Warning: spoilers are ahead for the second episode of Will Trent Season 3, called "Sunny-Side Up" and available streaming with a Hulu subscription.
The first two episodes of Will Trent's third season in the 2025 TV schedule were spent showing how Will's decision at the end of Season 2 led to his scruffy self-imposed exile in Tennessee and then his journey back to Atlanta, the police department, and the three-piece suit. None of that involve Angie, although the Season 3 premiere confirmed she did manage to avoid jail time due to some luck after he arrested her.
In "Sunny-Side Up," she got her chance to speak to an APD committee and justify why she should get her job back. Erika Christensen delivered a great speech, and Angie is obviously not happy in her menial security job, but I'm not so sure that the character should get to come back to her old job just yet for a couple of reasons.
The APD Board Made Some Valid Points
Angie's hearing was on her mind throughout the episode, to the point that she was using AI to try and draft the perfect speech to give to the officials who would decide if she has a future with the Atlanta Police Department. The prompt she gave to the tech was "Compose a statement of remorse for messing up as a cop."
And the version of her speech started out sounding a lot like the AI versions, until she was interrupted by the officials who said that they all wished they could "go back and stop the deaths of five people but this isn't fantasy land," and that what she did was "negligent" and her actions showed "a lack of respect" for her position.
So, Angie started to speak off the cuff and more from the heart, with Erika Christensen turning in an emotional performance as her character opened up in a last ditch hope to get back to her job. She said:
You're right. I became a cop because I wanted to make the world safer. I wanted to protect people who couldn't protect themselves. And I thought that's what I was doing with Crystal. I was very wrong. I think about that mistake all the time. I know that I will not let my personal trauma interfere with my job again. I'm a good cop. I love my job, despite my failures. I would really... I want to serve. If you let me back on the force, I will be the best version of myself because that is what the job requires of me.
All in all, Angie was much more convincing when she started using her own words instead of whatever she could get from an AI prompt, and the speech is a great start to getting her back on the job. But Will Trent giving the APD officials the time to point out how deeply she'd messed up also leaves me unconvinced that she should be able to get back to her old job just by virtue of a good apology and pitch.
She did mess up, and Season 2 ended on a devastating cliffhanger because of it. It would be a shame to lose those high stakes early on by her getting back what she lost without much more than an impassioned argument. There's so much room for juicy drama before Angie is back at APD, right?
There's More Story In Angie's Security Job
It's just as well that I ended the second episode of Seaosn 3 unconvinced about Angie being allowed back at APD, because the promo for the next episode – called "Find a New Pond" – reveals that Angie will still be stuck at her unsatisfying security gig. That doesn't mean her speech will have been in vain, though, as the preview also drops some clues that she might have the opportunity to actually demonstrate how being an APD detective forces her to be the "best version" of herself. Take a look:
Apparently, John the clumsy handyman is a lot more sinister than he seemed in Episode 2, if the promo is anything to go by! If bodies are dropping on Angie's security turf and she's facing down a bad guy, it could be her chance to show the APD what she can do rather than just tell the brass during a hearing. It doesn't seem like it'll be the most fun-filled story of at least the first arc of Season 3, but hopefully Will and Faith will deliver their usual fun now that he's back with the GBI.
Find out with the next new episode of Will Trent on Tuesday, January 21 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC, ahead of Kaitlin Olson's High Potential. You can also revisit earlier episodes streaming on Hulu now.
