TV Recap: "Will Trent" Climbs Out of His Funk While Angie Hits Rock Bottom

Betty-free episodes of Will Trent usually bum me out, but this one somewhat makes up for it with the presence of a horse named Pancake. Curiously, this episode’s title comes from Angie and Ormewood’s case, undoubtedly the B-story of the week, but also one that feels particularly relevant coming off of her arc from the previous episode. And Will Trent finally opens up to the possibility of therapy, courtesy of a special guest star, legendary comedian Margaret Cho. Let’s recap.

Season 3, Episode 16 - “Push, Jump, Fall" - Written by Henry “Hank" Jones & Adam Toltzis

Will & Faith’s Case: The $10,000 Horse

Bernadette (Yolonda Ross) is one of the stars of Atlanta’s Black rodeo, but she’s thrown off her game tonight when one of the cowboys, Rooster (Greg Wilson), spooks her horse, Pancake. The rodeo’s owner (Gregory Alan Williams) fires Bernadette when he perceives her to be drunk. Sometime later, after the event is over, Bernadette goes back to the barn for Pancake, finding Rooster in her horse’s stall again. We see her draw a pink handgun from her jeweled boot. We hear a shot fired.

The next morning finds Will Trent (Ramón Rodríguez) finally agreeing to try therapy, and an unconventional approach, at that. His therapist (Margaret Cho) uses bells and chimes to soothe her patient, asking Will to physically locate the emotional pain in his body. He tells her it’s concentrated in his stomach. She tells him that his pain wants some attention, something he needs to embrace and hug to make it calm down, something it will need repeatedly. She also prescribes him some kind of essential oils formula that she calls optimism drops. She describes the essential component of a desire to remain alive - having excitement for the future. We don’t hear Will’s response when she asks him if he wants to be alive.

After therapy, Will jumps right into his next case, meeting his partner Faith Mitchell (Iantha Richardson) in a barn at the Bill Pickett Rodeo, where a cowboy named Rooster was found dead. The murder weapon, a pitchfork, pins his body against a wall. A pink handgun was found on the floor, and there’s a bullet hole in the wall, but it doesn’t seem to have hit Rooster. Further away, they find blood on another beam, but no trail leading to it. The rodeo’s owner accuses Bernadette of stealing one of his horses, Pancake. When he leaves, his shop contractor, Ace (Antwan “Big Boi" Patton I), tells Will and Faith that he knows Bernadette was having some issues with alcohol, but that he doesn’t believe she’s a thief. Will notices that Rooster’s boots are nicer than a typical stable hand should be able to afford. Faith also learns that Will is afraid of horses and large animals in general. “I prefer my animals Betty-sized."

When Will and Faith leave the barn, they witness the rodeo owner making a boisterous announcement to all his employees. He wants Pancake back, and he’s willing to pay a mighty bounty for her return - $10,000! The hunt is on.

Amanda Wagner (Sonja Sohn) assists Will and Faith with their case back at the GBI. The pitchfork is covered with Bernadette’s fingerprints, and the blood on the nearby beam doesn’t match hers or Rooster's, indicating a third party or separate incident. Will is fixated on Rooster’s expensive boots and the owner’s high reward for a horse who is past her breeding years and too old to compete. While Will tries to visualize the crime scene, Faith does her research.

Faith meets with Ruby Steel (Jacinte Blankenship), a former cowgirl who worked with Bernadette. She’s surprised to hear that her friend may have killed someone with a pitchfork since she’s so talented as a roper, and that’s her usual method of apprehending someone. Faith asks why Bernadette’s rodeo career went from top dog to bottom of the barrel seemingly overnight. “The circuit wanted her gone," Ruby reveals, sharing that Bernadette was raped by a fellow performer when they were on tour in Harrisburg. Ruby encouraged Bernie to report it, but she wasn’t believed and was labeled a troublemaker. Ruby couldn’t believe Bernie stayed in the show. “That girl’s got grit."

One of the cowboys, Murph (Nathan Hesse), is found tied to a tree without his shirt. Will, Faith, and Amanda watch him on the news as he talks about his encounter with Bernadette, who roped him when he tried to take Pancake from her. He says Bernadette mentioned going to Lonoke, but Faith correctly assumes that was to throw the bounty hunters off her trail. Having done her research, Faith found the address attached to Bernadette’s taxes, which is in Lone Oak.

