The ABC detective procedural show Will Trent presents one of the most intense and gripping plots in this week’s episode 5 of season 2, as a very real threat looms over GBI deputy director Amanda Wagner. The episode deals almost entirely with this new development, as teased in last week’s episode, in which Amanda received a series of threats from some unknown individual. As Will and the rest of the crew have to investigate the matter, which turns threatening with every minute, dark secrets from the past are revealed, making season 2, episode 5, one of the best episodes in the show so far.
Spoiler Alert
How is Amanda in serious trouble?
Will Trent season 2 episode 4 ended with a threatening message left behind for GBI deputy director Amanda Wagner on the doors of the elevator at the headquarters, with someone promising to be back for revenge against her. This followed a threatening phone call to her personal mobile number and an incident in which someone had punctured her car’s tires with nails. Naturally, the last incident with the elevator doors leaves everyone at the office concerned, particularly Will and Faith, who fear that someone might be genuinely wanting to hurt their beloved boss, Amanda. As the two think of those who could have created such a mess, Will comes up with the name of the building’s night janitor, Mr. Garza, and it turns out that the man indeed had some dislike for the GBI deputy director, as he had reported her to HR. It is revealed that the reason for this report was that Garza had the habit of leaving the used, dirty bags inside the trash cans, and Amanda had an argument with him over it.
Will, Faith, and Amanda go over to Garza’s house that evening, hoping to talk with the man and sort things out, but they hear a loud noise just before entering the house. Will and Faith run to the back of the house, where the noise had come from, and they spot a man running away into a parked vehicle. Despite Will holding out his gun and ordering the man to stop, he manages to get into his car and drive away. While the two detectives wonder whether it was Garza and walk back towards the house, they discover Amanda has entered the place and is already amidst a puzzling scene. Will and Faith find Amanda holding the bloodied dead body of the janitor, Mr. Garza, claiming that she had tried to help him survive, but to no avail. This scene causes a stir in the GBI, for the very deputy director has been found with a murder victim on her lap, with her DNA and fingerprints all over the crime scene. Although nobody really believes that Amanda might have been involved in the murder, she has temporarily put off the post, and the director, Edie Reynolds, takes over.
Because of the sensitive nature of the investigation, the GBI detectives are also not allowed to participate, and so the APD officers, Angie and Ormewood, are tasked with the case. Despite this official arrangement, Will and Faith do help their colleagues, often being present with them at the scene as well. While a formal search of Amanda’s house is being made, the situation turns extremely serious for her and the protagonists, for the murder weapon used against Garza, a bloodied antique coffee grinder, is found inside her laundry basket. This obviously puts the deputy director in serious trouble, and she is suspended from her job temporarily until the investigation against her is over. Amanda’s friends remember that when her car’s tires had been slit, making her late to work, she also could not find her home keys for some time. They are now certain that the perpetrator had removed the keys during this very time, had made a duplicate of them, and had now entered her house with them to plant the evidence there. However, the reason behind this framing of the deputy director and the possible suspects in the case still remain very unclear to them, and Amanda’s silence does not help in any way either.
What mistake had Amanda made in the past?
The actual reason behind this sudden vengeful conspiracy against Amanda Wagner was a specific incident from her past, which she remembers very well but is also very scared to share with the others. Many years ago, when Amanda was a young woman serving as a traffic police officer, she spotted a car driving erratically one night while on patrol. Pulling up the car by the side of the road, Amanda asked the driver to show his license, as per protocol, but then spotted some suspicious items in the backseat, like some boxes of nails and some dirty rags. The man on the driver’s seat seemingly tried to stall showing his license, and when Amanda asked him to hurry up, he finally pounced on her, heavily beating her up and tearing her clothes. The man then tried to force himself upon her, which she narrowly avoided with the help of her knife, but he managed to flee the scene. Amanda had to ask for help from another car.
When she looked into the driver’s profile, he found out that the man she had faced, Chuck Murray, was the lead suspect in multiple rape cases, in which he used nails to puncture the tires of his victims’ cars, waited for them to stop helplessly, and then forced himself upon them. Although Amanda was understandably disgusted by the experience she had that night, she could not really tell anyone about it. During those times of great inequality, or even today, for that matter, a woman police officer being overpowered by a male perpetrator would only be used to discourage women from joining the police force. In fact, Amanda’s own father, the erstwhile police chief, advised her not to tell anyone about the incident, and despite hating herself for doing so, Amanda kept the whole matter a secret.
