The lax pacing and disjointed narrative structure of the central mystery of “Alert” are bound to make the viewers feel detached. In the last episode, Sidney comes closer to identifying the remains recovered from the lake, about which she is quite elated to think that those are of Keith’s. In that context, it will make sense that she is given more screen time and space to explore her past connection with the presumed death of Keith. Strangely, she is absent in this episode, and it doesn’t seem like the remains will be identified in the next episode either. Kemi, on the other hand, started her arc, which saw her getting drawn back to an incident in her past as she came across the person who had abducted her during her teenage years. Encroachment of personal entanglement within the professional sphere creates a tense situation between Mike, Nikki, and Jason as they continue to lock horns over their differing approaches.
Spoilers Ahead
What Happens In ‘Alert: Missing Persons Unit’ Episode 6?
Tim Wilkes and Amy Madani are a couple, and the episode begins by showing them hiking together in the mountains. Tim has brought Amy to their favorite spot planning to propose her. After the deed is done, quite inexplicably, it starts raining money, and suddenly a significant amount of money gets dropped in a stack.
We see Jason and Nikki having a conversation with a psychiatrist. In the last episode, after Keith overhears his parents talking about conducting his DNA test unknowingly, he starts shutting off his surroundings. To help their son recover from past trauma, Nikki and Jason have sought the help of a professional. Seeing their banter, the doctor offers Jason medical assistance, which he refuses. In the midst of their conversation, an MPU alert for Tim and Amy is set off. Their neighbor had made the call after becoming concerned about their prolonged absence. Searching the couple’s household, the team finds out that Tim and Amy are going through a financial crisis. After locating their impounded vehicle near a national park and going through Tim’s expenditure records, they speculate that the couple went hiking to celebrate their special moment at their favorite spot. Kemi narrows the search location down using the couple’s past photos. The team has to hurry as a snowstorm is brewing at the location already.
Meanwhile, the couple is shown to be ecstatic at the possibility of the sudden turn of fortune and takes almost 800k in cash from the stack. Amy still questions the possible source of the money, which Tim ignores. A person appears in front of them, asks Tim to return his money, and beats him. As he is about to shoot Tim to death, the assailant gets sniped by a third party, who is assisted by a team. Scared out of her wits, Amy runs away with Tim. After a while, the couple gets lost in the mountain forest, and Tim gradually succumbs to his injuries as the storm rages. The sniper collects the stack of money and notices some of it is missing. He contemplates hunting down the people responsible, in this case, Tim and Amy.
In MPU HQ, the search and rescue party is unwilling to engage in a rescue operation given the weather condition, and later the chief agrees to take Jason and Mike with her. Upon reaching the area and scouring a little bit, Jason and Mike find the body of the “sniped” person, whose body is sent back to HQ. It turns out the person was a freighter pilot who accidentally ditched the cargo (the stack of money) in the national forest, which goes through his flight route, and went to collect it later. Upon further investigation, Nikki gets to know that a certain Bill Winchester, a notorious hardened criminal, was the pilot’s employer (the sniper). As Jason and Mike are able to locate Amy in the wilderness, they find her guarding Tim’s body, visibly shocked. In the turbulent weather, Jason and Mike engage in a gunfight with Bill’s team, and Mike gets shot in the leg. Amy and Jason carry him to the nearest log cabin.
As Jason is treating Mike’s wounds, he notices that Mike has lost a significant amount of blood. Being a universal donor, Jason arranges a blood transfusion. Also, in order to assure him and help him have a quick recovery, he confesses that Nikki chose Mike over Jason when Jason tried to get back together after their break. Meanwhile, Bill and his men surround the cabin and threaten the people inside. Unbeknownst to them, Nikki has arrived and rigged their vehicles with explosives. After a tense standoff between Nikki and Bill, the latter’s team receive their money and leave the place—only to get part of the convoy busted by the vehicle explosion. The team returns to HQ, and Mike reaches a stable condition after surgery. A repentant Nikki proposes to Mike and wears the engagement ring given to her by Mike earlier. Jason willingly agrees to take part in the psychiatrist’s session.
In the meantime, Kemi has her own problems that need to be solved. Isaiah Denzomo, the person who abducted and sexually assaulted her in childhood, is dragged into custody by Kemi. She confronts him, but needless to say, there’s no confession and not even a shred of remorse in the perp. To Kemi’s displeasure, Nikki asks her to let Isaiah go after knowing that, as a Nigerian minister, he has been given diplomatic immunity. Kemi confides in Nikki how the incident during her childhood has traumatized her for life, as she recounts that her father basically sacrificed her to save the other women in their family and refused to pay ransom after her abduction (despite being rich) as he thought that could set a bad precedent. Later that day, Nikki encourages her to meet with her father at the party she was invited to. Kemi goes to the party but is dismissed by her mother at the entrance. She sees through the window that his father and Isaiah are in cahoots.
‘Keith befriends another abduction survivor named Oliver after attending a couple of therapy sessions hosted by the psychiatrist. He learns to socialize as Oliver starts teaching him how to drive, and “Keith” opens a social media account of his own. Just as he is in the middle of sending a reply video to Oliver, an anonymous contact taunts him by sending threatening texts that he will never be able to escape. Responding to the threat, Keith looks outside through the window and sees a lookout car moving away slowly.
Thoughts
All it took Mike was a near-fatal gunshot wound and getting stuck in turbulent weather to make Nikki realize that she has been wronging her partner for quite a long time. Jason’s relationship with June seems to have reached rock bottom, as there has not been any involvement on her part. The central story about the tragic fate of the couple is painful. Amy experiences the best and worst incidents of her life in the span of a few hours. The subplot regarding Kemi becomes more interesting in no time compared to the main one, and providing Kemi adequate space to have her own sphere and explore her past was a much-needed decision. Her past trauma is a reason for her joining the MPU—to save other people from a similar fate to hers. Why does her father remain on good terms with the person responsible for traumatising her, becomes the main question. Kemi’s spiritual nature is a result of her being treated to normalcy by shamanic rituals, and for better or worse, that constitutes a major part of her personality. Whoever this “Keith” is, as a teenager, he has gone through some unthinkable situations and abuses at the hands of his captor. After unwinding a bit, he is going to retreat back into his shell once again as his PTSD starts kicking in after reading the warning and seeing the car. He might not be who he claims to be, but the story of his captivity is true. We will have to wait for future episodes to see whether “Keith” comes clean to his family and informs them about her abductor.
