Will Trent Reunites With Mark-Paul Gosselaar's Paul Campano — And Confronts The Monster Within

A blast from Will Trent's past resurfaces in Season 4, Episode 7, forcing the ABC crime drama's protagonist to revisit and reconsider a defining relationship from his deeply troubled youth.

When we last saw Mark-Paul Gosselaar's Paul Campano in Season 1, he existed only as Will's childhood tormentor, a fellow foster kid who took all his anger out on our title character. But upon his return, nearly three years later, we learn that it was Will who first threw a punch at Paul — on the heels of a trauma he wouldn't fully confront until Season 2.

As you may recall, Season 2 finally unlocked a core memory Will had buried for decades: At 12 years old, he tried to protect foster mother Anna from her abusive husband, nicknamed "Sleeveless Jack." Will hid the man's gun, later loaded it when Jack turned violent, and shot him in the arm — only for the confrontation to escalate, ending with Anna's death. Though Antonio assured Will that an abusive man pulled the trigger, not a brave child trying to help, Will carried that guilt for more than 20 years, convinced that his attempt to intervene set the tragedy in motion.

That brings us to Season 4, Episode 7, which reveals that Paul entered Will's life in the immediate aftermath of Anna's death. New to the group home, Paul tried to engage Will in a game of Cops and Robbers. But when he pointed a toy gun in Will's direction, Will reacted instinctively and threw the first punch.

So, as it turns out, Paul isn't quite the bully we once believed him to be.

It's Paul who ultimately helps Will make sense of the monster within, the simmering rage series star Ramón Rodríguez warned us about just a few short weeks ago. A dark passenger of sorts, it takes the form of serial killer James Ulster (again played by Greg Germann), the man who for years had Will convinced he was his biological father and who died protecting Will in Season 4, Episode 2.

Will doesn't deny what's bubbling beneath the surface. A year ago, he admits to Paul, he would have insisted none of this was happening. Now, after months of unpacking his wounds in therapy with Dr. Roach, he can't ignore it. He's tried to stay on the right path, to keep his past from dictating his future. But he worries he may be lying to himself.

What unsettles him most isn't just that he's capable of rage. It's that, in hunting killers, he sometimes understands them. Inside their minds, he feels comfortable. Too comfortable. And this week, he nearly killed Nash — not because he had to, but because part of him wanted to.

Paul doesn't flinch. He tells Will that anyone who's survived what they have carries a monster inside. The difference, he says, is that Will has pointed his toward something good. But he has to keep fighting. He can't let it win.

What did you think of Mark-Paul Gosselaar's return as Paul Campano? Would you like to see him pop back up again this season? And as we approach the halfway point of Season 4, just how worried are you about Will and the rage he's still learning to control? Sound off in the comments.