“NO ONE WAS READY FOR THIS 💔😭” — Will Trent Fans Are STILL In Shock After That Brutal Season 4 Finale Twist! QT

Just three episodes after the show bid farewell to one of its most beloved characters, Sonja Sohn’s Amanda Wagner, the fourth season of the procedural series went out with a heartbreaking twist.

The Tuesday, May 5 episode saw Dr. Seth McDale (Scott Foley) die suddenly from injuries sustained in a car accident. As if that isn’t sad enough on its own, Seth’s death coincided with Angie (Erika Christensen) giving birth to their daughter.

The scene itself was a lesson in emotional whiplash. Angie had just gone into labor and the couple was anticipating their bundle of joy on the way to the hospital when they were T-boned by a another driver. Seth initially appeared uninjured, taking action to help both Angie and the other driver. But at the hospital, after Angie was whisked away to deliver their child, he discovered massive bruising on his ribs that indicated internal bleeding.

In the end, Seth didn’t make it. Though Angie delivered a healthy baby girl named Edie, taking care of their child on the heels of her husband’s death was too overwhelming.

The devastating loss had a sort of silver lining though. Seeing his friend in need gave Will (Ramón Rodrìguez) the push he needed to move forward after Amanda’s death. Instead of mourning his mentor, he focused all his energy on being present for Edie and Angie.

Will even echoes Amanda’s words to him while speaking to Edie, introducing himself as “uncle Will” and assuring her that he’s ready to “be of service.”

He then delivered a sweet, solemn promise. “Here’s the contract. I will be here, slightly terrified. I’m probably going to mess up some, but I will make sure you are okay,” he tells Edie. “I’ll make sure that you feel safe and loved. I’ll be like your Betty, just less demanding. Deal?”

Cue the emotional montage: after Will takes a leave of absence from the GBI, we watch as he, Edie, and Angie forge a sort of family unit, bolstered by the support of Nico (Cora Lu Tran) and Betty. After several months pass, Will and Angie finally return to work to find that everything has changed — including a new deputy director on the way.

All this change distinctly feels like a hard reset for the show, which showrunner Liz Heldens told TV Insider is very much by design.

“Going into Season 5, it just really felt like we needed a reset and some new energy, and some new dynamics,” Heldens explained. “These were really hard and emotional decisions for the writers. There was a lot of back and forth in the room, but, eventually, we did what we thought was best for the future of the show.”

All of these big changes will propel the show into its fifth season, and bring many of its core characters closer together. So what does that mean for Will and Angie, whose on-and-off relationship seemed to have come to a close?

Asked about the evolving dynamic between the pair and whether it may progress to romantic territory given their pseudo family unit, Heldens kept things vague.

“I think that Angie and Will are the beating heart of this show. And I don’t know what the future is going to bring… but it is nice to have them close again,” she said. “And, I mean, I have friends who were like, ‘I miss Will and Angie having scenes together. I miss them.’ And it is nice to get them really, really in each other’s orbit and helping each other and pulling each other through like they have been.”

Co-showrunner Karine Rosenthal added, “We don’t need to rush to have the two of them be romantically involved anymore because they get to be together in a new way that we haven’t seen before. That’s kind of been the exciting thing about those two. They’re such a special relationship, but at each stage of the series, we’ve seen them in very different configurations… We’ll see whether another person comes into that mix and then they have to navigate that again, or if it slowly leads to them trying again at some point. We’ll see.”

ABC has not yet set a premiere date for season 5 of Will Trent.