The Rookie - The Standoff - Review: I Didn't Know Rock Bottom Had a Basement

In the aftermath of Kyle holding John at gunpoint last week, we see him escape with his life due to Lucy's help. She arrives just in time to shoot him although he hesitated a moment too long as well and lost his moment.

After getting abducted during the undercover drug deal gone wrong, Isabel is left abandoned in the trunk of a car with a bullet in the head. Surprisingly though, she's still alive, but not in good condition. Tim rushes to her side.

(ABC/Mitch Haaseth) MELISSA O'NEIL
 in The Rookie

Back at John's, Lucy is panicked about what they're going to tell the police. She already lied about their relationship once, if they find out she was there she could potentially get fired. John tells her to leave and instead decides to lie to the cops himself. He'll pretend he was home alone and since Kyle suffered a brain injury he thinks it'll be easy to make him believe it's the truth when he wakes up.

Tim is back at work ready to track down the guy who shot Isabel but as Sergeant Grey points out, making things personal won't get him what he wants at the end of the day. He advises Tim to take it easy and stay by his wife's side, but it's unlikely he'll follow the advice.

John is called in to see Captain Anderson and the Commander to let him know he's been cleared in the Alex Montgomery shooting but a new investigation has now been opened regarding the altercation from the night before. John seems nervous about this since he's still lying about Lucy's involvement.

He tells Lucy the news and assures her they won't find out the truth after the meeting.

In the squad meeting, the patrols get their orders. Some of the units are going to be tracking down the drug dealer and some will be trying to find his girlfriend. Lucy tries to apologize to Time for what happened to his wife but he's distant at best. He tells her to get their kit ready and ask for the Bradford special.

Nolan gets a taste of what being in the frontlines really means, at least, if you consider the front desk job that. He's paired with Officer Yamada to deal with complaints and the most intense part of his job is ensuring he can stamp and staple each form correctly.

Jackson has a brief conversation with his dad before getting to work, he defends Nolan and assures his father that he's just having some bad luck right now. He's a good guy, he wouldn't do anything to put his job in jeopardy. West doesn't seem as convinced about this, he still thinks Nolan is hiding something.

"Shakespeare stole my dog." These are the kind of complaints John is currently battling at the reception desk. Next is a woman who has a custody exchange set at a police station but her husband (soon to be ex) is nowhere to be found. She asks if she can leave her son, Wendell, there until his father arrives because she can't afford to be late to work again.

Talia, Angela, Lucy, Tim and Jackson arrive at Bronson Estates. The veterans explain to the rookies this place used to be referred to as Death Wish, in reference to the Charles Bronson movie since if you came here it meant you had a death wish. It's been cleaned up since then but it's still dangerous and Tim gives Lucy a trauma plate to go in her vest as extra protection. Jackson also takes their time to gear up to take a moment of Lucy's time and question her about what happened at Nolan's the night before. This puts her slightly on edge but she denies knowing anything. Tim is eager to go in with a shotgun but Talia points out they're just there to talk to people, not scare them to death. "Speak for yourself." He says but then relents and puts it back in the trunk.

While Nolan is trying to dig up some makeshift crayons for Wendell, he gets called into an interrogation room by Commander West. West claims Kyle Montgomery is telling a story where Nolan lured him to his home in order to kill him. He also says he's sure there was someone else in the apartment, that he heard a voice before Nolan knocked him out. John denies this and West asks him point-blank if he's being dishonest. Again, Nolan lies.

There is an interlude of the group at Bronson Estates going door-to-door in search of Cesiah Olivo, Vance's girlfriend.

Officer Yamada takes Wendell to get a snack in the break room and while he's gone his father, Jeff Turner shows up to take him home. Except he's clearly drunk and Nolan puts him in the drunk tank to sober up.

(ABC/Mitch Haaseth) Pictured (l-r): Melissa O'Neil as Lucy Chen and Eric Winter as Tim Bradford in The Rookie

Lucy and Chen get lucky in there search as they come across a very pregnant Cesiah. They encourage her to call Vance and trick him into coming over because he can't be a good father to her or her baby, especially since Tim plans on getting him put away for as long as possible. She does but then we discover Vance is onto Talia and he ambushes her after sending a text to flip the jammer, meaning Talia may be alone against dangerous armed men.

A dangerous game of cat and mouse ensues between Vance's crew and the officers. As suspected, his frequency jammer works and each group is isolated from each other without anyway to communicate.

(ABC/Mitch Haaseth) Pictured (l-r): Melissa O'Neil as Lucy
Chen and Eric Winter as Tim Bradford in The Rookie

Cesiah, Tim, and Lucy are stuck in the apartment in a stalemate with Vance. He wants Cesiah and refuses to leave without her and his kid. Tim tries to buy them some more time to figure out their next move because he's not sure they'll be able to stop them if and when they come through the door.

