The loss of Amanda Wagner (Sonja Sohn) loomed large in Tuesday’s (April 21) new episode of Will Trent. Warning: Spoilers for Will Trent Season 4, Episode 16, “Our Last Dance,” ahead!
The shocking death of the GBI Deputy Director was crushing to the crew from the moment her body was wheeled away in an ambulance, with a prayer ringing out in the opening scenes’ narration. From there, Will (Ramón Rodríguez) summoned Caroline (Christina Wren) to track Amanda’s activities from the last few days in hopes of gaining a lead on Adelaide (Mallory Jansen) and, ultimately, Uncle Antonio (John Ortiz).
Meanwhile, Evelyn Mitchell (LisaGay Hamilton), Amanda’s best friend, came back to console Faith (Iantha Richardson), offer some intel on Amanda’s covert activities, and pay her respects to Amanda in the morgue. “I’ll be sure to grab that dress you like for the funeral, the one that you said makes you look like Angela Bassett. I still think you’re reaching, honey. Feels so cold, Mandy,” she said. “You don’t do cold well. I don’t know what the world looks like without you in it, but I guess I’m going to have to figure that out, right? You took care of everyone all the time. Now it’s our turn to take care of you. We’re going to get it done, girl. This is our last dance.”
Will and Faith clashed over his tactics — including beating up a bartender so badly that he bit his tongue off and could no longer talk — and while chasing another lead, Michael Ormewood (Jake McLaughlin) reminded Will that his grief wasn’t any bigger than Faith’s, since she was practically raised by Amanda from infancy.
Faith and Franklin (Kevin Daniels) soon discovered the identity of the man who killed Amanda, a school teacher, and found that he was summarily murdered himself to close up a loose end. Meanwhile, Will and Ormewood caught up with the Commander a.k.a. Alexander Stewart, just in time to save him from being murdered himself.
Will interrogated Alexander, using his words this time to say, “I know you don’t care, but I’m going to tell you a little bit about Amanda Wagner. Amazing woman. She was more than a boss to me. She was my Adelaide, plucked me out of obscurity. She was my mentor. Made me who I am today, just like Adelaide did for you. The only difference: Amanda Wagner never tried to kill me.”
That’s when the guy agreed to spill the beans on the other acolytes, and they were rounded up … those that were still alive, that is.
Soon, the team realized why Adelaide was sticking around in Atlanta: Her funding had dried up after her accountant quit, and she was waiting to boost what was left of James Ulster’s (Greg Germann) hidden stash of cash, which he left to Janice-Teresa (Wynn Everett). After some prodding by Franklin, she revealed that she, too, was duped by Adelaide into thinking Ulster was still alive and waiting for her. In exchange for getting to keep her phone so she could continue making her viral videos, she revealed the location of the money, allowing Will to finally catch up to Adelaide.
Though Adelaide did give Will proof of life for Antonio — showing him a video of his uncle wasting away in handcuffs without access to water or food — she didn’t reveal his location. Instead, she offered to give that information to the team if Will killed himself; the other option was for her to die by suicide and never tell him where to find Antonio. Instead, a wayward frisbee distracted her enough to be disarmed and almost apprehended by Faith. However, Will shot her in the back, since he realized she had a gun in her ankle holster and would’ve shot Faith (or possibly herself) instead of being arrested. She then died without breathing a word about Antonio’s location.
Luckily, Adelaide’s video held enough clues for him to suss it out. The sounds of a train and rundown appearance of his location tipped them off to an abandoned station, where he found Antonio alive and mostly still well.
At the hospital, Antonio reassured Will that he had no reason to feel guilty for what happened to him: “I have breath in my lungs because of you. You, mijo. Don’t you ever forget that,” he said.
After that, the focus shifted back to Amanda, as the GBI and APB gathered at a bar for a celebration of life.
There, Captain Heller (Todd Allen Durkin) was the first to eulogize her by saying, “Most of you know Deputy Director Amanda Wagner as strict, intimidating, badass. But for some of us old-timers, she was Wags. We came up through the ranks together, and I can confirm that even back then, she was a badass,” he said, with the whole crowd chiming in to echo that last word.
Faith was the next to speak and said, “Well, Amanda had more faith in me than I did. She would always tell me to do better, to be better. She saw potential. She had this really great gift of meeting you where you were, seeing who you could be, and pushing you down that path no matter how stubborn you were.” She then said she was laying claim to Amanda’s fabulous coats and toasted to “the best to ever do it.”
As for Will, who didn’t make it to this touching sendoff, he was instead back in his office looking at at a photo of Amanda. As he lifted his recorder to say something, he realized he had no words and shut it off.
Clearly, Will is still going to be feeling this loss for quite some time.
Will Trent, Tuesdays, 8/7c, ABC