Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Found season 2, episode 8.After airing its fall finale in November, Found season 2 returns to NBC on Thursday, January 16 at 10 p.m. ET. The most recent episode saw Zeke receive an unexpected visit from Mark-Paul Gosselaar's character, which inspires the tech whiz to hack into Trent's email and find the letter Sir sent Gabi. Gabi shows up at the high school and puts on brass knuckles, ready to end the mind games. The installment concludes with Sir greeting Gabi over the loudspeaker, implying that things have gone according to his plan.

Shanola Hampton shares that her character is done with Sir and wants him out of their lives for good. While he does offer valuable insight when it comes to solving cases, the star believes that Gabi won't want to utilize his knowledge again. Sir's actions have ed the point of no return, and Hampton is confident that the crisis manager can find missing people without the help of her childhood kidnapper.

ScreenRant interviews Hampton about Gabi's intentions towards Sir, Found's central romance, the search for Margaret's son, and what fans can expect when season 2 returns.

Gabi Wants Sir To Know That She Doesn't Need Him In Found Season 2

"She wants Sir to die. She wants to rip his eyeballs out limb by limb."

ScreenRant: Found had a different type of case in the fall finale. How do you feel about how everything wrapped up?

Shanola Hampton: I feel really good. I think that what we do on our show is not make it all pretty, and I like that, but I also like that when we are doing our cases, there's still this other story of the Sir looming around and having to solve that. This season, particularly, we're really battling both things. The brass knucles and Gabi about to confront Sir is a great little end to our winter run.

What is Gabi's intention at this point? Does she want Sir locked away or does she want him gone altogether?

Shanola Hampton: She wants Sir to die. She wants to rip his eyeballs out limb by limb. She's so over him touching her family. She's so over him being out on the loose. She wants to catch him in. She's ready for anything at that point. She really, really, really is. And so she's just had enough, and she's going to confront him. And I don't think she's put a lot of thought into what that might mean, but she's ready.

Do you ever see a scenario where Gabi would want to find a way to keep using his insight on cases?

Shanola Hampton: No. No, there's definitely not. She wants him to know that she does not need him because that would just feed into his ego and that's the one thing she will not do.

Hampton Doesn't See A Romantic Future For Gabi And Trent In Found

"I think that their working relationship will be intact. Romantically, I think that ship has sailed for a lot of reasons."

Trent's actions have surprised a lot of fans and they surprised me as well. How do you feel and how does Gabi feel about the way that he's been treating M&A?

Shanola Hampton: I think it's funny because fans are like, "Oh, shut up Heavy Boots," and have taken the heavy boots thing. I just think it's funny that the writers [named him] Heavy Boots, and hearing Mark-Paul say it just cracks me up every time. That's funny. My reaction is it serves the story, and it is what happens when there's a relationship that's kind of blurred the lines and then that person feels hurt. And so I get it. I get he's hurt.

And Gabi's reaction is like, "Okay, look, I know you're hurt. Let's do this. Let's make sure everybody's safe. Let's find Sir, and then I'll go to jail. The rest of the stuff—please leave me alone." That's Gabi's reaction. It's like, "I don't need the digs. I feel bad about myself anyway. Hype down. Let's just do this, and I will do exactly what you want me to do, which is turn myself in." And so I think it is a hard dynamic right now with all the characters, but specifically with Gabi and Trent.

One thing that really surprised me was that Trent went after Zeke. Now that he's involving the people she cares about, do you see a way forward for Trent and Gabi romantically?

Shanola Hampton: I think that their love and their ion for finding missing people—Trent's moral com is high. We know that, right? And his ion for doing the right thing in finding the missing will always be there. And Gabi Mosely needs to have a person in the DD to work with. So I think that their working relationship will be intact. Romantically, I think that ship has sailed for a lot of reasons.

A, Gabi is in no place to be with a man. She has to do her own healing. And to bring Trent, who has been so good, into her mess and all of the things she has would just feel unfair to her. And I think she always is guarded about the people that she loves in protecting them, even if that means protecting them from her. And so I don't think that there's a path for it romantically, but in a working relationship, yes.

We met Sir's brother, Christian, and he seems like he genuinely wants to help. How does Gabi feel about him at this point?

