influenced the line of work they got into and how they’ve led their lives.
Will They Find Keith In Alert: Missing Persons Unit Season 2?
We didn’t get to see that search process, and it would be something worth examining from a new angle now that the audience has gotten to know the characters.
Naturally, the circumstances around Keith’s disappearance, if that’s what they’d opt to go with, would change everything, from the timeline and location of his disappearance to everything else.
Related: Alert: Missing Persons Unit: Everything We Know About Season 2
It would be worth investigating again with so many different factors, and it’d be nice if we were in on that investigation and got to see it play out more.
Keith could very well still be out there.
Until there is a body, we’ll never know if he’s dead.
And that there is far too much intrigue and investment in the Keith mystery within this series to simply abandon it after one season, right?
Alert: MPU works best with an ongoing mystery that profoundly impacts the core characters, and it’s something worth considering.
There are many other things the sophomore season can explore, of course. We still have an unresolved mystery and story with Kemi’s past, her father, and the bigger things at play that have allowed evil men to prosper.
Naturally, there is so much to get into regarding how Mike and Nikki navigate their engagement, even with Jason taking a step back.
Extending the Keith mystery would introduce new challenges to the three, where it’s less about the sexual tension that still lingers between Nikki and Jason and more about how this ever-evolving family handles such a colossal blow and fresh uncertainty after everything they just endured.
It could bring Nikki and Mike closer together as he finally emerges as a member of the family rather than feeling like an outsider.
Or it could be something else that puts a chasm in his dynamic with both Nikki and Jason.
Alert: Missing Persons Unit Season 2 Can Introduce New Keith Theories
There’s still a lot of life left and gold to mine from the Keith mystery, so it’s certainly something they should consider pursuing in new and exciting ways in the sophomore season.
What good is introducing a mystery like that if you follow only follow through with it some of the way, right?
Over to you, Alert MPU Fanatics.
Should the Keith mystery continue or be squashed in favor of something else entirely? What are your Keith theories?
Do you think he’s really dead, or is he out there somewhere?
Would you like the series to explore finding him and bringing the real Keith into the fold? Hit the comments.
You can stream the entire first season of Alert: Missing Persons Unit on Hulu and check out our Alert: MPU Reviews!
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Jasmine Blu is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. She is an insomniac who spends late nights and early mornings binge-watching way too many shows and binge-drinking way too much tea. Her eclectic taste makes her an unpredictable viewer with an appreciation for complex characters, diverse representation, dynamic duos, compelling stories, and guilty pleasures. You’ll definitely find her obsessively live-tweeting, waxing poetic, and chatting up fellow Fanatics and readers. Follow her on X.
