“Will Trent” Episode 4, features two double murders at Stone Mountain Park in Georgia that are connected to some sort of religious vengeance. While the GBI and the APD detectives had earlier only been helping each other at times, this episode also has them working together to solve the case. As Will, Faith, Angie, and Ormewood search the woods for clues and look into potential future victims, some more personal worries are revealed, both to us viewers and to some of the characters.
Spoilers Ahead
‘Will Trent’ Episode 4: Recap And Ending
The episode begins with two podcasters recording a program inside Stone Mountain Park, and their focus seems to be to find a local legend known as the howling man. This man, as they explain in their podcast, has been heard multiple times howling like a wolf inside the forest and is believed to be stuck between the worlds of the living and the dead. Just as one of the podcasters was dismissing the other’s claim that their cousin had seen the howling man, they heard loud gunshots and then the sound of a car crashing into something. The two run towards the noise and find a car that has run straight into a tree, but the shocked survivors, Judith and Henry, explain what has happened. As the elderly couple was driving down the road, a shirtless man frantically ran out of the forest all of a sudden, and the car hit him before it could be slowed down. It was from the impact of this hit that the car swerved and smashed into a tree. Although Judith and Henry survive the accident without any major physical harm, the man who has been hit is in a far worse condition. The two podcasters are shocked to see that the man’s eyes are completely white, suggesting that he is blind. As they call up the authorities and the man is rushed to the nearest hospital, the two realize that this is the same howling man they had been looking for.
Amanda Wagner calls up GBI special agent Will Trent to inform him about this incident, saying that the park police were asking for the GBI’s help in solving what they believe is a case of a possible kidnapping. Will meets with Angie at the hospital, and a simple look at the suffering man’s body reveals that he had been tortured and also held captive somewhere against his will. Ormewood interrogates the elderly couple, but their son Tom soon walks in and takes them away, asking the police to let them rest after the stressful ordeal. The man who was hit by the car finally dies, and before this, he names his killer as someone named Timothy. The four detectives visit the crime scene next and also talk with the podcasters, asking for their recordings. It is at the crime scene, a little way inside the woods that Will makes the next discovery—a bloodied rope, a driving license belonging to Phineas Lathrop, and then a dead body hanging from a tree. This man is found to have died from gunshot wounds, and that explains the sound the podcasters had heard. Will deduces that the two men, Arthur Tealy (the first victim) and Phineas Lathrop, were held hostage by the perpetrator against their will and then possibly escaped from the place. It was during their escape that Arthur was killed in the incident, while Phineas was found by the perpetrator and shot dead. Both of these men were blind, and as the medical examiner reveals, they had been intentionally poisoned by someone. Jequirity seeds, which are a naturally growing poison, had been rubbed in their eyes, and traces of this poison were also found inside their bodies too. This meant that the perpetrator was using the poison to keep the hostages under control, but the reason for the blinding still remains a mystery to Will.
The four return to the woods the next day to find out where the men were possibly kept hostage and eventually find the spot. An underground room had been made by the murderer, with its ceiling covered with leaves and shrubs, and Ormewood literally falls into it to discover it, hurting his ankle in the process. Investigating this room, the detectives realize that the murderer was actually meting out some biblical punishment, as the place bears signs of this. A diary that has the same verse from the Bible written over and over again in different handwriting explains that there had actually been many more victims before. Next, they also find a kneeler that is used in churches, except that the tool has big, sharp shards of glass sticking out of it, intended to hurt anyone who would use it. This kneeler, specifically a label stuck on it, leads Will and Faith to a local church, from where the tool was apparently stolen, as the pastor claims.
While Will asks for a list of volunteers at the church, Faith notices an advertisement offering jobs in the area for men who are willing to change their lives. This ad also has a verse from the Bible, 1 Timothy 3:8, and it is now clear to the detectives that the perpetrator lures in his victims in this manner. At the same time, Angie and Ormewood find the next possible victim, a man named Duke who has been missing for some time now after he had gone to meet with someone regarding a new job. The police track down Duke’s last known location through his motorcycle’s GPS, and Will and Faith head there. While there is no apparent sign of anything suspicious at the spot, Will eventually uses his exceptional skills to find small AFID discs. These AFID, or anti-felon identification, discs are released every time a taser gun is fired to ensure that the gun was not used unlawfully and to leave a record of the gun’s owner. Will and Faith track down the owner of this particular gun, and they are once again led back to the pastor of the local church. The man admits that he owned a taser gun to ensure the safety of the church but refuses to reveal anything more.
