Iantha Richardson Says ‘Faith’s MacGyver Episode’ Was ‘Like a Dance’

[Warning: The following post contains MAJOR spoilers for Will Trent Season 2 Episode 7, “Have You Never Been to a Wedding?”]

The lavish Belvoir Estate in Georgia is the site of action and self-discovery in Will Trent‘s latest episode, airing Tuesday night. In it, Will (Ramón Rodríguez) and Faith (Iantha Richardson) get dressed to the nines to head to the wedding of one of her former friends whom she wants to save face around. Will is only a plus-one of convenience, but he vows to help her look good in front of her frenemy by pretending to be a world-class defense attorney named Ricky Moralis.

Aside from Faith accidentally learning that her son Jeremy (Deion Smith) has left college for a new job, it’s all fun and games for the dynamic duo in the megamansion until gunshots ring out. Suddenly, the entire historic manor is the scene of a hostage situation with the caterers masked, armed, and two bodies deep. Not only is Jeremy one of the guests being held up, but it doesn’t take long for Will to find himself stuck down with the rest of the hostages after being caught snooping on the stairs.

It’s then up to Faith alone to make a stand against the attackers, and without a gun, cellular reception, or even windows that open, she’ll have to improvise in a big way if she hopes to save the day. Arming herself with everyday objects like a red-hot curling iron, a bag of decorative beads, and a dusty fax machine, Faith fights to take the upper hand against the suspects … and suffers some gnarly wounds along the way.  Meanwhile, Will uses his mental manipulation tricks — including a particularly convincing audition for the lead robber’s legal defense team — to distract and disarm (figuratively speaking) the bad guys long enough for help to come.

Not only is the episode a sublime little showcase of both characters’ strengths and savvy, but it also stands out for its gutting exploration of trauma. A good bubble episode gives a show time to sit with a character and explore those elements that make them truly tick. And this episode gives both of its leads a chance to reflect and shine.

The incident also provides an opportunity for several strained relationships to heal. Not only are Will and Faith now true blue partners, but Will has kissed and made up (literally speaking) with Angie (Erika Christensen), while Faith and Amanda (Sonja Sohn) have also made nice again at last, and Faith has decided to trust Jeremy to make decisions for his own future.

TV Insider caught up with Iantha Richardson to talk about this inventive and exciting episode and what it means for the remaining episodes of the season — and beyond.

There’s a lot of funny banter between Will and Faith in this episode, like the “Stupid, Real Stupid” James Bond joke and the “black eye optional” line. What’s it like to inject such humor into an otherwise serious episode? 

Iantha Richardson: The writers do a really awesome job of always incorporating humor in such devastating storylines and thoughts often. So it’s fun to always bring some sort of levity into serious class because I feel like that’s also how humans navigate life oftentimes, so it makes it more realistic. So it was really cool.

So this was a very physical episode for you. What was your training like for this episode?

You know, I used to be a dancer so it wasn’t so much long haul of training. I’m pretty active in Muy Thai currently and lifting, but we have a really great stunt coordinator, Mark Norby, and he just made everything feel like a dance. He had everything videotaped beforehand with the stunt people and the rehearsals that we had beforehand — although they weren’t long, because I didn’t necessarily need a lot of work on it, it was really thorough, and that was really, really helpful. So those rehearsals really got me into the space of being able to do that as best as possible.

One of the things that’s really fun about all the fight scenes is all the makeshift weaponry. What was the most fun for you as far as the different fight scenes and different weapons that she kind of had to pull out on the fly? 

The fondue fork was really rad. The fact that she killed somebody with a fondue fork is actually crazy, and just finding all of those things… I call it “Faith’s MacGyver Episode.” Finding those things, it just showed her intellect also in a way that I’m like, I don’t know if I could do that, but Faith absolutely would do this.

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This was the first time — in a while, at least — that it was single-handedly up to her to save the day. What does it mean for her that she rose to such a massive challenge? 

