Will Trent Season 4 Episode 7 Recap: Paul Returns as a Chilling Serial Killer Emerges
- Barbara
- 8 hours ago
- 6 min read
Crime Re-Creation Interrupted
A terrified woman runs through her home and turns asking why they're trying to kill her. The camera turns and it’s Will standing over her with a pneumatic nail gun. Wait WHAT?!
Next, we see Will in the kitchen of the murder victim shaking his head as recreates the crime in his head, going deeper than he usually does. He is shocked back to reality by the noise of water sloshing around in a large water body. One of the CSI agents was dusting it for prints. That was scary intense.
At the crime scene, Will records his findings as he investigates the murder. The woman, Mrs.Joelle Hornbaker, is the same one he saw in his crime recreation earlier. Faith reports there are no forced entry signs, and nothing’s been stolen in the house. Her husband, Eli Hornbacker, was notified. He’s on his way back from a business trip in Memphis. Will tells Faith the killer knew Joelle Hornbaker was home alone. Will follows the footprints on the floor. He notices Mrs. Hornbaker could have stopped, but turned and faced her killer. Will observes the killer wanted to inflict pain on her. Joelle Hornbaker was the target of the home invasion.
Will asks CSI Nash if he’s found anything, and Nash tells him he’s not finding anything. Will tells him to keep looking. He and Faith sound out their findings and Will states the killer wiped down the scene. He asks her how often a killer cleaned the area for prints and left the murder behind for them to find. Will continues looking for clues and discovers an open bloody draw of knives where a chef’s knife is missing. CSI hasn’t found it, and Faith asks where it can be. Faith suggests the killer left with it, and Will says something strange. He says “He would never get that close.” This catches Faith’s attention.
Paul’s Back and Trouble Follows
Someone is heard at the front door asking to be let in. He has some information. The police officer stopped him at the door. The guy tells him he needs to talk to the main guy. Faith and Will come around the corner and Will says his name, Paul. Will asks him why he’s there, and Paul says he lives down the street. Will introduces him to Faith, and he barely acknowledges her. He tells Will he knows who murdered Mrs. Hornbaker. Paul is one of Will’s old friends.
Will takes Paul to the GBI, and Will’s confused by Paul’s picture of the killer. He says it looks like a toddler drew it. He’s not wrong. Paul tries to explain the drawing. Will asks him when he saw the killer. Paul knows exactly when he saw the guy. He gets up early, about 4 a.m. because he’s in the 4 a.m. Club. He explains why. Paul says he saw the guy right next to Joelle’s house. Will found Paul’s use of Mrs. Hornbaker’s first name was strange and asked Paul if he was intimate with her. Unfortunately, that’s the exact time Eli Hornbaker entered Will’s office. Mr. Hornbaker attacks Paul. Eli Hornbaker shouts that Paul was sleeping with Joelle, and she tries to break it off. Paul contradicts. Faith forces Eli out of the office and threatens to arrest him if he doesn’t calm down.
Will asks Paul for the truth. He does confirm he had an affair with Joelle, but says he didn’t kill her. He went to a dinner party at the Hornbaker house a year ago, and Joelle came on to him.
Paul and Joelle would get together whenever Eli went away for business. It was a casual thing for them. Paul reveals that the last time he and Joelle were together was the night of her murder. He went over to break up with her. They had breakup sex. Will is finding it very hard to believe his friend wasn’t the killer.
Will goes to the conference room and tells Amanda he doesn’t think Paul’s the murder, but he’s a stupid, stupid man. Amanda says he’s all they have, since he’s the last known person to see Joelle Hornbaker alive. They’ll also get DNA. Will feels something’s different about the case, and he can’t figure it out, yet. He knows it wasn’t a crime of passion. Will does know what the killer is like. He says he is patient, detail-oriented and cold. None of that describes Paul Campano. Faith comes in with more clues. Eli Hornbaker said the nail gun wasn’t his, so she traced the serial number to a Brent Shipley. He’s unreachable now. Faith found he was killed a year ago in a home invasion. Amanda intensely tells them they both know what that means. Will says it’s a serial killer. This story gives horrible feels experienced with the first two episodes.
