TV Recap: “Will Trent” Episode 10 – “Pterodactyls Can Fly”

This week’s episode of Will Trent has the most unusual title yet, “Pterodactyls Can Fly.” The 10th episode of ABC’s 13-episode season finds everyone’s favorite special agent making up a bedtime story on the spot, which is where the episode’s title comes from. But in terms of threads tying the season together, Will has to come face-to-face with an officer who lost her job during his police raid, and Angie is determined to put her childhood rapist back in jail. Here’s everything that happened in episode 10 of Will Trent.

Will Trent (Ramón Rodríguez) arrives on the scene of a bloody massacre outside of two trailers owned by the Elmsway family. The Sheriff (Yancey Arias) and Deputy (Lucas Moss) are already on the scene and share that they believe the killing was drug-related, but Will is quick to notice that the bullets don’t match the gun that was left behind by the shooter. He suspects there were two killers and soon finds he was right, with another man hiding behind some logs. Once spotted, a shootout ensues, and the shooter is wounded.

Faith Mitchell (Iantha Richardson) is on a leave of absence from the GPD as she grapples with the fact that she killed a man on the job. She has lunch with Franklin (Kevin Daniels), who reminds her that it’s only when killing somebody feels like no big deal that it’s actually a problem. Faith goes home and discovers that her mom, Evelyn Mitchell (LisaGay Hamilton), stopped by for a surprise visit. Evelyn immediately goes into overprotective mom mode

The trailers both seem like they were searched for something, but nothing appears to have been taken. Will can’t understand why the shooters waited around. When Will hears a noise in a nearby shed, he finds a young boy (Callan Barry) who is so scared he can’t speak. The child has a box of dinosaur toys, and Will gets him to come out of his hiding space so he can carry him away from the crime scene.

Faith is folding laundry when Will calls to tell her what’s going on. One of the shooters is in the hospital, the other is deceased, and they each had a history of getting in trouble with the law for drugs. Evelyn listens in on Faith’s call, against her daughter’s wishes, asking about witnesses. Will asks whose voice that was and Faith doesn’t tell him, but Will shares that he has a boy with him who won’t talk. After hanging up, Evelyn reminds Faith that she has thirty years of law enforcement experience, but Faith tells her it would now be breaking the law to talk to her about an active investigation. It hurts Evelyn’s feelings.

Will nicknames the young boy Scoot since he scoots around. Will asks if he’s hungry and Scoot nods his head, so Will has Nico (Cora Lu Tran) bring some food and Betty to the GBI to try and motivate the child. Will sends Nico to get Scoot some clothes and Will sits, asking Scoot if he can nod his head when he says something correct. He places condiments on the table to create a map of the trailers, learning that the boy is related to the Elmsway family and was living in one of the trailers. Will uses chicken nuggets to represent the shooters and asks Scoot if he recognized any of them. He points to one and nods his head. Will asks what color shirt the man was wearing and he points out the window to a man in a black shirt. Amanda Wagner (Sonja Sohn) is touched by Will’s ability to calm the boy and she steps in for him as he leaves to talk to someone that was brought in with possible information. From the man, Will learns that the Elmways weren’t drug dealers and that they had a cousin who was pregnant a few years ago, but he can’t remember anything else about them having a child.

Scoot colors at a table when Will returns. Susan Whitlock (Amor Owens) from Child Protective Services arrives and announces that she has found placement for the boy, which makes Will defensive. He shares his bad experience in improperly vetted foster homes as a child. Amanda announces that the GBI will take care of Scoot’s temporary living arrangements.

Angie Polaski (Erika Christensen) arrives late to the APD and her partner, Michael Ormewood (Jake McLaughlin), asks where she was. She mentions lunch with her sponsor just as Franklin passes within earshot and calls her out on her lie. She comes clean to Michael about surveilling her childhood rapist out of concern for the teenage daughter of his girlfriend. Michael offers to help out.

That night, Scoot cuddles with Betty on Will’s couch as he gets ready for bedtime. The boy finally speaks, sharing that his name is Theo Davis. He asks Will for a bedtime story, and Will makes one up about dinosaurs, thus giving the episode its title. Theo joins Will at the GBI the next day, and Will is surprised to see Evelyn in Faith’s office. She is cold to him, announcing that it’s been six months since he ruined her life, which Will says she did to herself. Faith asks her mother to step out and she says she’s going to speak with “Mandy.” In private, Faith tells Will that she found that the two shooters both deposited $10,000 two days before the hit at the trailer park, which means they were likely paid to do it. Evelyn goes to confront Amanda for not fighting to save her job, saying she knew something bad was going on in her department and told Amanda about it.

