I don't watch a lot of detective shows -- who cares about "the body in the library" when you can change the channel and see ghosts, zombies, time travel, and parallel worlds. But Episode 4.10 of Will Trent, on Hulu, pinged my gaydar: "A fraternity star and his friend are murdered." Friend is often code for boyfriend.
Cut to a Pregnant Detective and her husband at a class for expectant parents, in an ongoing plotline. They keep accidentally "killing" their baby. I'm fast forwarding.
Scene 2: Will (Ramon Rodriguez, top photo) interviews the ridiculously-dressed Chancellor about the victim, Paxton Cole. Shouldn't it be the Dean of Students, or the President? "He was a campus leader, honor role, president of the Delta Chi Kappa Fraternity."
Will thinks that it was a premeditated murder, but the Chancellor scoffs: "The boy was just mugged, or he interrupted a drug deal."
"Then why was he stripped, and tape gagged with the word "Loyalty"?
He harrumphs, then leaves to go to Boozy Booster Brunch, the biggest fundraising activity of Homecoming Week, except for the Wine and Winners Dinner Party. WIll is suspicious. Dude should be more concerned about the murder of the college goldenboy. Or any student, for that matter.
Scene 3: Will's team crosses the campus, complaining about the laziness of Generation Z and how college is a worthless rip-off. As someone who has been teaching at a college for over 20 years, I am disturbed by that sentiment. They find the frat pledges cleaning the porch with toothbrushes, a red flag about hazing abuse. They are not allowed to speak, another red flag.
Frat member Sean/Legacy (Jacob Buster) invites them in. Will looks disgusted at the frat guys drinking beer. Griffin/Badger sees them and tries to run out, but they ambush him. "It's not my fault!" he exclaims.
Scene 4: At the police station, Griffin/Badger (Tyler Patrick Smith) explains that he didn't hurt Paxton, but he was afraid that his illegal id business would be implicated. Last night at the party, he gave Paxton/Doorbell and Greg/Sharkey fake ids so they could pick up some kegs of beer. They never returned.
He's not implicated in the murder, but he's arrested for selling fake ids. These people are disgustingly judgmental.
They interrogate everybody else in the house, but no one had a beef with Paxton/Doorbell or Greg/Sharkey, and no one knows where they went to get the beer.
"Did you ever see them argue, fight over a girl?" How do you know they were straight, heteronormative a-hole?
"No, they were best friends." Tell me more.
Scene 5: Being dismissisve and insulting isn't getting them any intel, so the Pregnant Lady tries the sympathy approach. Sean/Legacy opens up, complaining that his dad wants him engaged by next year and married with a kid soon after graduation. I got that pressure all the time growing up: "What girl do you like? What girl do you like? What girl? What girl?" No matter how casually I mentioned her -- "a girl dropped her tray in the cafeteria today" -- my peers would be congratulating me and high-fiving each other. "Yeah! Was she hot? Are you going to have sex with her?"
This strategy works: Sean/Legacy reveals that several months ago, Paxton shared a private sex video to group chat. It got leaked, and the whole campus saw it. Dang, it was with a girl. Hereosexual identiy established at Minute 12..
Scene 6: Pregnant Detective visits The Girl, Sorority President Britt. She can't talk about the sex tape, because she signed an NDA and got a Porsche. But she won't say who asked her to sign it.
Other sorority girls come forward to reveal that the fratboys are all scumbags, but they can't report on any of their misdeeds because Sean/Legacy's dad is the Chancellor. Curiouser and curiouser.
Scene 7: Back at headquarters, after some stuff about the ongoing plotline, they find out where Paxton/Doorbell and Greg/Sharkey bought the beer: at the Beer Depot (makes sense). They drop by, and find his pickup truck, with the beer kegs still there. The killer must have abducted them here.
Will finds two sets of clothes in the trash -- the killer stripped them here! And no one noticed? And in the ice machine, Greg/Sharkey's naked body, with a tape gag reading "Fortitude."
They figure out that the words on the tape gags are the mottos of the frat: Loyalty, Fortitude, Integrity, Diligence. Two murders left?
Scene 8: Ongoing plot stuff, then the bodies in the morgue. Paxton/Doorbell was drowned, and Greg/Sharkey died of hypothermia (so he was dumped in the ice machine while alive). They both Goldenkranz (gold-infused liquour) in their stomachs, and high levels of Xanax (an anti-anxiety medication that causes drowsiness). The killer spiked their drinks so they would be more compliant. Which means that he (or she) was at the party last night.
