A Resurrection No One Asked For
Will Trent’s latest installment, He Lives!, is easily the most disappointing episode of the season. It’s a reminder that even a reliably sharp procedural can stumble when it leans too hard on tropes, shortcuts, and a villain who has long since exhausted his narrative value.
The writers have wrung every last drop out of James Ulster (Greg Germann), so instead of letting him rest in narrative peace, the episode attempts a quasi-resurrection through his daughter, Adelaide (Mallory Jansen). She is a jealous, underwritten figure with textbook daddy issues. She portrays the “killer offspring trying to impress or avenge a notorious parent”. This trope is already well worn, but here it’s paired with another procedural staple: the serial copycat.
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Adelaide masquerading as murdered FBI agent Lana Elke while recruiting killers to imitate her father’s crimes is a plotline that Criminal Minds: Evolution executed with far more clarity and menace. Elias Voit’s Sicarius cult worked because the clues were planted with intention. Here, the breadcrumbs were so obvious. For example, when Adelaide casually dropped Will’s (Ramon Rodrigues) mother’s name, Lucy, the tension evaporated.
And the spider bites? Will ends up looking like he lost a fight with an arachnid army while Adelaide emerges spotless. Are we meant to believe she packed industrial strength spider repellent?
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Emotional Math That Doesn’t Add Up
The episode tries to draw parallels between Adelaide and Will—two people longing for family, two people overlooked by the people who should have loved them. But the writing never gives Adelaide enough depth for the comparison to land. Her motivations are sketched, not explored. Her psychology is told, not shown. So, when the story tries to make her fixation on Will emotionally meaningful, the equation simply doesn’t balance.
On the other hand, Will’s own family storyline is bursting with unresolved tension. His uncle, Antonio Morales (John Ortiz), is missing. His long-time love, Angie Polaski (Erika Christensen) is pregnant with another man’s baby. Will is trying to imagine a future that keeps slipping away from him when visage of his mother who tells him to scream.
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| “He Lives!” – WILL TRENT. Pictured: Ramon Rodriguez as Will Trent, Raiany Silva as Lucy. Photo: Disney/Francisco Roman © 2026 Disney. All rights reserved. |
These threads deserved space. Instead, they’re overshadowed by Adelaid as the villain-of-the-week who doesn’t earn the narrative weight she’s given.
The Elf Problem
Will imagining Ulster as a wise cracking elf is meant to be whimsical, but it undercuts the seriousness of the situation and misses the comedic mark entirely. It’s a tonal misfire—too silly to be meaningful, too jarring to be funny.
Plot Convenience Over Plot Construction
The episode’s biggest weakness is how often it relies on convenience instead of craft.
A few glaring examples:
A few glaring examples:
– Special Agent Faith Mitchell (Iantha Richardson) and Detective Michael Ormewood (Jake McLaughlin) find a map in Adelaide’s rental car with an ‘X’ practically marking Will’s location.
– Ormewood’s discovery that Adelaide is missing from her cell feels less like a cliffhanger and more like a scene the writers abandoned mid‑thought.
– The timeline from Atlanta to San Juan is compressed into something bordering on teleportation.
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| “He Lives!” – WILL TRENT. Pictured: (l-r) Jake McLauglin as Michael Ormewood, Iantha Richardson as Faith Mitchell. Photo: Disney/Francisco Roman © 2026 Disney. All rights reserved. |
These shortcuts don’t tighten the story; they make the construction obvious.
A Small Bright Spot in Puerto Rico
On the plus side, Will’s Uncle Antonio is living his best romantic life while on sabbatical in Puerto Rico. He’s thriving, and honestly – good for him!
Final Thoughts
He Lives! tries to be a psychological thriller, a character study, and a serialized mythology episode all at once, but it doesn’t commit deeply enough to any of them. Instead of expanding the world of the show, it collapses into convenience and overused tropes.
So, dear viewers: How much longer must James Ulster haunt Will Trent’s story? And what did you think of (S)He Lives!? I’m genuinely curious—because if this is the direction the writers are steering toward, the show needs a course correction before the season finale. Let me know in the comments.
Overall Rating: 5 out of 10
Lynette Jones
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