Yahoo News Will Trent EPs on Expanding the World in Season 2 — and What Lies Ahead for Angie, Faith and Ormewood
Having delivered a freshman run that earned a rare average grade of “A+,” the expectations for Will Trent Season 2 were exorbitantly high. But through its first two episodes (out of 10), the ABC crime drama has shown no signs of the dreaded sophomore slump.
If anything, the Feb. 20 season opener (which earned the series yet another “A” from TVLine readers) possessed a certain swagger — an overt confidence among the performances and the writing indicative of a show that’s firing on all cylinders.
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“You’re picking up on our excitement to be back,” executive producer Daniel Thomsen tells TVLine. “Having been on strike, having been on the picket lines and unable to work, part of it was our excitement that the strikes were over. Let’s come back, let’s have Will walk directly onto that crime scene, we’re back and here are all the things that we love. Here’s Will’s tape recorder, here’s his handkerchief, here’s Betty.”
Having firmly established their protagonist in Season 1 — a 13-episode stretch that culminated in multiple, Earth-shattering reveals about Will’s childhood — Thomsen and fellow executive producer Liz Heldens were keen to expand the world in Season 2 and flesh out storylines for the rest of their extremely capable ensemble. First and foremost, the EPs wanted to see what it would look like if Will and Angie (played by Ramón Rodríguez and Erika Christensen) were less enmeshed in each other’s lives.
“We wanted to start the season with Will working on himself,” Thomsen explains. “He’s got a lot to explore with his new relationship to his family, and whether or not he is going to be able to find a living relative to talk to, so I think that put him in a place where he wasn’t as codependent as normal.” And when it comes to Angie, Heldens believes that “people are ready to follow her and her own stories,” independent from Will.
Season 2 picked up six months after Detective Polaski suffered a brutal beatdown at the hands of serial killer James Ulster. Ever since then, she’s been itching to return to the grind. “She’s a workaholic,” Thomsen acknowledges. “Her job means so much to her, and when it’s gone, she truly feels like she’s teetering on the edge,” and struggling to find purpose in her sobriety. “That’s why [in Episode 2] she’s thrown herself into being a sponsor.”
What Angie isn’t necessarily prepared for is the return of Crystal (Chapel Oaks), the teenager who in Season 1 was preyed upon by Angie’s former abuser, Lenny Broussard. After Crystal killed Lenny, Angie took the fall and claimed self-defense against the pedophile.
“I think it was a really good, emotional story,” Thomsen says. “It’s also a story about unintended consequences. They tried to handle things on their own, outside the system, and look where it got them.” Crystal has since been abandoned by her mother, Lenny’s ex, and in Episode 2 wound up in GBI custody.
“The intention of bringing Crystal back is to show the fallout, and not just pretend like that story never happened,” the EP explains. “Now that Angie has some more time on her hands, Crystal comes back into her life,” and subsequent episodes will explore “what that looks like. How can she take care of this girl?”
Polaski’s partner, Detective Michael Ormewood (Jake McLaughlin), also has found his life turned upside down early in Season 2, having discovered that his wife Gina (Sara Antonio) has been unfaithful. “The idea that the shoe was on the other foot was really interesting to us,” Heldens tells TVLine. “It feels like a way to throw a problem into his lap that he doesn’t see coming, and then watch how he recovers from that — to explore what’s going on with his wife, and to force him to play a bigger role in the lives of his children — and see how that unfolds over the season.”
Adds Thomsen: “We also [wanted] to do an affair story that feels different. We watch Ormewood realize that his wife may have done this for reasons that are different from the reasons that he [cheated on her] in the past.”
A decidedly lighter storyline involves Will’s parter-in-crime solving, Faith Mitchell (Iantha Richardson), who is now romantically involved with local reporter Luke (Ser’Darius Blain).
“I don’t think Faith has had a serious relationship, ever, in her adult life,” Heldens surmises. Before now, it had only ever been established that Agent Mitchell was at one point, several years ago, involved with her son’s father. “It’s been easy for her, with her son growing up and having a full-time job that she was really committed to, to put her personal life on the back burner. Now, she has this opportunity to see what it looks like to have an exclusive relationship,” the EP previews.
As Season 2 progresses, Faith is “slowly figuring out what this is and how to trust Luke. He’s a reporter, and the relationship between law enforcement and journalists naturally has some conflict, which is good for us, and they have great chemistry.”
Will Trent airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on ABC (with episodes streaming next day on Hulu).
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