With a new episode on tonight, let’s do a recap of the show’s outing last week.
People complaining last week that Jackson and Lucy would have been right there to help Nolan clean up after everything must have been very satisfied with the teaser this week, as that’s how the episode starts up: our three Rookies hanging and being there for one another. It’s a short sweet sequence where they talk about what’s been going the last few days: Nolan is held back, Lopez is moving up resulting to Jackson being assigned a new T.O. and Lucy is to be dreading a new “Tim Test” because he’s been too quiet lately. Those worries get put on the backburner though as by the end of the teaser we find out her car has been stolen...
Tim and Lucy spend the episode looking for her car (though still Bradford does manage to wedge in a Tim!Test in there somewhere). They find out a young girl, Tamara, who’s been living on the streets is our thief. Lucy feels sorry for her and, despite Tim’s objections, goes out of her way to help the kid, going so far as to even offer her car up if Tamara keeps in touch.
Meanwhile Angela stresses about her new job and making a good impression, while Wesley stresses about not wanting to lose yet another housekeeper and Angela eating healthy. After a rocky start with her new boss, giving the impression that her approach to the work is a too overachieving, she nails it. Lopez not only manages to solve her assignment, but digs deep enough that she finds an even bigger fish to fry from her investigation. The new boss (whose name I should probably make an effort to learn) seems impressed. Mission accomplished Detective Lopez.
As Angela is crushing it in her new job, Jackson finds himself missing her guidance and level headed approach to the job. While the new T.O. Dough Stanton (Brandon Routh kicking off his recurring stint on the show) starts off well enough, it’s not long before Officer West is able to recognize some troubling behaviour from his part... mainly discriminatory and racist behaviour, and it weighs on him.
Nolan and Harper also find themselves dealing with race issues of a different kind, when they are tasked - as punished from the events of Armstrong debacle - to man community/outreach centre in a bad neighbourhood. Going up against them is local man, James, who is willing to call them out and hold them accountable for every little thing they do. Even John’s misguided good intentions of reopening the park are looked down on, as it was an initiative by the locals to keep the park closed. You see, they’ve been trying to keep the drug dealers and drug addicts out and the neighbourhood kids safe. Nothing Nolan seems to do is right. Still ever diligent and dutiful he and Harper come to the rescue of Hugo, another local, a construction worker who got roped into building a meth lab and reached out for help. It’s only after this, and Nyla’s endorsement of John along with reassurance that his heart is in the right place, that James seems willing to accept the olive branch.
It has been well documented that the show intended to tackle BLM and police misconduct. These issues were so front and centre in the news cycle this past summer it would have been terribly obtuse of the show to not address them. If how both 3.01 and 3.02 have handled the matters and set up the scene for future storylines are any indication to go by, we are in for a very interesting season. While we know Brandon Routh’s character is going to be sticking around for a while, I hope Arjay Smith’s James becomes far more of a staple in the show as well. A character like that will be a useful perspective to have on a show like this.
That’s that for last week’s episode. Tune in tonight for a brand new instalment of The Rookie!