West is not giving up on finding out the truth about what occurred between Nolan and Kyle. John tries to say Kyle must have heard SportsCenter on in the background from his TV but West also points out the shower was wet, yet he wasn't. He says he sometimes uses the shower as a makeshift humidifier because he's not used to the dry California air and West clearly is not buying it. He tells Nolan he has until the end of the day to amend his statement. After that...

(ABC/Mitch Haaseth) Madalyn Horcher
as Cesiah Olivo

Talia is forced to duck into an elderly couple's home. An older woman is caring for her husband with cancer in-home, the phones don't work because she doesn't have the money to pay the bills for it due to his treatment. Talia asks for medical supplies to take care of her arm which has taken damage from the shoot-out.

Angela and Jackson find shelter in a man's house after he comes home from getting groceries but soon discover they're stuck in there as the windows don't lead out anywhere useful.

Well Cesiah is going into labor! One of Vance's guys blocks the peephole so Tim rigs up a makeshift camera using Lucy's bodycam taped to his baton for the window above the door. Just as Vance and his men get ready to break down the door, Cesiah's water breaks.

As Cesiah begins going into labor, Tim gets into position and is able to take the men by surprise. He gets in some good shots before they stop. Vance doesn't want them to hit Cesiah and he refuses to leave until he has his kid. Even his crew members are getting antsy though since they know back-up will eventually come for the officers. While things are calm again, Lucy prepares to help deliver Cesiah's baby.

(ABC/Mitch Haaseth) Christopher James
Barker as Vance in The Rookie 

The man whose apartment Angela and Jackson are in doesn't take kindly to their intrusion and begins filming them up until they tell him they'er trying not to get killed. He immediately knows they're running from Vance and tells them if they cut the power off they can kill the jammer. But to do that, they need to get to the basement and turn off the circuit breaker. Angela begins knocking on the walls in his apartment and hears a hollow sound. Maybe they don't need to go outside to get down there after all.

Nolan comes clean to Wendell about his dad already being there. Wendell predicts he was drunk. They have a conversation about lying with Wendell giving John some telling advice about how lies really just make things worse no matter how good your intentions are.

Breaking through the tenants wall is pretty easy and Jackson and Angela see a way down to the basement while he whips his phone out to film them again so he knows who to send the bill to for the damages.

Detective Wolfe and Vestri show up when dispatch doesn't receive any update for several hours. They get ambushed by Vance's men while riding up from the elevator. Talia is able to get them both back to the woman's apartment for medical attention but unfortunately, Vestri is fatally wounded in the firefight.

It's time for Lucy to deliver this baby but Vance isn't giving up so easily. Out of their eye-line, someone is slowly sawing through the wall.

Angela and Jackson make it down to the basement and through the armed goons down there to cut the power. The second signals can go out again Talia sends a distress call back to the precinct.

Before Nolan can confess the truth to West, they get word from Zoe about the distress call and that his son is one of the officers involved. West tells Nolan to get a move on, it's all hands on deck.

Vance and his team bust into the apartment with Vance trying to take the baby and Lucy getting shot, though her trauma plate protects her. Things go south fast but through Lucy and Tim's combined efforts they're able to protect Cesiah and back-up arrives not long after.

West seems to gain some respect for Nolan in a moment where they're arresting men in the basement. He is reunited with his son.

As things are cleaned up, Lucy says her goodbyes to Cesiah, Wolfe learns of Vestri's death, and Tim gets to give Vance a few cold words to ponder on his way to prison.

John wants to get Lucy's permission to tell West the truth but she tells him not to. She firmly believes they'll wind up fired and rebukes Nolan's black-and-grey morality. Their argument persuades him not to confess and luckily, Anderson and West close the case anyways and declae him ready to go back on active duty, largely in part to John's efforts at Bronson Estates.

Later, he and Lucy share a beer at his apartment as they try this new thing called being friends.

THOUGHTS & OBSERVATIONS

- I can't understand how John and Lucy thought it was smarter to lie about her involvement in a shooting after everything John just dealt with in the Alex Montgomery case, than to just come clean about their relationship.

- I love Lucy as a character, she may be my favorite actually and I even like John too I just don't enjoy them together. But aside from that, Lucy was a badass this week. I mean all of them were operating under duress and isolated form each other but Lucy delivered a baby and still got up to fight alongside Tim.

- Captain Anderson needs more to do ASAP! I think I may even like to see a romance explored between her and John to be honest.

- Not sure Tim should have told Vance Isabel was still alive. That seems like a good way to get people to go after her I mean we know he's got plenty of connections.

- No closure for poor Wendell, huh?

- I've been loving The Rookie so far for the most part but this episode was probably one of the best, if not the best, of the season. I'm glad they're starting in the second half so strong and I hope it continues along this groove here on out.

Who is the parent now? on an all-new episode of ABC's The Rookie airing Tuesday, January 15th.