The ‘Will Trent’ Season Finale: I Told You So

It brings me no joy to say I told you so (this is a lie. I love it, and as the mother of a teenager, I rarely get to be right anymore). But I did. I warned you all that Scott Foley’s Dr. Seth was not going to last the season on Will Trent. And I was right.

There were a couple of signs if you knew what to look for. The first one was that he’d been on the show for two seasons, was married to one of the main characters, but was listed as a “guest star” right up until last night’s episode. If you don’t get elevated to at least a recurring character, you are not long for a show’s universe. You will be written off somehow.

The second sign was that he came between Angie and Will’s star-crossed lovers plot. Face it, those two are destined to be together for all of eternity in some way or another. And regardless of how good a man Seth was, how much he loved Angie, and how happy they were together, their relationship was destined for failure. It’s better that Dr. Seth died a hero rather than lived long enough to become a villain.

Amanda’s death threw me off for a moment. I admit to allowing optimism for a happy season finale to worm its way into my brain. But I’ve known since Angie got pregnant that Dr. Seth would never see that baby. They could have created a cliffhanger for him, but I respect that the personal drama did not entirely overshadow the procedural storyline of the episode.

A few weeks back, the team accidentally uncovered a human trafficking ring. This week’s episode, and season-ending cliffhanger, had to do with continuing that investigation.

When a group of college students came into the precinct to report their friend being abducted by unidentified police officers, the team sprang into action and quickly determined the cops were just people in costumes. Their initial fear was that the girl had been abducted as a personal vendetta, but they couldn’t figure out who would want to kidnap the kind, thoughtful daughter of such upstanding citizens. Then they discovered that her dad was not so “upstanding.” He was the doctor for the trafficking ring, making sure the young victims were healthy. His daughter discovered this and worked with her boyfriend to stage a kidnapping to uncover his part in the ring and force him to face justice.

The audience got a months-long montage of Will, Nico (Cora Lu Tran), and Betty helping to care for Baby Edie while Angie recovered from the car accident, emergency birth, and loss of her husband. Meanwhile, back at HQ, Faith was challenged by Ormewood to find a way to investigate the many high-powered men who were part of the trafficking ring without being stymied by GBI politics. So she dropped back down to the ADP office to set up a secret investigation in their supply closet.

As bittersweet as it was for Angie Polaski, the happy ending we got for this season was her recovering enough from the car accident and Seth’s death to be able to engage with her daughter at Christmas. And then she and Will both returned to work.

Faith immediately pulled Angie into her investigation on her first day back at the ADP. And Ormewood had been partnered with Will as part of a “Cross-Agency Regional Ambassador Program” (CaRAP), much to both of their chagrin. It looks like everything is going to be topsy-turvy next season, and we still don’t know who the new GBI Deputy Director will be.

This season was packed with a lot of big events: Ulster’s death, Uncle Antonio’s abduction, Faith’s romantic entanglement with a bank robber, Amanda’s death, and now Seth’s and the birth of Angie’s baby. It will be hard to top, and I hope they don’t try. That energy is part of what killed Bones, and I’d hate to see Will Trent collapse under its own weight the same way.

All seasons of Will Trent are now streaming on Hulu. The show will return with new episodes for season five early next year.