By now, ABC’s crime drama series that started this January has established “Will Trent” as the dyslexic yet brilliant detective who can be a little obsessive at times but always manages to solve the case, no matter how much of a head-scratcher it might be. Trent is by no means a charming socialite like Hercule Poirot or a larger-than-life genius like Sherlock Holmes, but he manages to use his keen skills of detection to sniff out clues and apprehend the criminal. As the episodes progress, the show makes him more of a dynamic character, throwing light on the scars he bears, both seen and unseen. Additionally, we learn about the stories of the people that surround him and the varying degrees to which he cares for them, but the first few positions in that list are almost always constant. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the revelations about Trent’s life that the fourth episode had for us this week.
Spoilers Ahead
The Scene Of The Crime
“Will Trent” Episode 4 opens at Stone Mountain Park, Georgia, with the voiceover of Blair, a content creator, who speaks about the urban legend of the “Howling Man” as a semi-naked man is seen scampering through the woods. While recording, Blair and her friend are startled by a gunshot and then the distinct sound of something being hit by a car, a scream, followed by a car crash. The two rush to the scene while dialing 911, where they see an old lady in the passenger seat who claims they didn’t see him coming, and Blair is shocked to see that the barely-alive victim is a shirtless middle-aged man with several scars on his body and white pupils.
Elsewhere, Faith is being examined by a general physician because she fainted and nicked herself above the eyebrows, and although she’s afraid of needles, the doctor advises doing some tests to figure out what’s wrong with her. While waiting for Faith in the lobby, Trent gets a call from his supervisor, Amanda, who informs him that Stone Mountain police need him to go to St. Peter’s Hospital on an accident/kidnapping case to join Ormewood and Angie Polaski. The accident victim is a white male in his 50s with clear indications of torture, and before dying, he faintly mentions the name Timothy to Angie. While interviewing the Coldfields, the elderly couple who ran over the man, Ormewood is interrupted by the couple’s son, Tom, and he rushes them home. Faith doesn’t give a straight answer to anyone’s question about the test reports as the four of them head to the crime scene to gather evidence to help identify the victim or the killer. At the scene of the crime, Blair and her friend tell the detectives that the old man who ran over the running man stared in the direction from where the shot came, and they also spotted a green pickup truck speed by the dead body. After gathering a copy of the record from them, while searching the area, the detectives discover a bloody rope, a driver’s license, and hanging from the tree above it, the man whose license they just found. Only his pupils were white as well.
Trent’s Problems
Trent has trouble sleeping as thoughts of Ormewood and Angie keep bothering him, but he doesn’t say anything about it to her. At the GBI, the victims are identified as Arthur Tealy and Phineas Lathrop, and Trent and Faith surmise that the two were held up, and as Tealy escaped, Lathrop got shot. However, Tealy wasn’t very lucky as well because he got hit by the Coldfields. Before joining Ormewood to check the bodies, Trent asks if Faith is feeling alright since she skipped breakfast. The examiner shows the agents that the kidnapper used jequirity seeds or prayer beans—way deadlier than ricin—to poison and weaken his victims. They also spot identical cigarette burn marks on both victims’ right hands, and Trent quickly deduces that it’s some sort of a ritual. Additionally, Ormewood makes a joke about Angie that hardens Trent’s jaw. Upon interviewing the daughter and wife of Arthur and Phineas, respectively, Faith learns that both men were bad husbands and fathers—while Arthur was physically abusive, Phineas was an irresponsible drunkard. Inside the washroom, Faith does a self-administered blood sugar test.
While searching for the kidnapper’s hideout where he tortured his victims, Ormewood falls through a hole and twists his ankle, thereby discovering the secret bunker. Inside the bunker, the agents discover everything from car batteries to bloodstained mattresses and prayer beads, and Trent records in his tape recorder that this process is personal to the suspect, who’s repeating a previous action. While Trent discovers a kneeling stool with pieces of glass shards on the knee rest, Faith discovers a notebook filled with the same verse repeated over and over again by different people. Apart from refusing to check out a few more notebooks, Trent spots candles, an army knife, and a few torture devices. Faith notices the name of the church the kneeling chair-turned-torture device came from. Although the church’s Pastor is unable to give any clear answers because the church apparently sold some of those kneelers at a garage sale before having to leave for an appointment, Faith discovers a job posting on the church’s noticeboard—one that Trent asks her to read for him – which asks for people who want to change their lives, along with a Timothy 3:8 verse. As Trent notes, this is the modus operandi of the suspects; elsewhere, a man introduces himself as Duke and meets someone with prayer beads in his hand about the job posting. Trent listens to the recording from Blair, but thoughts of Angie and Ormewood keep disturbing him. When Faith arrives and says the flyer is a dead end, he hands her a protein bar. Ormewood and Angie enter with the news that someone named Duke Ulrich answered a flyer at his AA meeting and hasn’t been heard from since. The two men quickly break into an argument when Angie breaks them off, and Ormewood and Angie split up to interview the missing people.
