This week on The Finder, a mother and a daughter appeal for Walter’s help in finding their husband/father. It’s not finding the man that’s interesting — for viewers and Walter alike — but a missing part of the voicemail: The man had been talking to someone else while leaving the message to his wife, and the voicemail caught only a part of it. Walter wants to find the rest of the conversation. The case isn’t interesting by any means, but the characters make it worthwhile, especially as Leo comes to grips with his past.
Confronting the Past
Leo’s all about the putting families back together and really pushes Walter to take the case. Walter keeps resisting, which I understand why. His reputation around town is “the finder,” which doesn’t mean he’s the police, working missing person’s cases. He needs to have some sort of standard, and has to click with the case that he’ll pursue. But when Leo promises the family that they’ll find the dad, Walter’s left with no other option.
So what is Leo’s real story? We’ve gotten to know bits and pieces of his past life, but this week, we learn most of the story, and it starts with Walter confronting Leo with his sudden craving for sweets.
Turns out, the anniversary of his daughter’s death is approaching. She died when she was little, a preventable E. coli outbreak. She’s buried next to her mother, as well. He continues to grieve, but also doesn’t seem to have come to grips with the past.
Willa sends Timo to read Leo’s fortune, which tells him that Leo has murder (the devil) in his heart. What Leo wants to know is this: Will the murder in him stay settled or will it want to come out and kill again? He doesn’t look at his final card, instead saving it for later. All in all, a great performance by Michael Clarke Duncan.
A New Love Interest?
Isabella was MIA in this episode, and she was missed. But there’s a new FBI agent who pops up out of nowhere, when Walter is at the house of the missing man — on the bed doing a handstand, no less.
The agent is part of the gang task force, looking into the missing man who has a past of gang activity but is supposed to be out. It’s suspected he’s back to his old tricks again.
Walter alludes to the fact that he had a chance with the new agent, but didn’t take it. After what happens later, it’s a good thing he didn’t!
Finding the Man
In order to find the rest of the conversation on the voicemail, Walter and Leo hunt down all the video tapes that were in the plaza where the missing man was when he was talking on the phone.
Armed with a pot of coffee, and because she’s good at remembering faces, Willa spends all night trying to piece the conversation together from all the different camera angles — oh, and she can read lips, which is completely not surprising. The man is seen talking to his best friend, also from the gang past. They now both work at an oil facility.
Immediately, he becomes suspect number one, especially when the video shows the best friend is pushing the missing man to take some money. But when Walter and Leo track down the friend … he’s dead inside his car with the engine running — and it wasn’t a suicide.
Things Aren’t What They Seem
When the full conversation reveals the missing man wasn’t involved in illegal activity — in fact, he’s a whistle-blower against the company he works for — Walter breaks in/goes undercover into the facility and uncovers what the missing man knew — a list of all the toxins that the company burned.
When he’s trying to leave the gated facility, the FBI agent is there to meet him — with a gun pointed at him! And she’s not an FBI agent, but in fact, works for the company. Walter knew she wasn’t a real agent by her fancy earrings.
Walter pretends to get himself electrocuted by the security fences, which is rigged so it WILL electrocute, but he’s faking it. When he “passes out,” prompting the fake agent to try and steal the list of toxins, Walter overpowers her and electrocutes HER instead.
Finding Justice
Leo’s final fortune card reveals “justice,” which he gets for the family that’s now reunited. In his past life, Leo was an attorney, and he confronts the head of the company with an ultimatum: either distribute $100 million to a number of charities, or watch his company dissolve through class-action lawsuits. Oh, and he gets a good punch to the guy’s chest too.
There’s a sweet moment in the end when he gives a gift to the girl who’s now reunited with her dad — she’s just about Leo’s daughter’s age when she died.
Esther Gim
Contributing Writer
(Image courtesy of Fox)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
