Will Trent just dropped not one, but two bombshells on its audience that will permanently alter the lives of our title character and his on-again/off-again girlfriend, Detective Angie Polaski.
Will Trent just dropped not one, but two bombshells on its audience that will permanently alter the lives of our title character and his on-again/off-again girlfriend, Detective Angie Polaski.
First, the penultimate Season 3 episode revealed that Angie is pregnant with Dr. Seth McDale’s baby. Then we found out that Bradford County Sheriff Caleb Rousard (played by Yul Vazquez) is Will’s biological father.
The episode marked series star Erika Christensen‘s directorial debut — and it was quite the feat. Not only did she help shape quieter moments that would forever change the trajectory of the show, but she also set the stage for a bioterrorism attack in next week’s season-ender — an hour of television that co-showrunner Daniel Thomsen previously told me is “the biggest episode we’ve ever attempted.” When it begins, the hospital is on lockdown, and Ormewood, Seth, Nico and Betty (!) are all trapped inside. Only time will tell if they all make it out alive.
Below, Christensen unpacks Angie’s Season 3 journey and her directorial debut, and tees up an extremely intense finale (airing Tuesday, May 13 at 8/7c)
TVLINE | Now, unless IMDb has failed me — and it has failed me before, so correct me if I’m wrong — this is your directorial debut?
It is! I’ve directed short films before this that, understandably, had never made their way to IMDb, so this is it. This is the first time I’ve directed network television, for sure, which is a very specific beast.
TVLINE | I’ve interviewed actors about directing episodes of their shows before, but usually it’s an episode where A) he or she is not in it much, and B) it doesn’t alter the entire trajectory of the show.
You’re right. The real behind-the-scenes scoop is that I was slated to direct a different episode. Because of two big scheduling factors, things got all swapped around, we ended up shooting them out of order, and I ended up shooting a different episode, so there was a whole lot going on. I loved the Will/Caleb storyline, and I had such a great time exploring with those guys, both of whom I have known forever — my old friends. And then Angie and Seth’s storyline, too… I just loved exploring that, and playing with [recurring guest star] Scott [Foley]. He, himself, is a director, so we had fun debating various shots. He had fun disagreeing with me. [Laughs] But yeah, I’m so grateful for it. I’m just blown away by what a great script I managed to get a hold of.
TVLINE | I’d typically ask if there was one scene, in particular, that you found most difficult or most gratifying to shoot, or the most pressure to get right. But watching this one, with your directorial debut in mind, I clocked at least a half-dozen scenes — whether it was the stuff with Will and Caleb, Angie finding out that she’s pregnant, Amanda confronting Caleb after learning that he’s Will’s father or—
It’s all of the above! The biggest day was the day where we shot both our introduction to Caleb, in front of the [house], and then that whole crime scene culminating with the cat and the broken glass. There was a lot to shoot. And I had my heart set on that reveal of Caleb — giving him sort of a villain’s introduction — and then we were all just, like, “Oh, God! How many things could go wrong with the cat and the stunt at the crime scene?” But everyone stepped up — the stunts and effects, everybody. Even the cat was such a pro! And the actor [Michael Hanson] who plays Deputy Kenny just killed it. It was brilliant. But going into it, that was the biggest, scariest day.
And then it was really gratifying to explore the scene where Caleb comes to Will’s house. I loved that. I love that so much because they’re not the most equipped men to deal with the situation that they find themselves in, so finding the dynamics, and what kinds of emotions would come up for them as they try to relate to each other — or, in Caleb’s case, trying to relate to Will —and Will inadvertently being won over by the end of the episode…. They end up at least developing respect for each other.
The other most gratifying thing was the very last shot of the episode. The writers and I had some very different iterations of what the end of the episode might be. The initial script was actually completely different, and then it was rearranged. for time we lost a whole, a whole kind of finale scene. And so then, working with just. the hospital and the interrogation room. I became obsessed with the relationship between the interrogation room and the hospital, and that final shot — that crescendo of chaos. I was obsessed. We actually shot that on Day 1, so when we got that, I was on cloud nine.