Helpful Clues
Upon arriving where Duke went missing, Trent can’t concentrate in the slightest because Angie and Ormewood’s actions keep bugging him. While describing the scene to Trent, Faith almost collapses and is helped by Trent. He then helps her with the insulin needle after making her see that he only wants to help. She remarks that she knows Trent has dyslexia and wishes he had opened up to her sooner when Trent spots confetti on her blazer. Adding that to the plastic from a Taser cartridge, the detectives end up back at the church with the Pastor, and when all the suspicions point toward him, he quickly contacts his lawyer. While talking to Paul’s girlfriend, Ormewood finds out that there was a guy who’d rant about how fathers who abandon their kids would go to hell on his way to the dairy farm near there. She adds that the dairy farm employee was young, had brown hair, and a patchy beard, and Ormewood heads out to Dresdner Dairy. Following the tire tracks inside, he spots a green pickup truck with prayer beads hanging from the interior mirror. Immediately, he tries calling Angie but is tased by the kidnapper. On his umpteenth attempt at listening to the recording, Trent barges in and questions the Pastor if they know Judith and Henry Coldfield. The detective understood that the car hit Arthur without blowing the horn or braking, with intent to kill. The Pastor says that the church sheltered Judith years back when she was with her abusive ex-husband, Travis. Upon interrogating the Coldfields, the agents learn that Judith was tortured in a similar manner as the victims by her ex-husband Travis, so they killed him and then ventured on the mission of seeking out abusive and neglectful fathers to punish them. Trent figures out that while the Coldfields ran over Arthur, someone else had to have shot Phineas, so it has to be their son, Tom—the kidnapper. Amanda informs them that Ormewood has gone missing while searching for the kidnapper.
The Apprehension Of The Suspect
Inside the abandoned dairy farm, Tom tortures Duke and Ormewood and then starts bringing out his devices of torture—prayer beads, knife, cigarettes, etc. when the cop starts challenging Tom. He calls him out to be the exact same as his abusive father, and says that he blinds his victims because he’s ashamed of himself. Angered, Tom charges at Ormewood, and a scuffle breaks out; after injuring the psychopath, he escapes with Duke. While dragging themselves through the dairy farm, Duke collapses from his injuries, and they hide from Tom, wielding a gun. Just then, the cops and the agents surround the farm, and Trent, Faith, and Angie approach. Just as Ormewood is about to strike, he realizes it’s Trent, and he stops, but Tom is right behind them. However, he’s surrounded by Faith and Angie, and he’s arrested and taken away as Trent and Ormewood reconcile. Later, Trent opens up to Faith and says that he has told himself that he wouldn’t let his dyslexia let others treat him differently, so he tries very hard to appear normal. We also learn that Trent would be punished with cigarette burns for failing to understand written instructions, but he knows that his disability doesn’t mean he’s worthless like he used to be called. At home, Trent finally lets go of the disturbing thoughts about Angie and Ormewood and the two kiss as the credits start rolling.
‘Will Trent’ Episode 4: Ending Explained – What Happens In ‘My Stupid Detective Brain’?
“Will Trent” Episode 4 is a further dip into the life of Will Trent, and more of his issues start coming to the forefront. We only saw his stitch marks poking out of his shirt in “Will Trent” Episode 1, but by now, Angie kisses the stitches on his arm, and he confesses that he was a victim of childhood abuse. All his childhood, he was treated as a worthless nobody because of his reading difficulties, and that made him the target of such torture methods. People used to bully him, like Paul Campano, whom he and Angie grew up with. The only difference was these people gave him cigarette burns and probably more, which would explain the stitches. From being unable to understand the pains and sadness of other people, Trent went on to carry protein bars in his pocket when he understood that Faith has diabetes. The episode shows just how much he has grown in the span of these four episodes and that he’s able to get control of his demons. The thoughts of Angie and Ormewood that hounded him throughout the episode are finally put to rest when Trent saves him from the psychopath Tom. With just one episode left, we have to see what other secrets this brilliant special agent hides and where his relationship with Angie finally leads to.