More after the break. Caution: Explicit
Scene 9: Pregnant Detective interviews the bubble-head sorority girls. They recognize the Goldenkranz from a Gatsby-themed party last year, where everything was gold-themed. They recalled trying to get with a frat pledge named Barry (Jacob Ryan, left), but he rejected them: he was already seeing someone. And later he was found dead!
Meanwhile Will interviews the Chancellor again, accusing him of cleaning up any mess that the frat made. "We're here to nurture the boys, not punish them for every misstep."
"What about Pledge Barry, the boy who died after the Gatsby Party last year?"
Deer-stuck-in-headlights stare. "He didn't belong to the fraternity. He just got drunk, wandered into the woods, and died of hypothermia. It's an unrelated tragedy."
Scene 10: After some ongoing plotline stuff, they exhume Barry's body. The autopsy doesn't match the official "got drunk and wandered into the woods" story: he was actually walking barefoot, with a tape gag over his mouth. And someone tucked a note into his burial suit during the funeral: "I will never forget."
Left: Barry's dick.
Back at headquarters, they check the note: it matches the handwriting of the Sorority President involved in the sex tape scandal.
Also: the NDA was filed the day after Barry's death, weeks before the sex tape! She had to keep her mouth shut about something else!
They theorize that the Sorority President was dating Barry; Paxton found out and had him killed in a hazing "accident." A year later, she decided to murder the four boys responsible. Gulp, Sean/Legacy and Fake ID Griffin/Badger are up next.
Scene 11: Pregnant Detective goes to the campus to take the boys into protective custody. While everyone is on the quad for a memorial service, she searches the frat house (got a warrant. lady?). In Sean/Legacy's room, she finds a box of photos of him with Barry, the guy who died last year -- kissing! They were boyfriends! This upsets her: "Oh, Sean...oh, God!" Are you responding to Sean being gay, or being the murderer?
Meanwhile, Will and his Team want arrest Sorority President Britt (without evidence?). She was last scene headed toward the woods. Thinking that she's deep-freezing her next victim, the detectives search frantically, and find her, buried under leaves, with her tape gag marked with "Integrity." Still alive.
Back at frat house the Pregnant Detective hears a muffled scream. Sean'Legacy has tied up Fake ID Griffin/Badger, and is pouring gasoline around, planning to burn everything down. She disarms him, and he and Sorority President Britt reveal what happened that night:
Pledge Barry accidentally spilled his drink on Sorority President Britt, and she yelled that he had to be punished. The four murder targets and Boyfriend Sean/Legacy marched him across campus in his underwear, but it got worse and worse; they kept "spilling" drinks on him, taped his mouth, and left him in the woods to find his own way home. Boyfriend Sean couldn't say anything, because he would be outed. Um...you don't have to be dating the guy to object to violent hazing.
The next day they found him dead in the woods. Chancellor Daddy told them to put his clothes back on and forget about him, pretend that he was not a frat pledge, they didn't even know him. So, you're responsible for his death, and you're blaming everybody else? And why the heck were you closeted, in 2025?
Scene 12: Will tells the Chancellor that Sean has been arrested, and doesn't want any contact with him. And by the way, the Chancellor will be arrested for obstruction, child endangerment, and such.
A detective working on an ongoing plotline agrees: "You're only as sick as your secrets." I thought the writers invented the phrase, but a Google search reveals it being used in Psychology Today, Alcoholics Anonymous, and various fictional characters who cite it as an old proverb. It means that keeping a secret about yourself is destructive, as everyone who is closeted knows.
We end with Pregnant Detective, her husband, and Will fixing up the baby's room.
Beefcake: Just corpses.
Heterosexism: Lots. The detectives are absolutely convinced that no one on campus could possibly be gay, until the Pregnant Detective opens that box.
Gay Characters: Pledge Barry and Boyfriend Sean.
My Grade: The detectives are judgmental jerks. Gay men as murderers/victims is a hoary old stereotype, but at least Barry's murder wasn't a hate crime, and Sean is not murdering people because he's gay. B-.
Jeff East: Tom Sawyer's boyfriend, Disney teen, young Superman, naked fratboy, Pumpkinhead prey.
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