Will and Faith meet Bernadette’s ex, Flynn Callaway (Antwan Mills), in a home that is full of horse feed and manure. He says he hasn’t seen Bernie in six years and claims to be unfamiliar with Pancake. When they leave, we see that a mysterious man is hiding in a car outside Flynn’s house, seemingly waiting for Bernadette, too.

Back in Will’s car, he’s surprised to receive a call from Bernadette. He invites her to the GBI, but she doesn’t trust the authorities, and Faith sympathizes with her previous situation of not being believed when she came forward with a crime. She confirms Will’s theory that there was a third person in the barn. Bernadette tells them she found Rooster hurting Pancake, so she drew her gun. That’s when someone came behind her, grabbing her, causing her to fire a shot by accident and then drop her gun. Bernadette stomped on her attacker’s toes and thrust her head back, breaking his nose. She grabbed Pancake’s reins to get her out of there, but when Rooster drew his gun on her, she had to act in self-defense, grabbing a pitchfork and taking him out. A gunshot nearby brings the call to an end.

Back in the house, Faith and Will find that Flynn has been murdered. Faith thought she heard a brook or stream in the distance when Bernadette was on the phone. She believes she’s at Goodwill Ranch, a place she used to work, which has a stream on its property.

Will and Faith end up having to camp when they lose sunlight while searching for Bernadette and are forced to spend the night there. Will opens up to Faith about getting a visit from Marco’s brother. She shares her belief that God doesn’t judge us by our worst actions, and that He should focus on doing good deeds and concentrating on what he can control, like finding Bernadette and helping her. They wake up to the sound of a horse's neigh - Pancake’s. It turns out Bernadette knew where they were all night and made breakfast for them.

Seeing the strength of the bond between Bernadette and Pancake, Will asks what she sees in the horse. “Horses respond to who you are, not who you think you are," she says, encouraging Will to get closer to Pancake, who has clearly identified him as a good person. She has Will place his hand under her chin, and he notes the quick rhythm of Pancake’s heart. Bernadette worries the horse is sick, saying her stomach seems upset. Will grabs a shovel and moves some of her droppings around, finding a packet of cocaine inside. Bernadette realizes this is why the rodeo owner wants her back so badly: she’s full of drugs.

Just then, a shot fired from the treeline hits Bernadette in the leg. Will and Fait pull her to safety behind a shed, and they split up, running for cover from different angles. Angie is the one to successfully get behind the shooter (Myles Humphus), the same man we saw outside Flynn’s home, whose nose is bandaged. “GBI, drop your weapon," she says. When he doesn’t and moves to shoot Faith, she takes action. They’re out of range of cellphone towers, so Will and Faith split up. Faith will take Bernadette to get treated, while Will walks Pancake to a nearby vet.

Will is anxious about dealing with a horse, but works to overcome his fear, likening Pancake to his Chihuahua Betty. “See your problem, look at it, give it a hug," he tells himself, quoting his therapist when Pancake stops walking. He embraces the horse, hugging around her neck, and Pancake clearly likes it. He encourages her to keep walking, sharing a few drops of his liquid optimism with her. They resume walking, and soon find themselves within range of cell service. Will uses his phone to call a vet, and it’s the perfect time, because Pancake has decided to lay down, seemingly giving up on life. “We’re choosing to be alive, you hear me?" he says to the horse, finally giving an answer to his therapist’s question.

Some time later, Will returns to the barn at the rodeo, where Pancake has made a full recovery, and Bernadette is healing nicely from her gunshot. He helps Bernadette get back on her horse for the next show. It seems that both the detective and the cowgirl have healed invisible wounds through their adventure. “So long, cowboy," Bernadette says to Will Trent as she trots off for a show. Will tilts his own imaginary hat back at her.

Angie & Ormewood’s Case: Feed the Birds

Aspirin and electrolytes are the hangover cure of choice for Angie Polaski (Erika Christensen), who stands in the morgue with a small cardboard box marked “Human remains." Her partner, Michael Ormewood (Jake McLaughlin), is beyond confused by their presence, and even more so when Angie reveals they’re her mother, whom he presumed had been dead a long time. Angie reveals her frustration at having to learn about Ormewood’s brain tumor from Faith. She asks him the questions he’s been avoiding about scheduling his procedure and making all his final arrangements just in case. The mood is tense when Pete Chin (Kurt Yue) enters, and since neither of the officers feels like talking, he decides to lift the sheet on the victim without any kind of introduction, making them both recoil at the horrendously mangled face. His name was James Webster, and he took a tumble off the roof of his building. Pete hands them a bag of items found in James’ pockets, and reminds them of their goal - to figure out if he was pushed, fell, or jumped.

