Will Trent stops a catastrophic bioterror attack — but the victory comes with bruising personal fallout, seismic family revelations, and a future full of questions. The Season 3 finale delivers high-stakes action and heartfelt character beats while quietly laying the track for a transformative Season 4 on ABC in January 2026.
A Bioterror Plot Foiled — at a Personal Cost
GBI Special Agent Will Trent orchestrates a takedown with law enforcement’s best at his side: GBI Deputy Director Amanda Wagner, Bradford County Sheriff Caleb Roussard, Special Agent Faith Mitchell, and Detectives Michael Ormewood and Angie Polaski. Together they shut down a bioterror scheme — but the operation turns deadly at close range.
In the firefight with Founders Front, Amanda takes a bullet to the sternum. Surgeons save her life, yet doctors warn the next 48 hours are critical. The episode underscores just how much Amanda means to Will: when he departs the sonogram room (more on that below), he goes straight to her bedside — to his chosen family.
Elsewhere, Ormewood faces a medical crisis that’s been simmering. After repeated delays getting a CT scan at the VA, he collapses in his kitchen, mid-seizure. Faith is there to call for help, but the image of Ormewood on the floor gives the finale a gripping, unresolved urgency.
A Glimmer for Angie — and a Complicated Triangle
There’s relief in one corner of the story: Angie has not miscarried. Will shows up for her first sonogram, a tender moment that also exposes the complicated reality of their bond when Seth — the baby’s father — enters the room. Will quietly exits and finds his way to Amanda’s hospital room, choosing presence where it’s most needed and possible.
Angie’s choice of ringtone — Taylor Swift’s “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” — doubles as dark humor and a protective mantra. It hints at her tangled feelings about Will while acknowledging a long, hard-fought history. Despite every detour, Will and Angie continue finding ways to stay connected, even when life doesn’t line up with the fairy-tale version of their relationship.
Meet Caleb Roussard: The Show’s New Take on Will’s Father
The finale introduces a major twist: Will’s biological father is Sheriff Caleb Roussard (played by Yul Vazquez), not James Ulster as in the novels. Co-showrunners Liz Heldens and Daniel Thomsen explain that the writers wanted distance from the emotional punch of introducing Will’s mother in Season 2 before exploring the father storyline. Now felt like the right moment to expand Will’s understanding of where he comes from — and to do it in a way that opens new storytelling lanes.
Why Now?
From the start, the creative team intended to tackle Will’s father once the series had room to process the fallout from learning about his mother. Season 3’s end positions Will to confront identity from a new angle — not just what he survived, but the lineage and choices that shaped him.
Not the Book Canon — on Purpose
Pivoting away from James Ulster lets the show craft a father who lives in moral gray. Making Caleb a career cop — and a different kind of cop than Will — creates friction and empathy in equal measure. The writers saw rich potential in a parent who can be both positive and deeply flawed, a dynamic that promises complex storytelling in Season 4.
Expect Ulster to Stay in Play
Changing Will’s father doesn’t erase Ulster from the board. Thomsen notes that Ulster will likely have a strong, possessive reaction to the emergence of Will’s real father. That means more combustible character chemistry ahead — you get to add Caleb without subtracting Ulster.
Will’s New Family Tree and What It Could Mean
Caleb remembers a whirlwind weekend with Lucy Morales — “the most amazing” of his life — that ended with Will’s conception. He insists he never knew Lucy was pregnant, and that he tried to reach her afterward. Now, determined to make up for lost time, Caleb invites Will to meet his wife and children. For a character long defined by orphanhood, the prospect of stepping into a ready-made family is both hopeful and destabilizing.
Flashbacks to Lucy and Caleb? Maybe
The series loves a well-placed flashback, and Heldens says the writers have considered dramatizing that romance. While point-of-view flashbacks often center the main ensemble, the door isn’t closed on showing the weekend that changed everything.
Half-Siblings, Including a Sister?
Will could find himself with more than just a father — he may gain half-siblings, potentially one close to his age. Heldens is creatively energized by the idea of a half-sister dynamic, though the plan is to build Will’s relationship with Caleb first before the family tree branches wider.
Casting and Character Availability
Expect Yul Vazquez to recur as Caleb in Season 4, schedule allowing. The producers are eager to explore the contrasts between Will and his father — especially through the lens of two very different cops.
As for Seth, Scott Foley’s availability looks promising. His other series also shoots in Atlanta, making quick in-and-out appearances feasible. The team is committed to telling the story they want with Seth, whose role in Angie’s life is now inextricable.
Will and Angie: Messy, Real, and Still Connected
The sonogram scene distills what makes Will and Angie so compelling: their connection survives reality checks. It’s not a picture-book romance, but it is a resilient, evolving bond rooted in shared history and mutual care. The writers haven’t found the obstacle these two can’t overcome — not yet.
Amanda Wagner’s Brush with Death Raises the Stakes
For Will, Amanda is family. Watching him leave the sonogram and head straight to her hospital room underscores a truth the finale makes impossible to ignore: chosen family matters as much as blood. The timing — a biological father emerging as his surrogate mother fights for life — deepens the emotional stakes. Even for characters who struggle to say what they feel, the crisis prompts clarity, and Will verbalizes what Amanda means to him in a way we’ve rarely seen.
Time Jumps, Timelines, and the Season 4 Clock
The series often mirrors its real-life hiatus with time jumps, but Season 4 could buck that tradition. With Amanda in critical condition and Ormewood mid-crisis, the writers may choose to pick up quickly after the finale. Heldens says they haven’t decided. A short jump would let the show backfill growth; starting immediately would honor the cliffhangers’ urgency. Either way, fans should be concerned — not because the series is saying goodbye to beloved characters, but because the experiences will change them.
Why This Matters for Will Trent Season 4
Season 3 asked Will to undo knots tied in childhood and challenged him with trauma, including the devastating events of Episode 11. Season 4 has the potential to pivot toward healing without losing the show’s hard truths. Will’s identity as an orphan — long a cornerstone of how he sees himself — is shifting. He has his chosen family in Amanda, Faith, Angie, and even Ormewood, and now he faces the unchosen family he never knew: a father with complicated edges, a household of new relationships, and half-siblings who may mirror or challenge him in unexpected ways.
That tension — between the family you build and the family you inherit — is fertile ground for character growth and casework alike. Add in Ulster’s likely reaction, Angie’s pregnancy and co-parenting with Seth, and the lingering questions around Amanda’s recovery and Ormewood’s health, and the table is set for a season that’s emotionally richer, morally grayer, and dramatically bolder.
For a show that thrives on human complexity, Season 4 isn’t just another chapter. It’s a new lens on the man behind the badge — one that could redefine Will Trent’s sense of home, purpose, and the people he’s willing to fight for.