The two podcasters, who were the only witnesses to the accident, had also told the detectives about a second green pickup truck that had sped off on that same road shortly after the accident. While Will continued his investigation all this while, Ormewood was of the opinion that it was this green pickup truck they should find. The police detective was already rather upset about the GBI barging into his case, and so Ormewood kept looking into the matter on his own. While interrogating the partner of a man named Paul, who had gone missing in a similar fashion some years ago, the APD detective learns of a young man who would always warn Paul about how God would punish him. Ormewood wastes no time and starts to track this young man, and he is led to an out-of-business dairy farm. Here he finds the same green pickup truck and also a rosary that was also found inside the underground shelter, but then the perpetrator tases Ormewood and takes him hostage. On the other side, Will and Faith speak with the pastor and get him to admit that he knew Judith personally. Before marrying Henry, Judith was in a toxic marriage with a man who would regularly drink and physically assault her.
As it turns out, all the victims of this perpetrator, including Arthur, Phineas, and Duke, had the very same trouble with alcohol. All of them had abandoned or caused harm to their individual families in some way or another, and this is the only common thread between them all. It does not take Will long to deduce what has been happening—Judith and Henry have been kidnapping and poisoning such men for quite some time now. They would keep these men hostage, forcefully blind them, and then kill them in some ruthless way. Along with the two, Judith’s son Tom was also involved in this. Tom had seen his father beat up his mother every night during his childhood days, and this gravely affected the young boy. As a grown man, he was now exacting revenge against his own father by punishing everyone else like him. While Judith and Henry ran over Arthur with their car, Tom shot Phineas dead. Although it is not mentioned whether the pastor was also involved in this scheme, it does seem clear that he knew that something like this had been happening.
After taking Ormewood hostage, Tom tortures him and the other victim, Duke. But Ormewood manages to turn the situation around and get Tom to attack him. With his heavily built physical stature, Ormewood overpowers the young man even though his hands are tied, and he manages to get out of the place along with Duke. At the same time, Will, Faith, and Amanda also rush to their place with the police force and start to look for the APD detective. A scene of hide-and-seek follows as the men all try to find each other, including Tom, who is now holding a gun. But ultimately, Will, Faith, and Amanda corner the man, and he is arrested by the authorities. Despite having his differences with Ormewood, Will shows up when he is in trouble and saves the man from a fatally dangerous situation.
What More Do We Learn About The Characters?
Along with this murder plot, “Will Trent,” Episode 4, also presents the characters with their own internal struggles at this point. Faith had been brought to the hospital by Will, who was gradually opening up to her, at the beginning of the episode. This was to get Faith treated after she supposedly fainted and fell to the ground. Other such small instances of Will trying to understand what is wrong with his partner follow, as Faith does not reveal anything about it. It is not until quite some time into the episode that Faith once again faints, this time in front of Will. Will helps her up, and it is revealed that Faith has been suffering from diabetes. Although the woman is initially upset that Will has read into her normal existence just like he reads a crime scene, she soon becomes more accepting of his help. Will says that he used to help a kid with diabetes back when he was growing up in a foster home, and he offers assistance to Faith in a similar manner. As he applies her insulin medication rather painlessly, Faith now reveals that she has also learned Will’s secret—that he is dyslexic. The two seem to bond more over this, as both had kept this information secret from public knowledge, fearing that they would be looked at and treated differently. Despite dyslexia being a setback, it does not stop Will from becoming a notable detective, and he encourages Faith to keep at her passion despite being diagnosed with diabetes at such a young age.
Will also suffers from internal thoughts following Angie’s confession to him at the end of “Will Trent” Episode 3 about how she got sexually involved with Ormewood one night. Although Will had said that he was fine with this detail, he is clearly not and is rather involved with this thought. He has nightmares about Angie and Ormewood getting intimate on multiple nights, and this also gets in the way of his investigation as it does not let him concentrate. This reaction of Will seems to be stemmed from a sense of jealousy as well as love for Angie, as he does not seem comfortable with the thought of sharing his beloved. Even though they were on a break when this incident happened, Will is as affected as he would have been otherwise. There is also the fact that Angie had a history of drug and alcohol abuse in the past, and she got involved with Ormewood under the influence as well. In the end, Angie asks Will if he fears her returning to drugs, and Will says that he does not. The two finally decide to stay together once again, and “Will Trent” Episode 4 ends with them getting intimate.
What Should We Expect Next From ‘Will Trent’ Episode 5?
With another murder mystery case solved, let us wait and see what crime is brought up in the next episode of “Will Trent.” So far, the eponymous detective’s romantic relationship with Angie seems to be back on, and there is also a sense at the end of “Will Trent” episode 4 that he and Ormewood might also become friends. Even if that does not happen, Will has definitely made a new friend in his partner Faith, as the two now seem to have accepted their differences from the past and decided to help each other in the present. Along with this, Will has also developed a great bond so far in the series with his four-legged friend Betty. Although the man was unwilling to adopt the dog in “Will Trent” episode 1, by now, he has admitted to Angie that he genuinely loves and cares for Betty. The qualities that Will mentions for Betty are abandoned, misunderstood, and underestimated; Will has been considered the same by everyone else in the world too. Therefore, his love for Betty, and vice versa, is a certainty.
