In Will Trent season 3, episode 16, “Push, Jump, Fall” followed Will’s attempts to grapple with his feelings of guilt over an accidental shooting that left a young boy dead. Despite going to therapy to try and overcome his emotions, it turned out that a horse named Pancake managed to come to his aid.
Will and Faith were called to find a legacy barrel rider named Bernadette, who disappeared with Pancake the horse after she noticed someone was harassing her. After the guy turned up dead, she was long gone so they had to find her. Bernadette had been a famous rider until she was assaulted and it led her to drinking to cope with the pain.
Bernadette was fiercely protective of Pancake and left, despite the owner ready to put up a reward for $10,000 for people to find the horse and bring her back. This meant in addition to Will and Faith trying to locate her, they also had to deal with vigilante groups trying to find Bernadette as well.
Will Trent discovered a drug mule operation
Once they did find her, Will learned from Bernadette that when she confronted the person who had been hurting Pancake, someone else came and attempted to harm her, but she managed to fight back. Now that she brought the horse to safety, she had noticed that Pancake appeared ill. He checked the horse’s manure and discovered she had cocaine bags inside her stomach. This meant the owner was using her as a drug mule.
While Faith stayed with Bernadette after she was injured in the leg from being shot at, Will took Pancake to get help. When she started to lag behind, Will made a deal that if she lived, he would also continue living.
Luckily, Pancake made it to the vet and she was safe to ride another day with Bernadette. While Will probably still has some healing to do in regards to the shooting involving the young boy, this was a good step for him as he continued to move forward.
The episode also saw Angie struggling to figure out what to do with her mom’s ashes and the confusing feelings her death brought. She was also having a hard time staying sober and she ended up in a bar, where not only did she end up dumping the ashes into the toilet, but also getting in between a couple’s spat and getting attacked for her efforts.
Will Trent continued other season-long subplots
Another case in the episode had Angie and Michael, who was preparing for an upcoming surgery, looking into whether a man’s death was a suicide, an accident, or homicide. Despite the two detectives struggling deeply with personal demons, they managed to figure out that their victim died while trying to hang a feeder outside his home.
The only reason they didn’t see it is because of a greedy insurance agent who wanted to make some money as long as the victim appeared to die at his own hand.
Overall, this episode balanced the cases with the personal situations the characters were dealing with. Michael talked to his kids so they could be prepared and he got help from others in making preparations in case the worst happened.
If you want to rewatch this episode, you can find it available on Hulu. Catch Will Trent airing Tuesdays on ABC at 8/7c.