Shanola Hampton: I think she's torn. I think one part of her feels really sorry for him because if Sir has done any mental manipulation to him, she gets it. The other part is, "Are you in on it?" and not knowing and being confused because she doesn't even know if she can trust herself in the place that she's in, to be able to read the people that she generally can get a sense of who they are. So she's very torn.

Viewers Can Look Forward To The Continued Search For Jamie In Found Season 2

"She swore to Margaret she would find Jamie. D*mmit, we've got to find Jamie."

A flashback shows that Lacey's mom is the one who teaches Gabi how to defend herself. Is that something that we might see more of?

Shanola Hampton: I love Lacey's mom, and Dionne Gipson did a great job playing her. I love that you get to see sort of where Gabi found her safe places. You won't get to see a lesson-lesson, but you do get to see more of their story, which I think is really nice. And it's been nice to go back for me as an audience member, but also for my character, to see where it all began or continued after Gabi saved herself. So you get to see more of Lacey's mom, not in that capacity, but she set her up for success.

Margaret asks Gabi, "Why can you find other people's children but not mine?" Is that something that weighs on her or does Gabi understand it's out of her control?

Shanola Hampton: Oh, it absolutely weighs on her. If you ask control freak Gabi, everything is in her control, even when it's not. She wants to find Jamie. It is her responsibility to find Jamie. She swore to Margaret she would find Jamie. D*mmit, we've got to find Jamie.

And so when she says that, it's hurtful. Hurtful for Margaret, hurtful for Gabi because she hasn't been able to do it. But we're going to get there. We've got to get there. And so the audience can look forward to us working our way to get there.

Now that Lacey is back, where would you say the team dynamic stands? Has anyone truly forgiven Gabi yet?

Shanola Hampton: I think Lacey has. I think that Lacey has forgiven Gabi, but is still wanting to find her own voice knowing that Gabi is not [someone] who can do no wrong. And so redirecting her energies on self and not just solely looking up to Gabi for every answer, and I think that Dhan, obviously, has accepted it. The others are still working towards that, and that's what time will do. Time will tell. Time will get them there or won't, but it'll take time.

Sir Will Get A Version Of What's Coming For Him When Found Season 2 Returns

"I'm excited that you're going to get more backstories that you're going to want answers to, with not only Sir and Gabi, but also Margaret."

Can you tease anything about what fans can look forward to next?

Shanola Hampton: I'm super excited to get into the Jamie storyline. I'm super excited that Sir will get a version of what's coming for him, but still be a pain in Gabi's tail. I'm excited that you're going to get more backstories that you're going to want answers to, with not only Sir and Gabi, but also Margaret. There's so much more and it's so so so good.

That brings up another question. Do you think Gabi knows the full story of what happened to Zeke?

Shanola Hampton: Yes. I think she does, but I'm not sure anybody else does. Now, that's what I think. Listen, I could be wrong because the writers could throw whatever, but I think she is probably the only one that is there that knows everybody's whole story and is of the mind of, "It's not my story to ever tell."

What's great about the show is that you're going to learn what happened to each of the characters. Dhan, what actually happened, Zeke, what actually happened. Given prayerfully the luxury of doing another season, those questions are going to be answered on the series. So if you're a fan and you stay on the ride with us, you're going to be satisfied.

About NBC's Drama Series Found

Created by Nkechi Okoro Carroll

In any given year, more than 600,000 people are reported missing in the U.S. More than half that number are people of color that the country seems to forget about. Public relations specialist Gabi Mosely (series star and producer Shanola Hampton), who was once herself one of those forgotten ones, and her crisis management team make sure there is always someone looking out for the missing.

Gabi, however, has a chilling secret: In the midst of grief, she imprisoned her childhood kidnapper, Sir (Mark-Paul Gosselaar). Now Sir has escaped and is on the loose, and her biggest secret is now her biggest threat.

Check out our other interviews with the Found season 2 cast:

• Arlen Escarpeta
• Brett Dalton
• Dionne Gipson
• Gabrielle Walsh
• Karan Oberoi
• Kelli Williams
• Mark-Paul Gosselaar
• Shanola Hampton

Found season 2 returns Thursday, January 16 at 10 p.m. ET/PT.