ABC is bringing the pages of Karin Slaughter’s Will Trent book series to life in a television show of the same name. The series follows the character of Will Trent, a special agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigations (GBI). His past doesn’t make him the most popular among the other characters, but he is successful. Read on for a recap of the series premiere of Will Trent.
The premiere introduces Will Trent as a unique GBI agent
The Will Trent premiere begins with Abigail, played by the marvelous Jennifer Morrison, on the phone with her husband, Paul, played by the iconic Mark-Paul Gosselaar. She is understandably upset that he cheated on her with their trainer. But as she’s walking into their house, Abigail sees broken glass and deduces that someone has broken in. Despite Paul’s pleas, she enters the home to check on their 16-year-old daughter, Emma.
Inside, Abigail finds a bloody man standing over what appears to be Emma’s dead body. They stumble down the stairs, and Abigail gets the upper hand. She strangles the unknown man to death with her tennis racket. Ladies and gentlemen, we have our first murder case.
The next scene shows Will Trent, who just took down a group of corrupt police officers, trying to drop off his dead neighbor’s abandoned chihuahua, Betty, at an animal shelter. But when he finds out it isn’t no-kill, Will keeps Betty. As they drive away, viewers see that someone vandalized his car with the words “rat,” “snitch,” and “traitor.”
Will’s boss, Deputy Director Amanda Wagner, picks him up to take him to the aforementioned crime scene. There, Will starts reading the crime scene and realizes he knows the victim’s father. When Paul arrives, he identifies the woman’s dead body as Emma’s friend Kayla, not Emma.
Will deduces that Kayla’s killer stabbed the man Abigail later killed, and he took Emma. The police identify the dead man as Adam Humphrey, a freshman at a local college.
The search is on for Emma and the killer
Elsewhere in the premiere of Will Trent, the episode introduces viewers to Detective Angie Polaski, who is currently working undercover and is allegedly a recovering drug addict. However, she takes drugs while trying to bust a dealer.
After surveying the crime scene, Will discovers that whoever kidnapped Emma also took her car. Angie finds the vehicle while waiting to bust the supplier, and she calls Will to tell him where it is. It’s clear that they have history together. But that’s a story for another time, we guess.
Detective Michael Ormewood arrives at the crime scene and is visibly upset that the GBI pulled him away from his homicide case to look for a “trust fund runaway.” And he obviously dislikes Will. But as Ormewood’s coming, Will leaves with his new partner, Detective Faith Mitchell, to look at the car. They find blood in the trunk, and a camera from a music studio pointed directly at where the vehicle is.
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A dyslexic man working at the studio lets Will and Faith look at the videotapes. They show that the suspect switched vehicles and a second kidnapper drove away with Emma.
Ormewood digs deeper into Adam’s life and finds out he was friends with Emma, not Kayla. While using force to interrogate Adam’s roommate, his partner, Kenny, has a stroke.
Will and Faith exchange some heated words while sitting in traffic. And Will realizes that Faith’s mother was one of the corrupt cops he busted. At the GBI office, Will and Paul get into a physical fight when Will suggests that Paul was sleeping with Kayla. And he shares that they grew up in the same foster home together.
The deal with Angie’s supplier gets pushed back because of the police presence. But she still gets one of his goons arrested in the Will Trent premiere. And the police captain later assigns her to be Ormewood’s partner in homicide to take her away from the vice division.
Who is the killer in the ‘Will Trent’ premiere?
Toward the end of the Will Trent premiere, Adam’s roommate confesses to Will and Faith that Adam was sleeping with Emma. And someone threatened him to stay away from Emma — he would leave intimidating notes, which Adam’s roommate shows Will and Faith. The message indicates that the perpetrator has dyslexia, leading the partners back to the man at the music studio, Warren.
Will and Faith return to the studio, where they find Warren high on drugs and locked in the recording studio. He confesses to killing Kayla and says his partner told him to kill himself. Warren shoots himself in the head, leading the investigators with no leads. But Will and Faith make amends and agree to be partners going forward.
At his house, Will finds Angie sitting on his couch — she has a key. The show reveals that Angie was in the group home with Will and Paul. Will and Angie also have a romantic past, which is evident when they start making out. When she takes his shirt off, there are visible scars on Will’s chest and back.
Later, when the police send Will some of Emma’s school files, we find out that Will has dyslexia. And Paul shows up at Will’s doorstep in a bloody shirt. He claims that he shot the man who abducted Emma.
Will Trent airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on ABC. Fans can watch the premiere of Will Trent on Hulu on Wednesday, Jan. 4.
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