Will Trent Season 4 Episode 1 “Speaking of Sharks” Reintroduced the Biggest Shark of All

Critic’s Rating: 4.5 / 5.0

4.5

We’ve been lonely without Will Trent on Tuesday nights, and we’re thrilled to see the GBI and APD back on our screens.

Many of our favorite characters have unraveled since the emotional cliffhangers at the end of Will Trent Season 3.

Will has had a challenging time coping with the changes in his life, which become even more difficult when his arch-rival escapes from prison.

Will Trent Season 4 Episode 1 reintroduced one of Will Trent’s massive villains, James Ulster.

While I wanted to despise him, Greg Germann and Ramon Rodiguez played off each other beautifully, and the humor was delightful.

The series still excelled at balancing danger with humor, and even Franklin got to shine.

Will Started to Unravel, Only to Get a Bigger Shock

Typically, Will holds his emotions in, so it has been refreshing to watch him release some of his frustrations.

As the series picked up five months later, Will was so angry that he threw a rock at his old foster home.

He’s been a character we wanted to see in therapy for a long time, and his therapist, played by Margaret Cho, is delightful and honest.

I love how she wanted him to focus on playing pickleball instead of holding his feelings in. She wouldn’t let him deny his feelings, whether they related to Angie’s pregnancy or his new family.

Will sounded so annoyed because Caleb’s family was loud and boisterous, rather than refined. Still, his therapist reminded him that he finally had a family and not to shut them out.

Will was not used to people caring about him, so it was challenging to accept love. As awful as it was, abuse was familiar, and now he had an overwhelming amount of family.

Families come in all shapes and sizes, as Nico fit in seamlessly with Caleb’s family, sharing funny stories, while Will bonded with Calvin, Caleb’s youngest son.

These touching family moments were interspersed with James Ulster bonding with a young man in prison named Reed, and showing how the two of them tricked and attacked a prison guard and escaped.

Will’s worst nightmare came true. I suspected James Ulster would return as soon as they changed Will’s paternity.

It’s dramatic and soapy to see the differences between his two fathers.

Keeping Will Off This Case Only Made Him Spiral More

Faith was Will’s biggest ally. She knew that he needed to be involved in catching Ulster, or he’d go crazy.

I loved that she suggested leaving the official business to the Marshalls, and the rest of them would work behind the scenes.

There was something about Ulster that set Will off. It’s the way he taunted him, thinking he was above the law and daring Will to catch him.

Will has envisioned other victims before on Will Trent, but this time, he couldn’t get Ulster out of his head when he processed the crime scene before anyone else arrived.

While James Ulster was a menacing creep, Greg German and Ramon Rodriguez played so well off each other, and it was amusing that both Ulster and Will were dressed in suits in Will’s vision.

Will’s vision was one of the best scenes as he realized he’d much rather have his cowboy sheriff as a father than a murdering one.

He hated that he’d ever be like Ulster, and then he realized Reed couldn’t have murdered all these people in the restaurant, and Ulster only made it look like that.

“Speaking of Sharks” examined Will’s guilt. While he wasn’t precisely like Ulster, he felt responsible for all these deaths because he was a product of Ulster.

Not many people understood that, except for Angie, who sadly related when he stated he was abusing him in his mind.

Will needed his family, but it’s challenging to support someone who wants to take on the world on their own when doing so is detrimental to their health.

The APD Scenes Were Pure Gold and Lightened the Episode

The group scenes and the APD scenes highlighted how close these characters have become and lightened up the episode.

Even when we learned that Ormewood had cancer, it felt hopeful because Faith and Franklin attended chemotherapy with him and watched reality TV while he got his treatment. It made me smile and cry simultaneously.

I think “Speaking of Sharks” was the first episode to use social media, since Betty had her own Instagram account.

It was hilarious that Will was jealous that everyone had a WhatsApp that he wasn’t included in, and that’s how they all learned he’d been kicked off the Ulster case.

Will seemed almost jealous of how close Faith and Ormewood had become. Those two had their own shorthand and banter, and Ormewood cracked the first clue of where Ulster might be hiding out.

It was so funny how happy and proud Ormewood and Faith looked when Will reached Ulster on the phone. These characters have come so far from their origins as two separate teams in Will Trent Season 1.

My favorite part was when Ormewood, Angie, and Franklin went to locate Ulster’s fiancée, Janice-Theresa, only to witness a cat-fight and discover he had two fiancées.

It was one of the most entertaining fights as the ladies ended up on Franklin’s car, and Ormewood ate it up.

It would have continued, except Angie waved her badge. Both ladies believed Ullster loved them, even though he used the exact lines and tricks with both of them.

We finally saw Franklin at his best when he shared his heartbreak story and how Janice-Theresa would survive, too.

Having “I Will Survive” play in the background was a nice touch as he made it seem like he was helping her by catching Ulster. Well played, Franklin.

Will and Caleb’s Differences Had Catastrophic Consequences

Will works much better as the biological son of a law enforcement officer. However, he and Sheriff Caleb approached things differently, putting lives in jeopardy.

Part of me understood why Amanda and Caleb wanted Will off the case because he was too emotionally invested, but Will knew Ulster better than anyone.

He knew how he played games, which allowed him to negotiate with Reed, who was a terrified teenager from all those mind games.

Reed wanted to please Ulster and was afraid of him, and Will used the only thread he could, that Ulster referred to both of them as his sons.

He almost reached Reed in a big brother fashion, but then Caleb shot Reed, insisting he protected Will.

Caleb may have protected Will temporarily, but that only angered Ulster more now that he had lost one of his boys, and they had no idea where Ulster disappeared to.

Sometimes, you need to bend the rules when dealing with these maniacs, and you need to bend them to catch them.

Speaking of Sharks, James Ulster was the Biggest Shark of All

It’s difficult to discern if James Ulster would have actually harmed Calvin to get revenge on Caleb or if he knew Will would save the boy as soon as he called.

Will was predictable. He has a sense of justice, a fondness for children, and Calvin was family.

He came running the second he realized Ulster had the young boy, and tried to distract him before telling him to call Faith.

Even Will knew that he had a better chance of surviving if Faith and Caleb learned that Ulster kidnapped him as soon as possible.

While Faith, Amanda, and Caleb looked distraught at that burning car and tape recorder, I suspect Ulster had a plan.

Let’s face it. ABC can’t have a show if they kill off Will, so now we wait to see Ulster’s true motive and plan.

Over to you, Will Trent Fanatics. Were you surprised or happy to see James Ulster again? What was your favorite part of “Speaking of Sharks”?

Let us know in the comments.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of our Exclusive Interview with the Will Trent EPs tomorrow.

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