I think this is her. I think she’s done that throughout life — not only being a single mom but a teen parent, consistently making sure that she makes the best impression, and every single thing that she does in work. She’s also surrounded by a few fallen angels, including her mother and [Amanda], as we got to see in some previous episodes. And we see that they hold her to a very high standard. So I think to see her save the day is not very far off from her personality and the way that she goes about life — maybe not in such strenuous situations, but on her day to day, she definitely makes sure that she’s up to par and standard and saving a lot of people in their pitfalls oftentimes.

In the past when she has saved the day, one of the times involved taking a life on the job, and she struggled with that for a while. Here, she doesn’t hesitate quite as much, but do you think there will be any post-traumatic ramifications for this experience as well?

I think anytime you take a life, there is some sort of posttraumatic ramification and part of this is her son was involved. And I think there’s a mama bear instinct that comes out in this episode that you see that is justified by the fact that her son’s life is in danger. And so anybody could get it at that point. Although it is devastating to see that happen, I think the choice between that is, “It’s either you or my son, and it absolutely is going to be you.” So it’s a little less hectic because of those circumstances, but she is definitely going to grapple with that moving forward.

Do you think that her ability to kind of understand and come on board with her son’s choice of career and to leave college, that this experience kind of sped up that process?

I think anytime you are faced with life and death, you see what actually matters, right? And so he is in a space in which his life is threatened, and she gets to fight for that. In actuality, like, in layman’s terms, she’s fighting for her son’s life. She gets to say like, yeah, college is important. All these things. I want you to have the best out of life like any parent does, but also, this is your life and I want you to enjoy it because we only get one and so I think that realization does get hyper. It goes into hyperspeed throughout this episode, for sure.

Yeah, and something you mentioned before was Amanda let Faith down, like you said with expecting the highest standards. But at the end of this one, she seems to be willing to offer an olive branch. Do you think she’s fully forgiven her now? And has she really gained her trust at all?

Trust was regained. I don’t know that there’s full forgiveness. It hasn’t been a very long time. And I think also there’s a compiling of situations which have shown that these people that she’s admired are not living up to what they have made her live up to her entire life. So there’s a lot of hypocrisy around her. I don’t know if she’s fully forgiven it because I don’t think anything has fully been fleshed out. But I do think there is a realization that you are human and so I can understand, and I can empathize and I can be there while she probably I would say she probably has a little bit more therapy to go through for sure.

Speaking of forgiveness, obviously, Faith has had a little bit of an arm’s length relationship with Will sometimes, just because of what happened with her mother. But in this episode, we really get to see them be a team and work together on many, many levels. Where is that teamwork coming from, and what does it mean for their relationship going forward?

I think honestly, since the beginning of the season, what has been a beautiful arc is their relationship shifting to partners from Faith having to earn his respect or him having to earn her respect, but on both ways, I think that we have seen her up until this episode and including this episode, then actually function as full human beings who understand each other a little bit more. I think moving forward, we just get to see them do that as much as they can because they both have a shield and armor up to the world, not just each other, but obviously each other, too. But I think there’s a trust being built. I think there’s a bond, and I think there’s an actual partnership that is really lovely to see.

Is there anything else you can tease about the remaining episodes for this season?

Ooh, I can’t tell you too much. But I can say that they will be shocking and pearl-clutching — an emotional roller coaster for sure is what I will say.

The show was recently renewed for Season 3. What’s your reaction to the renewal, and then second, what kind of hopes do you have for the show to tackle in the future?

I’m very excited — very, very excited for Season 3 to come. I think that there’s so much room for what is to be tackled in the future. I think that there’s endless possibilities. I think the relationship of Will and Faith to grow more expansive, for Faith to see where she is as a human not only as a mother who is dating but also an empty nester who is finding her footing and her own voice and where she wants to go. We’ve seen her tackle the GBI and become a partner, but now what is her end game? And I think I’m really excited to see that for her. I’m really excited to see more relationship dynamics evolve like Will and Angie, what they look like in the future, all these things. I’m really excited for that.

Will Trent, Tuesdays, 8/7c, ABC