Will Trent Bosses Reflect On 2 Major Deaths In Last 4 Episodes — And Tease Season 5 Shake-Up
By Ryan Schwartz May 5, 2026 9:02 pm EST
Will Trent Bosses Reflect On 2 Major Deaths In Last 4 Episodes — And Tease Season 5 Shake-Up
The « Will Trent » Season 4 finale delivers another devastating blow: Just four episodes after the ABC drama said goodbye to GBI Deputy Director Amanda Wagner (Sonja Sohn), Angie Polaski’s husband, Dr. Seth McDale (Scott Foley), is killed off in shocking fashion, upending Angie’s life just as she welcomes their daughter into the world. (Read our Erika Christensen Q&A here.)
This latest loss also alters Will’s life. Two years after he torpedoed his relationship with Angie — prioritizing his duty as a member of law enforcement over their chance at a happily ever after — the pathologically scrupulous GBI agent takes administrative leave to help raise Edie as her mom struggles to recover, both physically and emotionally, over the course of the following year.
Once Will and Angie return to work, a major shift is already underway, with a joint APD-GBI task force headed up by Faith, and a new GBI deputy director incoming — poised to shake up the existing power structure.
In a post-mortem with TVLine, co-showrunners Liz Heldens, Karine Rosenthal, and Daniel Thomsen unpack the decision to kill off Seth, reflect on the emotional fallout from Amanda’s death, and preview how Season 5 will build on the changes implemented by the finale.
HELDENS | What happens when he’s destabilized like that? His work has always been the place where he feels safe and protected. To remove that protection is interesting from a story point. It’s interesting as far as setting up some new dynamics in Season 5.
It’s a change for everybody. It’s certainly a change for Faith. Amanda believed in Faith and Will. She put Faith with Will for a reason, and she looked out for both of them — so what happens if you remove that and replace her with somebody who doesn’t have all that history with both of them?
ROSENTHAL | We did. And then when we saw the wedding, we were just like, « Oh my God, how are we even…? » It was awful. We felt like horrible, horrible people. It was so beautiful.
HELDENS | And we were, like, « What else can we do? » Both of these deaths were very hard, and there was a lot of debate in the writers’ room. But yeah, we did have that on our mind to get Angie and Will back in each other’s orbit.
TVLINE | There was a lot of fan anxiety this season that something like this might happen to Seth — and that elevator stabbing a few weeks back really seemed to heighten it. Watching it, I feared it was a setup for Seth to realize all too late how badly he was bleeding internally, which is ultimately what happens here. Was that designed as a fake-out, knowing how his story ends?ROSENTHAL | I think it was. [Laughs]
THOMSEN | To me, specifically the stabbing wasn’t it, but as we were writing the episode, you were supposed to think like, « Oh no, there’s a gunman and Seth is being forced to [treat this patient] at gunpoint… » So yeah, the smart audience — the audience that’s seen 10,000 hours of an ABC soap — is going to be, like, « Oh, he’s not getting out of this one alive. »
ROSENTHAL | Yeah. So it wasn’t the stabbing, but yeah, exactly. We did think it was almost, like, « Get ready! »
HELDENS | But we also wanted to get the most out of Scott Foley while we had him. He is just a wonderful man, and I want to work with him many more times in my career. And it was fun to get him in an action sequence on our show, and it was fun to give him some hero moments.
ROSENTHAL | Yes. And my only reason for saying she’s not going to resign is because I’m, like, « She can’t! » It was bad enough when she had to go on desk duty, you know? When she couldn’t go out in the field because she was too pregnant. Poor Erika was such a trooper wearing that belly the entire season.
ROSENTHAL | The relationship between those two montages is, of course, not by accident. At the end of Season 2, it was Will making this choice that his job was more important than this woman and their relationship. Now, having another decision point and saying, « I’m going to put the job on hold to be here 100% for this person who needs me, » we wanted to bring him to that new [place], and bring the two of them to a new place in their relationship.
HELDENS | But it was also for him, too. Because I think it would have been really bad if Will had just gone on working and not stopped, and not taken some space and had some hope. I mean, what’s more hopeful than a baby? Just looking into that kid’s eyes and seeing there’s more to life than murder. There’s life and joy and routines that need to be set up, and all the stuff that you have to do when you’re nesting with a new baby. It just seemed quite beautiful to us…
Talk to us at the end of next season, and we’ll let you know whether this person who just got arrested and taken away in handcuffs, or the person who just got promoted and is going to be around long term, whether that was a plan or a pivot. [Laughs]
THOMSEN | Did you guys watch « Murphy Brown » back in the day? We could do a season where we just fire the deputy director every episode.
