‘Found’: Brett Dalton Talks Trent’s Feelings for Gabi, Interacting With Sir & More

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Found Season 2 Episode 4 “Missing While Perfect.”]

Found comes so close to giving us Trent (Brett Dalton) and Sir (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) interacting in the latest episode.

The moment comes while Trent is investigating a missing couple; Sir is hiding in the house and ultimately only leaves an envelope behind for Gabi (Shanola Hampton). The case also leads to Trent opening up to the couple’s son about his own family history. In this instance, the husband was abusing his wife and she fought back. Trent’s sister was in an abusive marriage, and he tried to intimidate and even came close to killing her husband. She eventually found the courage to leave him and help put him behind bars.

Below, Dalton talks about that almost interaction between Trent and Sir, Trent and Gabi’s complicated relationship, and more.

Trent and Sir come so close to interacting in this episode, and we know how Sir feels about “Heavy Boots” as he calls him.

Brett Dalton: Yeah, feeling’s mutual. [Laughs]

Given how Trent’s feeling at this point about Sir, what Gabi did, what do you think that interaction would’ve been like if it had happened?

Shock, alarm dismay. I mean, it’s definitely not a, oh, hey, I know you, family reunion or something. I probably would’ve arrested him right on the spot and walked right over to Gabi’s house, rang the bell, and given the news in person, hopefully to a warm hug. This is something that I promised in the pilot that I would do, and this is the genesis of so much of Gabi’s complications. That’s where her life started to go off track, obviously, and she was a victim of this, and this person is still, still in her life after all of these years and now out there in the wild. I think a part of me would feel like somewhat of a conquering hero, but also a warrior of justice because, of all of the cases that we’ve done, this is the one that keeps slipping by us. And I would like to think that the good guys are like the house, they always win, but this guy is really putting that to the test.

Matt Miller / NBC

It seems that with Sir out, it is just a matter of time before we do get some interaction with Trent, but the thing is, we know how good of a manipulator Sir is.

Unfortunately, he’s good at everything. He’s so smart that he is good at evading all of it. He knows where the cameras are, he knows where Gabi is going to be, where the rest of the team is going to be, what they’re going to eat, how to access [what he needs to]. He finds a way to worm into all of our team’s lives in order to get closer to Gabi. And it’s frustrating. This guy is just too good at all of this stuff. Not good enough for us to eventually win, I would like to hope, but certainly good enough to constantly evade us and be one step ahead, and that’s the thing that’s so frustrating about this guy. He’s just a monster in the movie that you can’t kill, just keep coming back. He’s just too smart.

I cannot wait to see the conversation between these two characters though.

It is interesting. Yeah, because in Season 1, it wasn’t until Episode 7 or 8 that I even saw this man in person because of our shooting schedules and him and Gabi in the basement, all of that stuff. And I was like, I swear I work on this show with Mark-Paul. He’s doing such fantastic work at all of it.

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'Found' Season 2 Episode 3: Gabi, Lacey, and Sir Ending Explained by Shanola Hampton (Exclusive)

In this episode, we also get a bit of Trent’s backstory—he opens up about his sister. 

I was really happy that there was something that was being explored there because Trent is kind of enigmatic. In Season 1, we go home with the team, there’s this beautiful montage at the end of the pilot, there’s a beautiful montage at the end of the season finale, we get to know a little bit about the team. But Trent, as far as we know, is just a third-generation cop. He’s a good guy. He’s had some history with Gabi, but we don’t know what his house looks like. We don’t know what his backstory is much at all. So I feel like it was a real welcome moment to see a little bit more about him and see behind the curtains of what’s going on with this guy, because everybody’s motivated by something.

So selfishly as an actor, I was like, well, it’s about time we start seeing a little bit more of Trent and what he’s all about, what gets him ticking, and you can see that with all of this goodness, there’s also some pain in him as well. All of this goodness is coming from personal experience and wanting to right wrongs and this isn’t just a Boy Scout who wears a badge now and is following his father’s footsteps. You can tell that this goodness is down to his bones, and every time there’s an opportunity to just take a shortcut or do things the easy way, he always does it the right way and he’s just solidly good. And yeah, I thought it was great to see that he also has some pain and some loss and some vulnerability in there and some things that he can’t control with his family life. And even though he is a good guy, he’s also got some dirt under his family and is, I think, right where he belongs with the team and helping them do what they do each week.

But Trent is still determined to bring Gabi in. He has not let that go yet. How much is that because he’s a detective, she broke the law, and how much is it he’s also feeling hurt and betrayed?

That’s the question. That is a really good question. It is the question actually. Will love blind—where is this all coming from and what is he going to do with this decision? That’s what makes this such great writing, is that they put this character in a position that makes this the most difficult decision for him. So yeah, boy, that is a really, really, really tough thing to answer. And I think that it probably depends. If you were to ask Trent directly right now in the episode, probably depend on moment to moment if he’s had his cup of coffee or whatnot. He is probably weighing this back and forth. It is on a teeter-totter back and forth, do I do what my heart tells me or what the law says, over and over and over again, and it’s really tough.

Matt Miller / NBC

I think it’s also really surprising what Mallory [Bill Kelly] says and his reaction to that whole thing. I think it took a lot for Trent to go into that office and say, here’s the paperwork. I signed it. We’re bringing Gabi in. It’s a pretty surprising moment from Mallory as well for him to say, yeah, not yet. Not yet. And maybe not ever. We have to wait to see what’s there. So yeah, I don’t know. I personally am an optimist, so I would like to say that love always wins, but we will just have to see. It doesn’t mean the road’s not bumpy along the way.

Trent and Gabi have a past, they could have or could have had a future together. But how does Trent feel about Gabi right now and what’s coming up between them?

Always everything’s complicated. I really do as a person playing another person feel for this guy because he is such a big person and there are so many times when he’s close to things working out and then they just don’t, and here he is as the good guy finishing last when everyone else has already finished the race. But yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know how to answer that one.

How does he feel about her? Does he still love her? Does he not know? Does he not want to love her at this point?

Well, I think, too, once you’re that invested in someone, it is hard to let that image go, whether or not that’s the person in front of you, that could be a projection. That could be you just falling in love with potential. But it is really hard once you have fallen in love with someone to fall out of love with someone, to see them in a different way. I think that hope springs eternal and I don’t know. I don’t know. I think people can also be good and still do bad things. And so as an optimist, I probably see the world as an optimist and probably think that deep down, there’s something still in there that is good, even though she did a really bad thing. That’s a really tough one to weigh. It’s a tough one to weigh in real life, when somebody’s done something and betrayed you, what do you do with that? Who is that person to you after that, and will they ever be the person that they were before?

Found, Thursdays, 10/9c, NBC