Arlen Escarpeta Talks ‘Found’ Season 2 and What’s Next for Zeke [Interview]

Found star Arlen Escarpeta thinks it will take a while for his character to reveal more of his backstory. 

Escarpeta plays Zeke, a tech genius who suffers from agoraphobia and is a key part of Mosely & Associates on the NBC drama. I recently had the chance to speak with Escarpeta about his work on Found, filming one of this season’s most emotional scenes, and what we can expect from his character this season.

He also shared his thoughts on the relationship between Zeke and Lacey and how they’ll bond in the coming episodes.

Escarpeta began by sharing what he’s most proud of about the series, saying that the show has “a solid, phenomenal, amazing group of people from top to bottom.”

“I’m part of something special,” he said. “We have a phenomenal group, and I feel just blessed to be a part of it.”

Escarpeta also talked about what makes Found different from other network TV dramas. While it has the procedural element, it’s also telling powerful stories he feels allow the audience to open themselves “up to what’s really happening out there in the real world.”

Each character who works at Mosely & Associates draws on their own traumas to help find missing people.

“We’ve done something really cool with Found where what’s shattered [each character’s] lives at some point in time is now being utilized in a different way,” Escarpeta said.

“It’s interesting. It’s part of our healing process, but it’s also, when you think about it, very much a deflect at the same time. And I think that’s another great part of our story, is you get to watch our team hide and bury their own trauma while trying to keep their heart open enough to help someone else.”

Zeke is just one example of that. Escarpeta said he loves the character of Zeke because “he’s not just a talking head” and “not just a tech guy.”

“There’s a lot of layers to him. He comes from money; there’s a layer to play with there. His father works in politics, he has a big heart, he’s putting his money where his mouth is,” Escarpeta said.

“And then, I love that he’s still a child. He’s very much in touch with his inner child, and in that sense, you’re watching him sneak peeks at Lacey, and [thinking], ‘Oh, I like her, but I don’t know what to say.’ And he finds another version of a mother in Margaret, and he has a brother in Dahn. I love Zeke because of the family he’s built around him.”

Of course, that M&A family is different now that Gabi’s secret — that she had been keeping Sir captive in her basement and having him help with cases — has been revealed. The reveal almost prompted Zeke to leave the group for good.

“The world that he’s created and the family that he’s made with M&A for a good amount of time has felt safe to him. It’s been home, and now this home that he’s built with these amazing people, because of Gabi’s truth that we now know, it doesn’t feel safe anymore,” Escarpeta said. 

“This is something that is so deceptive, it taints everything that he’s ever thought about Mosely & Associates and about this woman that he loves and he looks at as a sister. It’s a new trauma for him that, hopefully, he can figure out and learn how to manage and deal with. But it’s going to take some time.”

Escarpeta went on to say that in terms of forgiveness, this will be a difficult journey for the entire team for more reasons than one.

“To forgive is not to forget, so there’s always, I think, space to forgive. But to forget, I don’t think this is something that Zeke or the rest of the team could ever forget. Because it’s a part of their fabric now,” he said.

“And now, just the fear that Sir is back out — it’s no longer a boogie man that we’ve spoken about,” Escarpeta added. “Everything that we feared about Sir is real, and it’s in our face, and it is affecting each and every one of us.”

Following Lacey’s recent kidnapping by Sir, she’s currently staying with Zeke. That creates an interesting dynamic, considering the feelings that have been hinted at between the two of them.

Escarpeta noted that they have been trauma bonding, and it’s something he thinks we’ll see more of.

“Zeke’s agoraphobia is very much on display,” he said. “Lacey’s is buried a little bit deeper, but now, because of the situation with Sir, her trauma is very much bubbling over at the same time. And I think we’re going to see them trauma bond even deeper than they have before. If they ever needed one another, I think this would be the time.”

“This is going to be a way for them to, hopefully, have some conversations about how they view each other,” he continued, explaining that they’ll have to discern if they’re just friends or if there is really something more between them.  

“I think we’ve seen lots of moments and hints of what’s there for them, but they themselves haven’t found the words to say anything yet. I’m curious to see how it plays itself out.”

At the beginning of this season, Zeke’s agoraphobia was especially significant when he was taken to the hospital after being poisoned by Sir. Waking up and realizing he wasn’t in his own home made for a highly emotional scene. 

“Filming the scene was taxing in a way that I felt completely exhausted after every take. Zeke’s trauma felt very real to me in those moments,” Escarpeta recalled.

“I think we’ve seen him with the mask that he wears — with his clothes and his hair and his tech — and everything seems, for the most part, okay. He just can’t leave the house. It feels manageable. That moment of Zeke waking up in the hospital and not being in the world that he’s created, and you got to see him very much unhinged with the mask off, my heart just broke. It broke over and over again.”

Escarpeta went on to say he wondered if this would go one of two ways for Zeke in terms of his fear. Perhaps it could set him back, or maybe it could help him move forward. 

“Is he ready to do more than what we’ve seen him do? Is he capable of it? Will this push him further back inside, or in another way, will this strengthen him to be like, ‘Well, at least I was outside for a little bit. At least I did that.'”

“It was fun as an actor, but my goodness, was it heavy emotionally for Zeke and for myself to go through that tornado.”

That episode was an important one for the relationship between Zeke and his father as well, who took the steps that were best for Zeke in getting him home, even against the doctor’s advice.

“There’s a bridge that we’re witnessing that’s being built,” Escarpeta said. However, it’s a little one-sided.

“We’re still learning a lot of Zeke’s backstory, so you would beg the question, since his father is doing more of the building… I can’t wait for the audience to find out why his father is the one doing so much work.”

“That tells me that in some way, shape, or form, his father didn’t show up,” Escarpeta suggested. “Something happened there for Zeke to be the one to watch his father make all of these steps and then to just take a little step forward. But the walls are definitely still up with Zeke. He hasn’t let him in all the way. And that’s what I’m very much interested in finding out, is why and what is it that created that gap between them.”

Escarpeta also said we would learn more about Zeke’s backstory moving forward.

“Zeke, very much like Sir, holds a lot of his history and past close to the heart. He doesn’t take his mask off often — until he’s forced to. And M&A, where we don’t judge and we allow the space to breathe and we allow people to heal how they heal, they very much do not push Zeke too far to come outside of himself.”

“How Zeke does unfurl all of that trauma and get to that place, we’ll get there, but it’s going to take some time,” Escarpeta said. “It’s going to be a journey, to say the least.”

Found airs Thursdays at 10/9c on NBC.

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