‘Alert: Missing Persons Unit’: Malcolm-Jamal Warner Introduces Chief Inspector Houston (VIDEO)

There’s not much good news for the Alert: Missing Persons Unit team at the moment — they just lost their boss, Nikki (Dania Ramirez), who died in the second episode of Season 3 — but at least they know their new boss, Chief Inspector Bill Houston, is on their side.

“Bill Houston is the father that the MPU team didn’t know they needed,” Malcolm-Jamal Warner, who recurs this season, told TV Insider when he recently stopped by our office.

“Bill is definitely understanding, he’s definitely experienced, and one of the things I really like about him is he’s really no-nonsense,” he continued. “He gets straight to the point because normally, especially in these missing persons cases, you don’t really have a lot of time to mess around, so time is of the essence and Bill understands that. And because he’s good with people, he can get his point across and motivate people to get moving.”

That’s good to know heading into the April 15 episode, in which an Army Lieutenant, and the wife of Houston’s old Army buddy, is kidnapped. However, the investigation uncovers that the victim and her husband were having marital and financial issues, leading to a dangerous and deadly weapons trade.

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“We see Bill as no nonsense and authoritative, but you see a little bit of that soften when he’s dealing with his old friend, his old buddy,” previewed Warner. “When he’s dealing with his buddy, they’re in this together because they’re trying to find Sophie, but then things turn when he realizes things aren’t what they seem to be. So there is a switch that Bill has to make, which I love because we get to see these two sides of him and we still get to see their personal feelings involved and he wants to still give everyone the benefit of the doubt, but he’s got those spidey senses going.”

Meanwhile, the team needs a new boss, and as you can see in the clip accompanying our video interview, Bill wants that to be Mike (Ryan Broussard), but Nikki’s husband isn’t exactly dealing with her death; he didn’t even take much time off. But Bill’s not too worried about him.

“He knows that sometimes the best way to deal with grief is to keep working,” Warner explained. “So I think there is an element of trusting that Mike will probably be really uber focused because he needs this right now.

Watch the full video interview above for more from Warner about his character.

Alert: Missing Persons Unit, Tuesdays, 9/8c, Fox