The Rookie - Lockdown - Review

With a new episode on tonight, let’s do a recap of the show’s outing last week.

The episode starts up by following up on from the ending of Sabotage, with Grey showing up to inform Jackson at their place with Lucy, about the Blue Page Stanton wrote up on him. Sarge’s instinct is to pulling the plug on trying to nail Doug, not wanting to sacrifice Jackson’s career for the likes of Stanton. West however is undeterred, refusing to make way for guys like him. Tim also feels guilty and after an unpleasant run in he and Lucy have with Doug they are determined to have Jackson’s back all day.

Elsewhere Angela gets her amniocentesis results back... sans Wesley... but all’s clear, which seems to lift a weight off her back. And Nolan’s down to the wire prep for his review board and a pep talk with Harper pay off: he passes with flying colours. However Grey informs him yet again that his dreams about becoming detective need to be put to rest once and for all.

Angela and Harper head to log in some evidence, Jackson tries to play nice with Stanton to maintain his cover as they head off for patrol, while Tim and Lucy deal with an unruly perp they need to rebook for the second time that morning. As for Nolan who is delegated to desk duty for the day, he gets kidnapped as he tries to clear the parking lot from a guy loitering with a truck. Fun little fact: there’s a bomb in the truck and the guy has a dead man’s switch!

Our bomber, Graham, gets John to contacts Grey on the radio to inform him if all this, which leads to Grey putting the precinct on lockdown. Everyone is evacuated to the garage. The only people out on the streets seem to be Jackson and Stanton and Dt.Lopez. Graham makes his demand of requesting the release of a lifer inmate Feltt, which at least gives Harper a lead and starts looking into who the bomber might be. John in the meantime tries to talk and get through to Graham but he seems to be unwavering, so Nolan tries to find a way to be able and contact the outside should it be needed by poking a hole through the truck’s wall. He uses his barge to Morse code to deliver a message and help identify Graham, which works.

Angela is tasked with finding out more about the motives behind the bomb threat, as the connection between Graham and Felt feels weaker after her conversation with the warden and Graham’s landlord. Through all this Stanton having taken it upon himself to “keep the streets clean in order to not look vulnerable” as the precinct is in lockdown, he as usual oversteps during a stop search with some Latino civilians. Jackson being fed up steps in and when Stanton threatens him again, Jackson finally plays the “my daddy runs IA card”. It seems to be the first thing to somewhat shake Doug.

Going by Angela’s findings it seems that Graham is in need of money, so a more pertinent request would be a ransom. This leads our team to realise the bomb threat is more likely a diversion. The original theory is for a high value target around the precinct to be hit, but as they disqualify those options one by one, they realise that really just leaves the interior of the precinct unattended. The “inside man” turned out to be Graham’s girlfriend Kelsey, who was trying to steal evidence of her identity and avoid her abusive husband. Harper agrees to help her not be found by her husband if she will help end this. She ends up giving information about their predicament and the evidently fake bomb so Grey so he can talk to Graham down, but it’s not enough. He’s desperate and threatens to shoot Nolan if they don’t release Kelsey. Nolan explains that if he shoots him she becomes accessory to murder and that as a rookie he can’t do much to help. It’s enough to Graham to give up and crisis averted.

All things seem to be going back to normal. More so, as even Doug starts being civil with Jackson. Lucy takes the text Jackson sent her with that information as good news, but as she informs Tim about it, he gets worried. “Guys like Doug don’t like to be cornered” he says and is proven right, as a stop on a suspect SUV takes a truly violent turn.
Doug and Jackson track down the guys in the car without any backup. According to Tim it’s in a rather dangerous district for cops, and so Chen and Bradford floor it to make it there in time. Doug and Jackson split up and as Jackson gets jumped by the gang, Doug just watches. When Lucy and Tim arrive, he plays dumb, and when they find Jackson he’s beaten to a pulp. Ever the fighter he makes sure to click the record on Doug’s camera, which catches him in the act, and finally gives Grey something actionable to suspend him. It’s satisfying beyond belief, and even Jackson in his bruised and bloodied state wants to witness it.

Back at the precinct Nyla and John meet up and talk a bit about going to see Jackson at the hospital, and just the general events of the day. John with the clarity of another near death experience (sidenote: he does get a lot of those doesn’t he?) realises that he needs to refocus the path of his career. Since wanting to help is why he got into this gig in the first place, maybe he should try to do it from the inside, and becoming a TO. Harper informs him that a college degree would help with advancing like that, which prompts John to decide to go back to school.

The episode ends with Grey visiting West at the hospital. The old man is clearly emotional and feeling guilty that this is what it had to come to. But Jackson is unapologetic. He knows it was the right thing to do and it was worth the sacrifice. It makes Grey proud, and the ever guarded sergeant for once is gonna let his rookie know as much and give the all clear for Jackson to claim as such to anyone he wants... so long as he doesn’t tell Chen he cried though.

Another tour the force episode for Titus Makin Jr with a solid assist by Richard T Jones in that final scene I must say. This has been a tough storyline for the show to go through, and to be completely honest I’m not entirely sure we’re done with it for good. As Tim said “guys like Doug don’t go down easy.” Still is was necessary and it was a lot to put on the shoulders of this young actor and by God did Makin Jr deliver.

That’s that for last week’s episode. Tune in tonight for a brand new instalment of The Rookie!