It’s the episode we’ve all been waiting for — Amanda Wagner’s character-centric.
At the end of Will Trent Season 2 Episode 4, Amanda received a threatening phone call, had a nail in her tire, and found another message in the elevator.
Spoilers for Will Trent Season 2 Episode 5 indicate that the attacks against Amanda are personal. Before the GBI can narrow the suspects down much, Amanda is found hovering over a dead body.
This person doesn’t just want Amanda to suffer; they want her framed for murder. The race is on to clear Amanda’s name and learn who has a long-time grudge against her.
This will be a fun, deep dive into Amanda’s past. If they delve into any of Amanda’s old cases, we will probably see the younger Amanda (Sydney Park).
Amanda Wagner is a fierce female. She’s had to work hard to prove that she was more than her father’s daughter and she deserved to be a cop.
With her bad temper and hard heart, she made lots of enemies over the years. She was a tough old bird who had been hurt, didn’t trust many people, and had high expectations of others.
It’s not hard to imagine that she had an entire box of hate mail or that some of it contained letters from current and former employees.
So often, Amanda appears strong since that was how she was raised, and she’s put on a believable front in front of Will and Faith. In the promo, they sound almost as hurt as they do worried that she didn’t confide in them earlier.
It would be a conflict of interest for Will and Faith to dig into Amanda’s past once they found her with a dead body, which we have so many questions about.
Amanda is mean and tough, but as law enforcement, she would never kill someone unless they attacked her first. It would be too easy for that to be her stalker, so he has to be collateral damage in his quest to hurt Amanda.
Those nails have to have another meaning, too, like he’s almost literally trying to drive a nail in her coffin. I’m almost positive it’s connected to an old case.
Maybe she sent a murderer to prison, and now he’s been released 30 years later and wants revenge.
The main problem is that Amanda may not know who to trust anymore since the APD took over the case, and Will and Faith will probably battle Angie and Michael for control. It might feel demeaning to Amanda to depend on her “surrogate” children to rescue her.
But in reality, she’ll need to reveal the truth to Will so he can help her. Their relationship is so fragile right now that she’s probably unsure if Will can handle learning any more truths about her past without damaging their relationship further.
This Amanda-centric will allow the series to flesh out her character more as we learn more about her time as a detective in the 1980s and what decisions have haunted her for years.
It will be interesting to see how the present intertwined with the past, like with the Will Trent Season 1 finale, and if the GBI can help Amanda move on from this.
While delving into Amanda’s past is the episode’s central focus, Det. Ormewood also gets some attention as he struggles with being a single dad. Connotations like these give single dads a bad name.
Fathers can care for their kids and work just as well as mothers, but if they’re going to show Michael struggling to get his kids off to school, prepare lunches, or keep the house organized for a few days, it looks bad.
It gives credence to Gina that she felt overworked and undervalued for working and running a household. Maybe he will appreciate Gina more after he sees how much she does, balancing both a career and a household.
Now that Gina has left him, I’m afraid Michael will revert to form and become angry and argumentative. That could affect his relationships with his children and his job.
Erika Christensen teased in an earlier interview that the APD and the GBI combine forces to solve a case around Episode 5, and they don’t cooperate well together.
That would fit with this case because even if Amanda drives Will and Faith crazy sometimes, she’s family to them, and the two of them would do anything to prove her innocence and determine who is really after Amanda.
On the other hand, Michael enjoys sticking it to Will. While the men have managed to pull an uneasy truce, his marital issues could have him on edge and make him snap.
This could cause Angie to referee the two men as she had to in Will Trent Season 1 Episode 4, and they’ve all matured since then.
Over to you, Will Trent Fanatics. What do you hope to see in “Capt. Duke Wagner’s Daughter?” Who do you think has been targeting Amanda? Has Michael turned to the dark side again?
We would love to hear your thoughts, so drop your comments below.
Will Trent airs at 8/7c on Tuesdays on ABC and streams on Hulu the next day.
Laura Nowak is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on X.
