The Rookie - Time of Death - Review: Officer Nolan in Pursuit

What initially begins as a somewhat lighthearted episode, with Bishop and Nolan winding up in an escape room with a suspect and having to figure out a way out before approaching the scene of a robbery where a silent alarm had been tripped, quickly spirals into something much more serious when Nolan kills someone on the job.

Bishop also assists in orchestrating a drug bust that involves Tim's wife, Isabel, who will be playing the part of informant in order to lessen or eliminate her jail sentence, but involves her going into a very volatile situation.

“Time of Death” was written by Brynn Malone and directed by Mike Goi.

In addition to the main cast, this episode also guest starred Mircea Monroe as Isabel Bradford, David DeSantos as Detective Elijah Vestri and Demetrius Grosse as Detective Kevin Wolfe.

TIME OF DEATH

The focal point of this episode, as the title would suggest, is Nolan's first kill. When a bust goes wrong while on a call with Bishop, he winds up in a situation where a man has a gun on him. He neglects to surrender in spite of Nolan asking him to several times, and Nolan is forced to shoot him.

The case is then labeled a homicide, with Nolan the leading suspect.

Internal Affairs is called in to investigate and everyone is on edge. The entire storyline is played with deadly sincerity. It's jarring for Nolan, to realize he's killed someone. So jarring, you almost wonder if he has ever considered this as a real possibility before.

He has to have known there was always a chance it would happen, even if he didn't want it to.

In one of the most unfortunate side effects of this storyline, it looks like Chen and Nolan may be getting back together. They share a passionate night anyways, due to Nolan's confusion and trauma. Not sure a romp in the sheets is going to help him with that but when have these two ever been logical when together?

After pillow talk, the shooting victim's brother comes to murder Nolan for revenge. We get a cliffhanger, with Nolan held at gunpoint, the screen fading to black, and the sound of a gunshot going off.

My assumption is Lucy came out and shot the home invader, and then we'll be seeing a drawn-out storyline where the investigation possibly uncovers their relationship.

Especially since she lied to the investigators earlier in the episode. I'm not looking forward to the direction of this particular plot. But maybe it'll finally put an end to Chen and Nolan once and for all. (No offense to anyone who does enjoy them.)

ISABEL DONS A WIRE

Tim is spiraling over the discovery Isabel is going to be trading in jail time to become an informant. If she is able to lead them to bigger busts in the drug dealer world then she'll have leverage and be able to make a deal in order to avoid it all together.

But wearing a wire into a dangerous criminal's house is always a risk, one that Officer Bradford is extremely against. He still loves Isabel and doesn't want to see her killed.

Though it seemed he was willing to take that risk with her going to jail (she literally told him this was the reason she was so scared of going to jail in last week's episode), so really, what's the difference?

Unfortunately for Isabel, it doesn't take long for things to go sideways during the sting operation. She gets a little too antsy and ties to push for the bigger bust, leading to suspicion being drawn. By the time the cops bust in to save her, she's already been taken - with her bloody camera left behind on the bathroom floor for them to find.

Bradford loses his temper at this, understandably since he was against it from the start. Yet he can't control her choices or actions. No matter what happened, whether she went to prison or undercover, Isabel's life was always going to be at risk.

From the moment she picked up the first needle, she's been living on borrowed time.

I'm not sure if the show is going to kill her off or not. Honestly, I wouldn't really care if they did. Not to sound callous, and normally I hate the fridging of women to further a man's storyline, but one thing The Rookie hasn't been doing well, at least in my opinion, is romantic storylines.

For now, unless Isabel really does become a bigger part of the story and get more interesting storylines (like a legitimate undercover op or something) she isn't adding much to the show, and neither is Tim's relationship with her.

He and Lucy are far more compelling television and way more entertaining to watch together, regardless of where their relationship heads, that's the duo I would rather be watching more of.

ODDS & ENDS

- Bishop may be making detective. She has officially been "tapped". I wonder if this is going to cause drama between her and Lopez? Also I hope she remains on the show in regular capacity, I'd hate to lose her as a character.

- Well the body cam addition to the show finally got some use this episode finally!

EPISODE AWARDS

Performer of the Week: Eric Winter was excellent this week as Tim Bradford, portraying his complex feelings towards wife, Isabel, and struggling to protect her through any means necessary, Bradford delivers and performs well when dealing with the nuance of emotional purgatory.

Rookie of the Week: I went with Nolan this week since he's dealing with something so traumatic and trying to navigate an IA investigation while still grappling with both guilt and possible PTSD.

Best Scene: Officer Gray is on Nolan's side for once in determining whether or not he did the right thing.

Favorite Line: "What are you, my mother?"

THE ROOKIE RETURNS TUESDAY, JAN. 8TH, ON ABC.