No Bagel for You
Angie, Ormewood and Franklin get to a hit-and-run crime scene. Frank reprimands Police Officer O’Hara protecting the scene for eating a bagel. He says he needs to be in shape for softball season. Ormewood tells the officer it feels like he doesn’t care, and Angie grabs a bite of the bagel and returns it. These three make you laugh. They have to add some comedy considering the nature of their jobs. The person who hit the pedestrian left his car and fled on foot. The car’s registered to a Benjamin Price. Franklin cries about Angie being unavailable for softball season because she got pregnant. Ormewood says she really runs the bases better than anyone else on the team.
They find some contradicting clues. The hair found on the damaged car doesn’t match the victim’s hair. They can’t tell the guy got hit by a car. Franklin gives Angie a hint to entice her to return to work and their softball team. Angie tells him not to compare to any woman and their pregnancy recuperative time. Franklin understands. Angie recreates the crime a little like Will. It doesn’t make sense because the victim was hit in the throat, the only place they can find an injury. The victim is also the driver. They check his phone and sees texts from a person named Luna. Angie, Ormewood and Franklin go to find her.
Serial Killer and Hit-and-Run Crime Investigations Continue and Conclude
Faith questions Sandra, the daughter of Brent Shipley. She confirms the nail gun belonged to her Dad. Faith shows her pictures of Joelle Hornbaker and Paul Campano. She doesn’t recognize them. Sandra tells faith how she found her Dad when he was murdered. She says she found that her Dad was beaten with a bat. She doesn’t know how anyone could sneak up on her Dad. He had a panic button worn around his neck.
Will has another deep vision and becomes Brent Shipley’s killer. He also sees James Ulster in his hallucination. James easily points out things about the serial killer. Will realize something new about Joelle Hornbaker’s murder.
Both crimes were laid out clearly to the viewer as we walked through the steps the detectives took to solve the crimes. They interviewed the witnesses and family. The strangest was the hair found on the damaged hit-and-run car. It was from a skunk. Ormewood asks who would kill someone over a pet skunk, he also shares how you can stop a skunk from smelling stinky. They found a possible killer, Daphne Bell, the Skunk Mother. How did it happen? What led to Benjamin Price’s death? Who is the guilty killer?
Will and Faith walk through their clues and brainstorm on their case. They believe their serial killers are controlling, injustice collectors. They build a profile of the killers and suspect they knew Brent Shipley. They say the victims could have been anyone.They weren’t personal. Faith and Will’s case is disturbing.
This episode is like piecing a multipiece puzzle together. Both cases were brain and mind teasers. James Ulster’s reappearance added lots of fear factor to it. How do the serial killers find victims? Who publicizes their Joelle Hornbaker case? How does “Call Paul’s” Hotline help solve the case? What happens to Paul? Does Betty get a sofa buddy? How did the two serial killers know each other? Is it really over for Will? Will James Ulster’s visitations end?
Walking through the crime solving done by both teams, Faith-Will, and Angie-Ormewood-Franklin was well-done. It felt like you were walking along with them. This really draws you into the story. The flipping back and forth of Will experiencing the killers’ psyche was disturbing, but was needed to help solve the murders. The writing was done well to give the viewer this feeling. The actors did a great job at making everything believable and added the camaraderie and close friendship. Paul was the messed-up friend of Will’s that bumbled his way along and garnered sympathy from everyone, including viewers.
Liked the teasing, fun gathering at Will’s house between Angie, Will and Paul. It was like they were back in their old days. Betty’s back, too. Faith was back in her cool red sneakers. This episode was mind-bending and complicated. It gave you a look at what demands crime-solving puts on the detectives. Can also see Will go through a crisis that he may not be able to come back from, despite his therapy sessions.
Rating: ★★★★★
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