ROSENTHAL | Ditto. Faith is a character who can hold a lot of emotions inside and is pretty controlled. Even seeing the emotion with Amanda’s death was unusual, but even then you saw her really taking that on herself, not really sharing that. So the outrage and the desire to protect on behalf of others really allows her to express a lot, and come alive in a way that is a different type of color for the actor to play, and allows us to see a different side of this character.
Will Trent Bosses Reflect On 2 Major Deaths In Last 4 Episodes — And Tease Season 5 Shake-Up
By Ryan Schwartz May 5, 2026 9:02 pm EST The « Will Trent » Season 4 finale delivers another devastating blow: Just four episodes after the ABC drama said goodbye to GBI Deputy Director Amanda Wagner (Sonja Sohn), Angie Polaski’s husband, Dr. Seth McDale (Scott Foley), is killed off in shocking fashion, upending Angie’s life just as she welcomes their daughter into the world. (Read our Erika Christensen Q&A here.) This latest loss also alters Will’s life. Two years after he torpedoed his relationship with Angie — prioritizing his duty as a member of law enforcement over their chance at a happily ever after — the pathologically scrupulous GBI agent takes administrative leave to help raise Edie as her mom struggles to recover, both physically and emotionally, over the course of the following year. Once Will and Angie return to work, a major shift is already underway, with a joint APD-GBI task force headed up by Faith, and a new GBI deputy director incoming — poised to shake up the existing power structure. In a post-mortem with TVLine, co-showrunners Liz Heldens, Karine Rosenthal, and Daniel Thomsen unpack the decision to kill off Seth, reflect on the emotional fallout from Amanda’s death, and preview how Season 5 will build on the changes implemented by the finale.
Then as far as what else it opens up for him, part of what we were playing in last week’s episode was this feeling of she was always part of why he was doing this, the person who was protecting him, taking him down the road. Now he doesn’t have that anymore. I think it’s a whole new stage of growth where he’s going to have to do [things] on his own without her there to protect him — or to be almost a false obstacle. He could call her the obstacle — like, « Amanda’s not believing in me, Amanda’s giving me a hard time » — but really, she was protecting him the whole time. Now he really has to stand on his own two feet in a way that perhaps he hasn’t realized was a next level of growth for him, especially when we bring in a new deputy director of the GBI that he’ll have to contend with.
ROSENTHAL | A great idea. We’re wide open to both things. We haven’t landed on that. And I think in the same way that the character of Ormewood started off as kind of a bad cop, and he was going to be kind of more of an antagonist — and then Jake McLaughlin was just so delightful and we realized that everything we handed him, he could knock out of the park, and he had so many different colors that it was, like, « We’ve got to use him differently » — I think that you always start with some sort of plan, and then you see what you’re getting and you pivot.
By Ryan Schwartz May 5, 2026 9:02 pm EST
ROSENTHAL | Yeah, We’re leaning towards a lot closer. We did the time jump early.
The « Will Trent » Season 4 finale delivers another devastating blow: Just four episodes after the ABC drama said goodbye to GBI Deputy Director Amanda Wagner (Sonja Sohn), Angie Polaski’s husband, Dr. Seth McDale (Scott Foley), is killed off in shocking fashion, upending Angie’s life just as she welcomes their daughter into the world. (Read our Erika Christensen Q&A here.) This latest loss also alters Will’s life. Two years after he torpedoed his relationship with Angie — prioritizing his duty as a member of law enforcement over their chance at a happily ever after — the pathologically scrupulous GBI agent takes administrative leave to help raise Edie as her mom struggles to recover, both physically and emotionally, over the course of the following year. Once Will and Angie return to work, a major shift is already underway, with a joint APD-GBI task force headed up by Faith, and a new GBI deputy director incoming — poised to shake up the existing power structure. In a post-mortem with TVLine, co-showrunners Liz Heldens, Karine Rosenthal, and Daniel Thomsen unpack the decision to kill off Seth, reflect on the emotional fallout from Amanda’s death, and preview how Season 5 will build on the changes implemented by the finale.