Angie and Ormewood meet with James’ widow, Danielle (Erika Robel), who is in shock. He didn’t leave a note, had no known enemies, and while he had mental health challenges during the pandemic, he seemed to be doing fine recently. Danielle doesn’t know how she’s going to tell their daughter, Kenzie, about this.

An insurance agent, Tim Shivers (Matthew Cornwell), stops by the APD with some information - a statement from one of the Websters’ neighbors who claims they overheard James having a breakdown four years before the fall. He also shows them James’ medical records, which confirm he was prescribed antidepressants.

On their lunch break at the diner, Ormewood is disgusted by the presence of Angie’s mom’s boxed ashes on the table. Angie reached out to the Websters’ neighbors for security camera footage that might show James’ fall. She also heard a neighbor’s anecdote about James and his daughter being excited about a robin who built a nest on their roof, laid eggs, and just had chicks. Angie speculates that James was trying to hang a birdfeeder and accidentally fell. The neighbor also heard James talking about being off his medication.

During lunch, Angie and Ormewood also get a blast from their past when drag queens (from Season 2, Episode 6: “War Are Family") Bon Bon Chiffon (Jonny Beaucamp) and Glinda Velvet, out of drag known as Josiah Patnett (Kenneth Mosley), show up. It turns out that Angie kept in touch with them, and Joisah is an estate planner, so she asked them to help Ormewood.

When Ormewood revealed that he wanted a military funeral, Bon Bon questioned if his uniform still fits. They all go to Ormewood’s house, and sure enough, he’s beefed out of it. Bon Bon tasks Angie with helping make alterations, while Josiah makes expert suggestions about legal protections for his assets for his children. And while doing all this, Angie gets an update on the case - Nobody has found a birdfeeder near the house, seemingly disproving her theory.

Later, Angie and Ormewood bring Tim back to the APD. He seems nervous as they bring up security footage from one of James’ neighbors, which shows Tim sneaking onto the property and removing a fallen bird feeder. They called his company and learned that he would get a bonus if James’ cause of death was suicide. Tim is arrested for interfering with a police investigation and tampering with evidence.

With their case closed and Ormewood’s own fears aided by his friend and partner, he asks Angie if she wants to talk about her mom. She tells him she has to get to an A.A. meeting. He tells her he should go home, too, and that he’s planning to tell his kids about his tumor tonight. They wish each other luck as they go their separate ways.

We see Ormewood at home with Max (Owen Trumbly) and Cooper (Jophielle Love). He tells them that while he puts his life on the line every day at work, this is a little different, but he is expected to make a quick recovery. Cooper has lots of medical questions, based on her own appendectomy, and Max wants to be the one to drive Ormewood home from the operation, which makes him a little nervous since his son just got his license. “No matter what happens, we’ll face it together," Ormewood says as he hugs his kids.

Angie’s meeting turns out to be with herself… at a dive bar… with her mom’s box of ashes. A couple (Kynder Bonilla & Jake Howarth) start fighting nearby as Angie pays her tab and takes her mom to the ladies' room. Her mom always wanted to be laid to rest in a body of water. “This is the best I can do, much like your parenting," Angie says as she lifts the toilet seat up and clumsily spills her mom’s ashes in and around the porcelain seat, flushing it. She steps out of the stall and instantly rushes back in, filled with regret. She apologizes to the particles as she tries to scoop some up off the grody tile floor. And then she looks at the drink in her hand. It’s clear she wants to dump it down the drain, too, but that seems even harder to do. “No," she declares. “You don’t get to keep ruining my life," she tells the full glass. “The cycle stops with me." Angie pours the glass into the basin and flushes it. And then, with her lipstick, she writes on the stall wall: “Here lies Delilah Polaski."

On her way out of the bar, Angie passes the quarreling couple, whose fight has become physical. She intervenes, thinking she is helping the girl out. But they both team up on Angie, beating her to the ground and kicking her repeatedly.

Songs Featured in This Episode:

Next Episode: “Why Hello, Sheriff" - Airing Tuesday, May 6th, at 8/7c on ABC

While investigating a murder in a rural town and clashing with the local sheriff, Will uncovers surprising truths about his past. Meanwhile, Angie makes an unexpected discovery, and Ormewood continues to struggle with his diagnosis.