Kathleen Marigold (Roxanne Hart) arrives at the GBI to claim Theo as her grandson. She shares that her son Joey is in prison and that Theo’s mom Kylie is a drug addict. Susan Whitlock shares that she has to do an inspection of Kathleen’s home before Theo can go and Kathleen mentions that the boy will love the hardware store the family runs. Will offers to drop Theo off once Susan clears everything.

With the surviving shooter regaining consciousness, Will and Faith go to the hospital with Evelyn in tow, who is asked to wait in the hallway. Asked who hired him, Gary Keller (Todd Denson) says “Johnny Cash,” the name the man gave him. Will remembers that Theo told him the third shooter he recognized had a black shirt and draws a connection to Johnny Cash’s nickname, “the man in black.” Back in the hallway, Will and Evelyn call a truce.

Michael and Angie wait outside of a school and Angie gets out when she recognizes Crystal (Chapel Oaks), the daughter of her abuser’s girlfriend. Crystal is confused when Angie brings up her mother’s boyfriend, saying that he’s nice. When Angie asks if Lenny has ever made her uncomfortable, Crystal tells Angie she’s the one making her uncomfortable. Angie gives Crystal her business card, which Michael tells her was a mistake to do when she gets back in the car. Sure enough, shortly after, Crystal’s mother Diane (Brittany Wilkerson) storms into the APD to yell at Angie, which turns into a shouting match during which Angie accuses Diane of setting her daughter up. Franklin pulls Angie in for a meeting to calm her down and to try and avoid letting this become her new obsession.

With clearance secured, Will takes Theo to Kathleen’s hardware store to place him in her custody. The store is about to close and her sons, Aaron (Daniel Baldock) and Deacon (Bryan Terry Snell), lock the front door after they enter. Will is preparing to say goodbye to Theo, but when the boy sees Deacon’s face, Will recognizes the speechless fear in his eyes. Will lies and says he needs to take Theo to the bathroom. Inside, Will calls for backup, opening an air vent and placing Theo and Betty inside, instructing the boy to crawl to safety with Betty.

Meanwhile, Kylie Davis (Hannah Black) arrives at the GBI looking for her son. Faith learns that Kylie placed her son in the care of her cousins while she took a temporary nursing job in Ohio that would pay well, but keep her on long days as a single mother. Faith shares that Theo’s grandmother has her son and she starts to freak out. “She’s been trying to get Theo from me for a year,” she cries, revealing that Kathleen was unaware that she had a grandson until then. Kylie shares that Kathleen has been trying to get custody of Theo and even made a call to Child Protective Services to claim that Kylie was doing drugs.

Will exits the bathroom, slyly locking the door behind him from the inside and telling Kathleen that the boy is backed up. However, she suspects something is up and asks Aaron to break into the bathroom while Deacon searches Will for a weapon, which he didn’t bring with him. Will accuses Kathleen of killing Theo’s family in order to get him for herself. “He’s a Marigold,” she snaps as Aaron breaks into the bathroom to find that Theo isn’t there. Betty gives away the fact that they’re crawling through the air vents. It’s enough of a distraction for Will to pull a wrench off a hanger and hit Deacon with it to run away. He is pursued by Aaron, but Will is able to trip him and steals his gun. Will takes out Deacon with a staple gun, and when Kathleen appears with a rifle pointed at his head, Will quickly draws Aaron’s gun to shoot her gun out of her hands. He uses zip ties to handcuff her and as backup arrives, he uses a store ladder to get Theo and Betty out of the vents.

Angie waits at a bus stop in the rain outside of an apartment building. Lenny Broussard (French Stewart) notices her and comes over, telling her to leave his family alone and saying they don’t deserve this. Angie tells him she didn’t deserve what he did to her. “Didn’t you?”, he asks, accusing her of having wordlessly asked for it at 15-years-old. “You are still garbage, I knew it,” she tells him, promising that she will kill him one day and he won’t see it coming.

Will packs up Theo’s things as Betty looks sad. He gifts Theo some neckties and a handkerchief. Before they part, Will makes sure that Theo remembers how to get in touch with him at the GBI if he’s ever in trouble.

At Faith’s house, she has a panic attic in the kitchen and Evelyn comforts her, reminding her daughter that she could’ve chosen an easy job but she didn’t. She encourages her daughter to respect herself and to talk to her about these types of things so she can keep doing her job.

In the last shot, we see Angie roll down her car window and give money to a mysterious hand.

Will Trent is taking a two-week break and will be back on Tuesday, April 18th, at 10/9c. Rather than a preview of the next episode, ABC gave a tease of footage from the final three episodes of the season, which revealed that Paul Campano, played by Mark-Paul Gosselaar, will be back.