ABC’s new crime drama follows Special Agent Will Trent (Ramon Rodriguez) as he returns to the Georgia Bureau of Investigations to solve his most complicated case yet.
The special agent was called to a horrific break-in and murder by his boss Amanda (Sonya Sohn) on Will Trent Season 1 Episode 1, but Will was reluctant to return since he recently learned he had dyslexia and missed significant clues in a recent case.
However, while the other cops thought this murder was self-explanatory, Will saw different details which may help the case.
The central murder scene was shown in graphic detail, as the mom Abigail saw someone had broken into their house. Like any mom, she ran inside looking for her child. That scream was guttural when she saw blood around a teen girl, assuming it was her daughter.
Jennifer Morrison played a traumatized mom so brilliantly as she went after the intruder, and they fell down the staircase, and she took every ounce of her strength and beat him with her tennis racket.
There was so much hatred towards Will in this case since the cops were sure it was self-explanatory and he messed up a case, but Amanda insisted.
I told him I’d bring my best. I just need you to read the crime scene.
Amanda
Will had his own theories, including that teenagers skipped school in groups and noticed there were two pairs of shoes by the door. Will’s theory was correct since the distraught father identified the dead girl as his daughter’s friend Kayla.
Will’s unique thinking helped since he realized that Emma’s bloody footprint facing the wrong way meant someone kidnapped her. He thought the intruder, Adam, was in the house and was trying to help them and got stabbed in the process. Abigail had trouble processing this.
Since Emma became friends with Kayla, she started skipping school more.
Her parents thought she was a bad influence. Even though Paul wasn’t thrilled, Will inspected the room. He used instincts, such as he suspected Emma watched the killer murder Kayla from her closet because it smelled of stale urine.
Amanda assigned Will and Faith to be partners and thought they’d learn much from each other.
If this case goes sideways, I’m out. If I’m out, who’s going to protect you?
Amanda
While neither Will nor Faith (Iantha Richardson) was thrilled with their partnership, they balanced each other out nicely, and Faith managed to get Will to open up more.
Michael: How much do you want to punch Trent?
Faith: It is a punchable face, but I’ll tell you this—he read that crime scene like a book.
Since Will struggled with dyslexia, he quickly noticed that Warren, the guy with the video footage, also had dyslexia.
This proved helpful since Adam’s roommate said they were getting threatening notes, and the E’s were backward. Will knew they were likely from Warren, but he didn’t know how far gone Warren was.
It was heartbreaking watching Will talk Warren down. Will lived through so much in foster care that now he did his best to save victims, and to him, Warren was another victim since someone told him to kill himself. After watching another victim die, Will finally opened up to Faith about his life in foster care.
Det. Angie Polaski is tough and fierce from the minute we meet her as an undercover VICE cop, but part of her is more concerned about Will and the kidnapping. She’s only been sober a few days, mainly because she has to play the role.
She lost her chance to bring in a massive drug dealer because the cops lurked outside looking for clues about Emma.
To make matters worse, Angie cared more about her fellow girls than her job. When she saw Kyle, the drug dealer, was pimping out and abusing Jules, Angie destroyed his car and then interrogated him.
It didn’t suffice for her to stay in VICE, and they had to get her back in Micheal and Will’s orbit for the relationship drama.
The series focused on the messy relationships as much as it did the ongoing case, and we’ve only scratched the surface of some of them. With Angie’s reaction to working with Michael again, it ended badly the last time they did.
I suspect Michael cheated on his wife with Angie, and hopefully, they can keep it strictly professional this time.
Will and Anie have a complicated history, though we haven’t learned what they went through together, only that they both knew Paul from their foster care days. They are each other’s strongest defenders, close friends, and sometimes lovers.
Angie: Let’s talk about Paul.
Will: My one lead just shot himself.
Angie: I’m not talking about the case.
Will: He still calls me trashcan.
Angie: You want me to kick his ass again?
Will: I already took care of that today.
Will (Ramon Rodriguez) and Angie (Erika Christensen) possess such believable chemistry that, hopefully, they’ll evaluate their relationship and their traumatic past together.
Technically, shouldn’t he have excused himself from this case since of his history with Paul? Paul hated Will and bullied him for years as kids.
What was sad was Paul never told Abigail his family history. They’ll never know if something random or something in his past prompted the killer to strike. Will was vicious, but it was amusing for the truth to come out.
Abigail: You know each other?
Will: Paul and I grew up together in the children’s home, didn’t we?
Abigail: You lived in an orphanage?
Paul: I didn’t know how to tell you.
Abigail: My god, you’re a sociopath.
I couldn’t believe, after their history, that Paul had the nerve to show up at Will’s house asking for assistance.
Over to you, Will Trent Fanatics. Did Paul’s past lead to his daughter’s disappearance? Do the cops have a reason to hate Will Trent?
What do you think of Will and Angie? Chime in below in the comments.
If you missed the episode, you could watch Will Trent online via TV Fanatic.
Will Trent airs at 10/9c on Tuesdays on ABC.
Laura Nowak is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.