‘Will Trent’: Ramón Rodriguez on Will’s Father Reveal, Casting the Actor and Angie’s Pregnancy

SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers from “Why Hello, Sheriff,” Season 3, Episode 17 of “Will Trent,” now streaming on Hulu.

ABC’s “Will Trent” has never pulled its punches, but Season 3’s penultimate episode, “Why Hello, Sheriff,” delivered a one-two gut punch that promises to change everything heading into next week’s finale. First, Angie Polaski (Erika Christensen) discovered she’s pregnant with Dr. Seth McDale’s baby. Then, in a shocking reveal, Will Trent (Ramón Rodriguez) learned that his biological father is Sheriff Caleb Roussard, played by actor Yul Vazquez, also known for his work on “Severance.”

For series star and executive producer Rodriguez, the hour marks a turning point for his character. “At first, I think fans — and even us as writers — toyed with the idea that James Ulster could be Will’s father,” Rodriguez tells Variety. “But then we wanted to explore something that felt even more personal.”

That “something” turned out to be Sheriff Caleb Roussard (played by Yul Vazquez), a steely rural lawman who clashes with Will at a crime scene, only for DNA evidence to reveal that the two are father and son. “Will finds out in this episode that the sheriff he’s been butting heads with is actually his biological father,” Rodriguez says. “And it just guts him. He wants nothing to do with it at first.”

The casting of Vazquez brought emotional weight and a layered performance to the reveal. “He couldn’t have been more perfect,” Rodriguez declares. “There’s a physical resemblance, there’s gravitas — and what’s cool is, he came in just so excited and down to play this very guarded, complicated guy.”

Christensen directed that emotional minefield. She has portrayed Angie Polaski since the series’ debut. The episode marked her first time behind the camera for “Will Trent,” and she didn’t hold back—juggling character revelations, a major stunt involving a shattered window and a cat, and quieter moments of emotional reckoning.

For Rodriguez, Christensen’s directorial debut perfectly fit such a character-driven episode. “Erika crushed it,” he says. “She created a space where we could really lean into that discomfort, into the silences and the awkwardness of these huge moments.”

And that wasn’t the only twist Christensen had to guide. The episode also revealed that Angie is pregnant, and the father is Dr. Seth McDale, not Will. “Talk about dropping a bomb right before the finale,” Rodriguez laughs. “We’ve been building toward this complicated emotional web, and now it’s all starting to unravel.”

Even with all the emotional depth, the episode also laid the groundwork for next week’s high-stakes finale, which co-showrunner Daniel Thomsen called “the biggest episode we’ve ever attempted.” A bioterrorism threat shuts down a hospital, leaving key characters — including Ormewood, Nico, Seth, and even Will’s dog Betty — trapped inside.

Rodriguez, an executive producer, helped shape the broader story arcs, including the original decision to explore Will’s cultural identity, something not present in the original books. “I love that Will Trent could’ve been written as anyone,” he said. “He’s an orphan. It was a colorless role. And we added dimension — made him Puerto Rican, gave him this real search for identity.”

Rodriguez has built a career through persistence and self-discovery, a journey that now finds him wearing dual hats on the acclaimed series adapted from Karin Slaughter’s novels. “What’s cool is you build trust, and that’s a big part of being a producer,” Rodriguez says. “I’m not looking at it just to make myself look good. I say, how do we make this show better?”

As the show heads into its season finale — and with a fourth season already greenlit — Rodriguez sees Will Trent as a rare opportunity to blend procedural structure with emotional storytelling. “It’s about people. It’s about what they’ve been through,” he said. “And now, we’re peeling back those final layers.”

For Will and Angie, what comes next promises to shake the foundation even more. “We’ve got some real cliffhangers coming,” Rodriguez teased. “This isn’t the end of the story. Not even close.”

Variety Awards Circuit: Emmy