9 Episodes After Ulster’s Death, ‘Will Trent’ Has Officially Found Its Next Great Villain

Will Trent has had a number of excellent and disturbing villains in its four seasons so far, but there has never been one quite as memorable as James Ulster (Greg Germann). Ulster was first introduced at the end of Season 1, as a successful lawyer who Will Trent (Ramón Rodríguez) met during the investigation into the serial killer who was responsible for the death of Will’s mother, Lucy (Raiany Silva), back when Will was born.

Will soon learned that Ulster was that killer, and he stayed in prison until his escape at the start of Season 4. Ulster was killed soon after by his ex, Susan (Michaela Watkins), but his memory has continued to haunt the protagonist through Will’s visions. Will Trent has been without its main villain for the bulk of this season (two months in the show’s timeline), but its latest episode, “He Lives!” has just introduced a worthy successor: Ulster’s biological daughter, Adelaide (Mallory Jansen).

‘Will Trent’ Has the Perfect Ulster Replacement in His Daughter, Adelaide

At the start of “He Lives!”, Will meets with his therapist, Dr. Roach (Margaret Cho), and tells her that he is still struggling with visions of Ulster. Whereas Will usually imagines visions of those involved in the cases he’s investigating, he can’t stop seeing a vision of Ulster, who taunts him and comments on the cases. Will is already struggling with Ulster’s voice in his head when he investigates the murder of someone who was killed with Ulster’s signature method of sewing the victim’s mouth closed and painting their nails red. Even more disturbing, the victim has the same name as Will’s uncle, Antonio Morales (John Ortiz).

While checking on Antonio in Puerto Rico, Will crosses paths with FBI Agent Lana Elkie, who ends up tagging along with him this episode. Back in Atlanta, the GBI and APD figure out that the most recent victim was killed by a James Ulster superfan who’d written to Ulster and gotten a letter back after Ulster died, containing murder instructions from someone claiming to be him. When Antonio goes missing and his lover is killed, Will and Lana go to look for him and bond along the way. Will finds a disturbing mannequin recreation of his birth and Lucy’s death, and as he gets closer to finding Antonio, he’s attacked by venomous spiders. Back home, Faith (Iantha Richardson) learns that Ulster had a journal that was left to his biological daughter, Adelaide Trevins. Ulster had never had a relationship with Adelaide or wanted to, but this didn’t keep her from writing him letters and trying to connect with him.

The entire search for Antonio in Puerto Rico turns out to be a setup by Adelaide, who killed the real Lana Elkie and has been pretending to be her this whole time. Adelaide has a vendetta against Will for two reasons: she blames him for arresting Ulster, and she resents the fact that Ulster treated Will like his child in a way he never did with her. She tries to kill Will, but he’s a step ahead of her, even though she gets away while Faith and Ormewood (Jake McLaughlin) are rescuing Will from his collapse due to the venom. As it stands, Adelaide is still running free, and she’s clearly not going to stop until she gets the vengeance that she’s seeking against Will.

Ulster Continues To Impact ‘Will Trent’ Through Both Will and Adelaide

Will still hasn’t been able to get James Ulster out of his head, but since his death, Will Trent hasn’t yet had a major villain. Adelaide is the perfect replacement, not just because she’s Ulster’s daughter, but specifically because he never accepted her as a child or a protégée. Ulster always saw Will as his son, and even in his final moments, he hoped that Will would embrace his dark side and follow in his footsteps. Ulster had everything he wanted from Will in Adelaide, his own biological child, but he never embraced her as his successor. Like Ulster, Adelaide is willing to murder in cold blood, and there are no lines she won’t cross. Although Ulster was motivated by a sick desire to kill and then arrange the bodies to fit his vision, Adelaide is seemingly more interested in revenge than the actual act of killing itself.

Adelaide is the perfect new villain for Will Trent because she fills Ulster’s place as a brutal killer with a special interest in Will, but she also has this particular anger in her that comes from being neglected by Ulster for so long. Will got exactly what Adelaide wanted from Ulster, and he threw it aside, so she won’t be able to let go of her revenge mission against him. Jansen previously played a fantastic and ruthless villain before on Galavant, and after just one episode, she’s already the perfect new villain for Will Trent as Adelaide Trevins. Adelaide may have gotten away for now, but she won’t be able to stay away from Will, and this could very well be her downfall in the remainder of Season 4.

Will Trent airs Tuesdays at 8:00 p.m. ET.