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Will Trent is back on the case! The hit ABC drama returns for season 2 on February 20. After the jaw-dropping season 1 finale, the second season will be picking up in the aftermath of Angie’s rescue and Will learning about Amanda’s connection to his mother. Hollywood Life spoke exclusively with Ramón Rodríguez about Will’s complicated relationship with Angie moving forward.
“We’re going to kind of watch her sort of physically try to get herself back,” the actor said about Angie during our interview at the Television Critics Association winter press tour. “And then our relationship, I mean, season 1 was complicated. It was a lot. We got to watch these two sort of trigger each other throughout, makeup, breakup, it was that sort of push-pull. But at the end of the day, these two are bonded very deeply. There’s a lot of love there. They’ve been through a lot together. They know each other’s darkest secrets. I think at the top of season 2, we find Will being maybe a little slightly cautious about this relationship. He knows what it is if he gets close to her, and they can just dive right back into that comfort cycle of the chaos that they are in a lot of ways. I think at least at the top of the season, there’s some trepidation there. He’s a little cautious. There’s a little sort of soft boundaries as to like, do we go there? Do I not go there? Is she dating? I don’t think he’s actively looking for someone, but someone does enter his life.”
Will and Angie are bonded by their past together in foster care. They share an incredible amount of history, and there’s clearly a romantic connection. But are they ultimately right as romantic partners, or could they be platonic soulmates?
“I mean, that’s kind of the question,” Ramón said. “But I think, outside of that, there’s a part of me I think if I was an audience [member] and looking at it I’d go, can they figure this out? Like, you kind of want them [to]. There’s a lot of love there. Is it possible? But then maybe if you were a good friend of theirs, you would say, you guys need to stop. You need to go your separate ways. If you can work it out as friends, great. It makes for good characters and television and that relationship, that dynamic conflict of like, is this good for us? Do we work out? There’s a lot of compatibility, but there’s a lot of trauma. There’s a lot of things that haven’t been worked out. I don’t think obviously that they intend to hurt each other, but they do end up sort of in this vicious cycle. And so I’m not sure.”
At the end of last season, Amanda told Will the truth about his mother, Lucy. She was a prostitute who was murdered just after giving birth to Will. Amanda later discovered Will in the trash and gave him his name. While Will now has answers about his mother, this only sparks more interest about his past.
“I think this season Will’s interest and curiosity are piqued,” Ramón told Hollywood Life. “He got some real nuggets about his life a little bit, like you said, about his mom. I love that moment that we had where his mom visited him at the end of season 1 while he was really struggling with the case. He got to learn that maybe James is his dad, which would be a pretty major bomb. He got to learn the role that Amanda played in his childhood and that she found him in the trash and her relationship with his mom. I think he’s definitely in a place where he’s curious. He wants to know more. And I think the question just becomes how far down that rabbit hole does he go, and how does that impact him psychologically and emotionally.”
On top of Will’s ongoing journey to learn more about his past, his relationship with Amanda remains “conflicted.” He added, “On one hand, he feels absolutely betrayed by her. She didn’t tell him these secrets and these things that she knew about his life and his mom. How could she not knowing that these are real big holes in his life? But on the other hand, she saved him. She took him in. She brought them into the GBI, so it’s complicated.”
In season 2, Will and Faith’s dynamic as partners will continue to evolve. “It’s been a bit of a slow burn, but I think this season we’ll see a bit more of a rapport between the two of them,” the actor noted. “It’s fun because I think for Will, again, letting anyone in it’s not instant. It’s not fast because of what he’s been through, so he’s pretty guarded [and] protected. But they’ve now spent some time together, and they’ve been through some stuff together, so that relationship is going to continue to evolve for sure.” Will Trent season 2 airs Tuesdays on ABC.
