Taken In Plain Sight ending explained: Children are saved from a delusional woman

Taken in Plain Sight is about a girl who goes missing and a mother who isn't giving up on her, even though the law enforcement authorities have. The film stars Tennille Read, Allegra Fulton, Steven Yaffee, Sameer Jafar, and more, with Cat Hostick directing from a screenplay by Ken Miyamoto.

By the end of the film, Abby Anderson (Read) manages to find not only her daughter Zooey (KJ Romani) but also another girl who was kidnapped by the abductor. The title of the film is aptly made because the abductor turns out to be a person she becomes close to during a support group meeting.

This specific plot is similar to Ari Aster’s 2018 psychological horror film Hereditary. In that movie, the main antagonist turns out to be a woman Toni Collette's character, Annie Graham, befriends during a support group. Though she is far more sinister than the antagonist here, in the Ari Aster film, there's a lot of death and witchcraft involved in it.

Who kidnapped Zooey in Taken in Plain Sight and why?

A still from Taken in Plain Sight. (Image via Netflix)

The revelation shows that Zooey is kidnapped by Dolores, played by Allegra Fulton, a woman whom Abby has befriended during a support group. The children, Zooey and another girl who was kidnapped, tell Abby that the woman does that to "save" kids.

Interestingly, like the story, which shares similarities with Hereditary, it also resembles another Netflix movie that was released recently, Exterritorial. In that film, a mother loses her child while visiting the US Consulate General in Frankfurt after leaving him for a few moments.

In Taken in Plain Sight, Abby and her daughter are visiting somewhere, and the former goes back to the restroom because she has left her purse there. By the time she returns, Zooey is gone and nowhere to be found.

All of this leads to investigations by the authorities but to no avail. Now that the case isn't going anywhere, Abby takes the matter into her own hands and begins the search for her daughter.

How does Abby's investigation lead her to Zooey and the other girl?

When Abby is in full detective mode in Taken in Plain Sight, she encounters a mysterious man named Leto (Steven Yaffee) and gathers some data about him. Initially, it appears that this man might turn out to be the main antagonist in the film, but the truth is that he is just another victim of Dolores.

He is the one who gives Abby a map to find her daughter, leading her to the location where Zooey is kept by Dolores.

How does Taken in Plain Sight ends?

Abby finds her daughter and the other girl named Emma (Liv Nelson) at the place, and they confront Dolores. The abductor tells them why she kidnaps children, to "save" them from their abusive parents. Leto was an early victim of hers, whom she abducted 20 years ago.

Thankfully, the authorities arrive at the location in time and take Dolores in, but not before Abby knocks her down. The day is saved, and so are the children.