What To Know
- The newest episode of Will Trent put Amanda (Sonja Sohn) back in the line of fire.
- After, she had to confront the trauma she’s been quietly dealing with all season long.
[Warning: The following post contains MAJOR spoilers for Will Trent Season 4 Episode 8, “We’re Looking for a Vampire”]
Amanda Wagner (Sonja Sohn) has barely been able to stand on her own two feet — quite literally speaking — after being shot last season, but Tuesday’s (February 24) episode put her right back into the line of fire.
Amanda, who took a bullet in the chest to protect Angie (Erika Christensen) during the APB hostage crisis of the Season 3 finale, has been grappling with her injuries and subsequent limitations — along with the unwanted presence of the ambitious acting director who’s been filling in for her — ever since. But on Tuesday’s episode, she tried to return to her happy place and do some shopping at a swanky fashion boutique.
It soon became a nightmare, though, after she heard bullets and screams ring out and found a security guard shot to death by a masked assailant in the store. The shooter spotted her crawling near a display and pointed a gun right at her head, and Amanda closed her eyes in a moment of panic … until a little girl came out of the dressing room, confused by the sight, and Amanda leapt into action, disarming one of the perps and sending the other running out of the door.
After, Amanda holed up in a dressing room, crying to herself until Michael Ormewood (Jake McLaughlin) arrived to talk her through it.
“I’m not a hero. I froze. I almost died, again,” Amanda said. “No, no, you stopped a violent situation. You saved a girl’s life. Yes, you did, and now you’re in shock, and that’s a completely normal response for something like this. Trust me. You just need a little oxygen and some water. I’m going to help you, OK? C’mon. I got you,” Ormewood said in response.
That didn’t assuage her feelings of trauma, though. Later, while in the bathroom, she hallucinated the robber bursting from a stall and putting the gun to her head again — this time, pulling the trigger. Luckily, Faith (Iantha Richardson) walked in, recognized her struggle, and helped her walk out — staying at her side as the deputy director gleefully told Amanda there’d be an internal affairs investigation over the shooting.
After the case of the day was solved — after the GBI found a victim who was drained of her blood, a guy who believed he was a vampire became a key suspect, but proved to be innocent — Amanda decided to turn back to Michael for some words of wisdom.
Knowing Michael was a war veteran, she asked him, “You saw some action in Afghanistan, right? … How did you … when you got back, did…”
Though she couldn’t finish her question, he knew what she was asking and replied with, “Well, at first, I couldn’t talk about it. I didn’t want to relive it, so I ignored it. All that did was make me angry. I got to the point where I’d look in the mirror, and I didn’t know who the hell I was looking at. And then Gina, she found a meeting that I could go to, and that helped. I actually think if I’d have gone earlier, my marriage might’ve been better. I might not have done some of the things I’m ashamed of now. Yeah, talking helps.”
Then, Amanda continued her assertion that she “froze,” saying, “When that man had his gun to my head, I knew I was dead. I froze. In that moment, I froze. And it got me killed.” However, Michael pointed out that’s not what actually happened and encouraged her to say what really did transpire.
“A child appeared… I protected her. No one else died,” she said. At his prompting, she then finished by adding what happened to her, “I lived.”
It was another emotionally poignant moment buried in a chaotic case for Will Trent, but it was a necessary one for sure. Up ’til now, Amanda has seemed unbreakable, but now we know the depth of her suffering — and that she has people who can and want to help her through it.
It’s also the culmination of a promise executive producer Liz Heldens made when teasing Season 4 before its premiere, as she said, “With both Amanda and Ormewood, we wanted to challenge ourselves to show the ripples and the repercussions of being so severely wounded in the line of duty and what it means to have brain surgery and chemo… He’s defined himself by being masculine and capable, and that’s kind of his thing, and they’re both kind of diminished, and we’ve had fun playing with that pairing later in the season, and so we’re really excited by the work that both of those actors have done this season.”
Will Trent, Tuesdays, 8/7c, ABC