However, she had become hell-bent on catching Chuck and putting him behind bars, and she managed to oversee the man getting arrested within some time. But Chuck managed to threaten one of his victims into silence, ensuring that she would not agree to testify against him in court. This woman was a very important witness, and without her testimony, the case fell flat, and the judge acquitted Chuck Murray, setting him free. Only a week later, Chuck was arrested by the police with unlawful amounts of cocaine at his house, and this criminal case finally put him behind bars for thirty years. Amanda admits to Will that it was she who had planted false evidence, the cocaine, at the man’s house only in order to get him arrested and put in prison, and this was the mistake she had committed in her past.
Despite her intention to rid the streets of a terrible abuser and to protect numerous other women against Chuck’s horrific brutality, Amanda had falsely set up his arrest. Will is also shocked to know this, as the biggest stickler for rules had broken such a major one in her past. In this manner, Will Trent season 2, episode 5 raises the question of whether Amanda’s decision could be supported since she essentially misused the power of being a police officer to put a man in prison. Although the man was genuinely a vile character, with numerous crimes committed, this was perhaps not the correct and lawful way to put him away. Therefore, Chuck always kept a strong hatred in his mind against the woman, and he promised to punish her in a similar manner as soon as he could.
Thirty years had passed, and Chuck was finally out of prison, and he had immediately gotten involved in a detailed revenge plot against Amanda. Chuck got to know the night janitor, Mr. Garza and possibly befriended him on the basis of their mutual hatred against the GBI deputy director. He then also kidnapped Garza’s daughter, Leann, and essentially made the janitor do everything he wanted, which included stealing Amanda’s house keys and also leaving violent messages of threat for her. He then kills Garza to falsely plant the murder weapon in Amanda’s house in order to falsely make her seem like the perpetrator.
Can Chuck Murray finally be caught?
Despite her usual tough exterior, Amanda Wagner breaks down in this case because of the horrifying memories of the past as well as the fear that Chuck might finally get to her. After all, she does carry the guilt of having planted false evidence deep in her mind, and this is why she once thought of admitting her crime and clearing Chuck’s name. Will initially stops her from doing so just yet, and he also brings her to his own house to stay in order to avoid the reporters covering the news. The next morning, as Will and Amanda are out on the run, she is suddenly swarmed by a SWAT team and brought down. The reason for this sudden development is that someone had falsely called the SWAT team anonymously, stating that Amanda was a threat to the children at the local park. Once again, it is definitely Chuck who called in this crime as part of his revenge, and he probably used Leann to make the call, as she was still his hostage.
Following this incident, Amanda decides to admit her mistake from the past to the public and surrender her professional role in the GBI once and for all. However, she does not ultimately have to do so, as Angie and Ormewood are able to find Leann at Chuck’s house, along with a lot of evidence of his plan against the GBI deputy director. In the end, Chuck himself makes an entry into the scene, wanting to kill Amanda after successfully crashing into her car. It is Will Trent who comes to Amanda’s rescue, as he shoots and kills Chuck first before he can do any harm to her. Thus, Chuck cannot be arrested in the end, but he has to be killed to ensure that Amanda is safe.
Amanda Wagner also does not have to reveal to the public the incidents from her past or the unlawful acts she committed, but those close to her surely get to know about them. The two colleagues closest to her, Will and Faith, are left stunned and also extremely hurt and ashamed, for they both were very dedicated to their profession, and both looked up to Amanda as the ideal role model. This episode indeed goes on to prove that not everyone is perfect at all times, no matter how professionally flawless they might look. The evidence found at Chuck’s house is enough to prove him to have personal vengeance against Amanda, and this is enough to publicly close the case.
Does Antonio Miranda make an appearance?
Along with the main plot, the episode also deals with a few personal matters for the central characters, as always. Firstly, Michael Ormewood’s wife, Gina, had left the house at the end of the previous episode, and while it had seemed like she had taken the kids with her, this was actually not the case. Therefore, Ormewood now has to deal with the task of getting the kids ready for school and himself preparing to leave for work. While he initially has no idea where Gina is, it is later revealed that the woman found her current situation in life too overwhelming and had gotten herself admitted to a mental health wellness facility. Although Ormewood is angry after hearing this at first, as he does not consider it to be a serious enough matter, he eventually supports Gina by being with their children and running the house. At the very end of the episode, Will receives a call from his estranged uncle, Antonio Miranda, his only living relative, and he is overjoyed to hear back from him. After leaving him a message on his voicemail, Will had probably not expected to hear from his uncle and thought that he, too, would avoid him, like everyone else in life. Although Antonio does not make an appearance in this episode, he is bound to be seen in next week’s episode, as Will sets up a meeting with him, excited to see a blood relative for the very first time.
