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Jennie Richardson is a TV Features and Lists Writer for Collider, and a graduate student pursuing an MFA in Fiction Writing. In other words, she really loves stories.
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Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for Will Trent Season 4, Episode 1.After an intense and explosive Season 3 finale that ended with multiple cliffhangers, Will Trent is officially back for Season 4, and the show isn't wasting any time in moving its main plotlines forward. Very early on, the Season 4 premiere reveals that both Amanda (Sonja Sohn) and Ormewood (Jake McLaughlin) are alive. They are both still recovering and taking some time to heal, even after the five-month time jump, but they're also still working as much as they are able to at the moment.
The main storyline of Will Trent's Season 4 premiere sees the return of James Ulster (Greg Germann), the lawyer-turned-serial-killer responsible for the death of Will Trent's (Ramón Rodríguez) mother (Raiany Silva), and for leaving Will in a trash can when he was a newborn baby. In the premiere, Ulster escapes from prison, and he's not afraid to kill for his freedom. Will is already struggling quite a bit this season, and naturally, he doesn't take this news well.
In 'Will Trent's Season 4 Premiere, Will Struggles With the Return of James Ulster
Image via ABCAfter the five-month time jump, Will Trent's Season 4 premiere opens with Will doing a pickleball therapy session with his therapist, Dr. Roach (Margaret Cho). She encourages him to stop holding in his negative feelings, so Will admits that he is struggling with losing Angie (Erika Christensen) to her new family when they used to be everything to each other. Will is still unable to let his anger out, though, even though he's holding onto quite a bit of it. He also reveals that he's been having regular dinners with his biological father, Caleb’s (Yul Vazquez) family.
Will knows that he should be grateful, but mostly, they just get on his nerves. His therapist tells him, “You have been surviving on crumbs… and now, you have the whole cake.” To this, Will hilariously responds, “Yes… but, it is a carrot cake, with raisins.” Will Trent keeps this dark humor throughout the episode, and it is a whole lot of fun, even in the installment's most intense moments. Will, Nico (Cora Lu Tran), and Betty (Bluebell) later go over to Caleb's house for dinner. It’s a lovely meal, but Will can’t let himself enjoy it. He is very good with Caleb’s young son, Calvin, though, who loves to share shark facts with him.
That same night, Ulster escapes from prison. Will and Faith (Iantha Richardson) go to work the next morning to investigate the Ulster case, but they learn that it's been handed off to Caleb. Amanda is still on leave, but she visits to clarify that it was her decision to keep Will off the case, and this makes Will especially angry. Will points out that Ulster killed his mother and left him in a trash can, and Amanda says that this is precisely why he's too close to the case to work it. Will finds Ulster through one of his old clients, and they briefly talk on the phone. Ulster expresses jealousy at Will and Caleb's new bond, but he says that his goal is ultimately just to be free, which he knows that Will and Caleb won't allow.
Will does his usual strategy of imagining what happened at the crime scene, and he ends up having an entire conversation with Ulster in his mind. This version of Ulster gets to Will's deep fear that he's a killer just like him, and then he reduces Will to all of his biggest obstacles. Will and Faith finally realize that Ulster is planning to leave the country with Reid, so they go find Reid while he's visiting his grandmother at her retirement community. Wil gets Reid alone and starts to get through to him, but Caleb sees Reid holding Will at gunpoint and immediately shoots and kills him.
'Will Trent's Season 4 Premiere Sets Up Compelling Arcs for Each Character This Season
Will Trent is the main point of focus in the Season 4 premiere, but every character gets the start of a promising arc for the coming season. Ormewood has a desk job now until he's done with chemo, and Will and Faith regularly visit his makeshift office to ask for help. Ormewood and Faith are still living together and are still one of the show's best and funniest duos. Ormewood is also quite the romantic now, which bodes well for the potential slow-burn romance that the show seems to be setting up for him and Faith. Faith and Franklin (Kevin Daniels) playfully prank Ormewood while sitting through his chemo with him, and later, Faith and Ormewood annoy Will with their newfound fake elevator routine at work. Meanwhile, Angie and Seth (Scott Foley) continue to move forward while preparing for their baby's birth. They decorate the nursery and consider baby names together, and then Seth proposes to Angie. She panics and gets upset at first, but he then gives her a sweet speech, and she ultimately says yes.
While Will and Faith investigate Ulster's immediate whereabouts, Ormewood, Angie, and Franklin try a different tactic. Ormewood finds one of Ulster’s “fiancées” online, and the three of them follow her on a stakeout. It is here that Ormewood and Franklin find out Angie is engaged, and she admits that she's scared for Will to find out, in part because it will mean finally letting each other go. One of Ulster's other fiancées shows up, and the two get into a fight, so the team has to intervene. They soon interrogate the women, where they learn that Ulster has been playing his fiancées, and that he even killed a third girlfriend for her car.
It is during this next part of the investigation that Will and Angie wind up alone together, and Will finally opens up about Ulster. He tells Angie that Ulster "created him" and dictated the outcome of his entire life, so he feels like it is his responsibility to keep Ulster from killing again. Angie pushes back on this notion, but Will just notices her ring and congratulates her on her engagement. Ulster then calls Will, revealing that he has kidnapped Calvin. Will meets up with Ulster, exchanges himself for Calvin, and sends Calvin to go call Faith. Ulster says that since Will won't let him be free, all that's left to do is die. Later, Calvin is rescued, and Will's team tracks the car that Ulster was using. They learn that the car has exploded, and they find two bodies — believed to be Will's and Ulster's — alongside Will's tape recorder. Thus, the season premiere ends on a massive cliffhanger, and Will's fate is left up in the air.
Will Trent airs Tuesday nights at 8:00 P.M. EST on ABC.
Release Date January 3, 2023
Writers Inda Craig-Galván, Henry 'Hank' Jones, Karine Rosenthal, Adam Toltzis, Antoine Perry
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Ramón Rodríguez
Will Trent
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Erika Christensen
Angie Polaski
Pros & Cons
- 'Will Trent's Season 4 premiere does a deeper dive into Will's fragile mental state, made worse by Ulster's return to his life.
- 'Will Trent's tone is even sharper this episode, with greater laughs and higher stakes.
English (US) ·