The seventh episode of “Alert” redeems its season-long drabness somewhat, as, in the final moment, Sidney shares the truth regarding the mystery of Keith’s disappearance with her parents. In the previous episode, which was pretty eventful, we saw “Keith” befriending another abduction victim named Oliver at a therapy session, and they bond over their shared experience as Oliver teaches him to drive. The nerdy, introverted C begins a new chapter of his monotonous, eccentric life as he and the medical examiner Rachel almost express feelings for each other. Nikki and Mike make amends, and she lets Keith and Sidney know about their engagement. Kemi is distraught after discovering that her father is in cahoots with the person who abducted and sexually abused her years ago. Just as Keith decides to open up and get on social media, he is taunted by an anonymous individual who seems to be on the lookout for him right outside their house. In this episode of “Shannon,” most of these situations are addressed, as the episode imitates a certain classic pulp thriller trope.
Spoilers Ahead
What Happens In ‘Alert: Missing Persons Unit’ Episode 7?
A woman is seen practicing violin inside a studio when a man storms in. It seems like they know each other personally as the intruder starts threatening the woman, saying that she can’t walk out on him. The studio owner gets alarmed and checks on them, which distracts the man. The woman rushes outside after injuring the intruder, and the studio owner misdirects him elsewhere.
The next scene opens at the breakfast scene at Nikki’s household, and we see Jason joining the rest of his family by entering the house using a hide-a-key. Sidney doesn’t leave a chance to poke fun at “Keith” for impersonating her brother and is bitter about the whole situation. This grows worse as “Keith” can’t remember the childhood activity of assembling their Primo car with his father, Jason. Keeping the tradition of morning conversations getting interrupted by the MPU alert, Nikki and Jason are informed about the missing person being the aforementioned woman, Shannon Steerman.
The team received the alert after being informed by Sharon’s adoptive mother, Linda, who received a voicemail from Sharon. It is revealed that Sharon had a pretty rough childhood, as she was abused by Linda’s ex and received only neglect from her addict adoptive mother. Sharon’s birth parents are not identified, and Linda also states that Sharon found solace in music. Jason searches through her house and finds a lottery ticket, tracing which they locate her workplace and the studio she plays in. The studio owner provides them with the recording of Sharon and the intruder arguing, and Kemi runs the voice through a speech-recognition algorithm to identify the intruder as Rory Stanz. Kemi also reveals that Rory Stanz was killed two days ago, just an hour after having an argument with Sharon. The team suspects Sharon, but Jason wonders why she left her essentials at home if she indeed is on the run. Kemi reveals that the MPU alert has found a match.
The team finds Shannon auditioning for the first chair violinist at the orchestra, but it turns out she is Shannon’s twin sister, Georgia LaCava. Unlike Shannon, who had to grow up in poverty, abuse, and neglect, Georgia grew up in affluence and had loving parents. She states that she found out about Shannon only months ago and firmly expresses her belief that she knows someone like Sharon couldn’t commit murder like the team is suspecting. Jason unlocks Shannon’s phone using Georgia’s face profile (a flaw in smartphone id detection), and after going through her texts and emails, they find out Shannon’s financial and mental conditions grew miserable in the last couple of months. They also get substantial evidence against her as the hair strand found in Rory Stanz’s corpse turns out to be Shannon’s. At last, after finding a suicide note in one of Sharon’s emails, they speculate that the argument between Rory and her led to her accidentally killing Rory and later finding no way out of her already worsened situation—Sharon had committed suicide.
Knowing that the music park nearby used to be Shannon’s favorite place to hang out, a search party is issued, and Shannon’s corpse is found inside a ravine. During the body identification process by next of kin, Georgia gets into a heated argument with Linda, blaming the adoptive mother’s carelessness for her sister’s death. As they leave, C and Rachel find out that there are two different sets of wounds on Sharon’s corpse, which reveal that she was murdered. Mike finds out a transaction took place between Rory Stanz’s account and Georgia’s.
Jason and Nikki go to Georgia’s home for questioning, which they find to be locked, and locate excessive amounts of bleach and personal belongings in the trashcan outside. The suspicious findings warrant their covertly entering Georgia’s place, and a crime scene is located as splashes of blood wiped from the floor are detected by the forensics. Nikki suspects that they were looking at the case from the wrong angle and that it might be Shannon who got her sister, Georgia, killed and is now impersonating her. A past medical history doesn’t match with the corpse autopsy, further confirming her suspicion that the dead sister is Georgia, not Shannon.
Shannon, who is impersonating Georgia, auditions for the first chair violinist role and gets selected. Elated, she gets intimate with Georgia’s fiancée, who reckons something is wrong (finally). As he rushes out of their car, Shannon chases him with the intention of running him over and is stopped in her tracks by the MPU. During incarceration, Shannon laments the neglect of the foster care that essentially wrote different destinies for each of the sisters, and she never got the life her sister got even though she deserved it too. She had stalked Georgia, and upon learning that she was harassed by Rory, with whom she was having an affair, Shannon killed him to earn Georgia’s favor. Naturally, Georgia was horrified and wanted to go to the authorities, which led Shannon to kill her too. Linda is relieved that her daughter is alive, but there is nothing she can do except feel regret.
On the other hand, C gets closer to Rachel through the episode and gets invited to a dinner date. Unfortunately, his anxiety acts up, and he stands Rachel up. Nikki forbids Jason from accessing their household freely like earlier, as she wants Mike to move in. Thanks to past instances strengthening their bond, Mike trusts Jason enough to let him access Nikki’s household, as he reckons Keith and Sidney will need the presence of their father from time to time. Keith gets the primo car from Mike, which he takes out for a spin with Oliver. They race with a bunch of squids, who wreck its windshield. After a session of getting schooled by Jason and Nikki, Oliver reveals to ‘Keith’ his secret that during his escape, he bailed on two abduction victims who were supposed to leave with him. Keith shares his secret in turn, which the episode doesn’t reveal. After berating her parents for not believing her, Sidney finally reveals the shocking truth about her brother, the real Keith’s disappearance all those years ago – that she killed him.
Thoughts
The twin-trouble twist of the central case of the episode definitely brings some uniqueness to the series but becomes predictable from the get-go after Shannon’s dialogues give too much away too soon. The class conflict amalgamated in the story is nothing out of the ordinary either. Honestly, it takes a significant suspension of disbelief to get convinced by the narrative that Georgia’s fiancée didn’t suspect a thing about his partner even after spending two days with him—not until they got intimate. But what the case does is connect itself organically with the “Keith” mystery without being too heavy-handed. The first episode revealed that both Keith and Sidney were Jason and Nikki’s adopted children, so after the confession from Sidney about the real Keith’s death, it seems plausible that the imposter is his twin who escaped abduction. C could have been given a better arc than the clichéd nerdy tech guy struggling with social anxiety story, but Rachel’s character commands screen presence, so we won’t complain. Shockingly, Kemi’s arc is totally ignored in this episode, something that makes no sense after the reveal that saw her father on friendly terms with her abductor in the last episode. Here’s hoping the next episode sheds some light on her and Keith’s past instead of dated cases.
