As The Rookie launched its spinoff backdoor pilot a couple of weeks ago, and with the penultimate episode of the season now behind us, I guess it is long overdue to take inventory of the show so far.
I would like to preface this article by apologising for the delay in reviewing this beloved procedural. However, I’ve had a hard time with it this year, as I’ve found the show has been very scattered and inconsistent narratively, in ways I never thought it would derail. From a detached and objective POV, I completely understand there are always kinks that need ironing out when a show begins to outgrow its original premise. And I fully acknowledge that with Nolan no longer being a trainee officer we are at that point in the story. However some behind the scenes moves in the show as well as some narrative decisions that have frustrated long term fans have created an even greater imbalance, than the pre-existing circumstances already offer, and that as a fan watching the show I find hard to ignore.
Anyhow, without further ado, let’s get to the thick of things, as we prepare for the S4 finale tonight.
Thankfully we have had new and returning characters that have tried to step up to fill the void... however with various degrees of success.
From the returning folk we first have activist James (played by Arjay Smith) who, after the seeds were planted late in S3, gets to properly strike up a romance with Nyla throughout the course of the season. The follow up on those two has been put somewhat on the fast track as the show decided to write Mekia’s real life pregnancy into the story, making James (hopefully) the baby daddy and Nyla's newly minted husband as well. Lucy’s “puppy” Tamara (Dylan Conrique) has also become much more of a staple of the show this year, as she took up Jackson’s vacant room in the apartment, filling also the role of Lucy’s confidant in some ways. And Brent Huff’s Smitty has too found himself being used as often as possible, providing some well needed comic relief when the situation calls for it. Lest we forget Matthew Glave has also been back for a couple of episodes, for what is now becoming "Oscar's mandatory pop in the season" that I really do wish TPTB would cut back on.
There are a couple of more character introductions and reccuring player returns we need to address, and we will discuss them further down, however, first we need to pick up...
Where we left off: The S3 finale, along with the premiere, followed up and concluded the plot for the overarching bad guy of last year, Angela’s nemesis, La Fiera. Lucy goes undercover in the S3 finale trying to get an in into the drug trade, which is easier with the ongoing drug war. She has Nyla operating as her case officer and Tim spending his time worrying sick about her. All the while Angela, who is trying to not lose it over her wedding getting derailed once again (though she has Patrice, Tamara and Silas stepping up to help Tim, Jackson and Wesley to save the day) and Nolan (who on the side has to deal with ADA Del Monte overcharging a perp for an accident John had early in the episode) run leads on the street. This does lead to Cesar getting killed though. In the end however La Fiera herself gets caught when she tries to take over his operations, only to stumble in on Lucy. The war seems to be over, and the wedding seems set to be held without a hitch. Unfortunately some of Angela's grandstanding against Sandra comes to bite her in the a**. So when La Fiera escapes, she kidnaps Angela in a spiteful fit straight out of the wedding venue, in order to steal her baby...
Season 4 so far: The time jump at the end of the season premiere allowed for us to move on a bit from the tragedy of losing Jackson. As such we never really got to see our crew properly address their grief, even though the first few episodes, certainly offered some insight that Jackson is very much missed. In a lot of ways from 4.02 onward the slate feels pretty clean for the season to move along with "business as usual".
On the more personal front his half brother, Pete, pops in again letting us know these two are still in contact and that Pete is still very seriously dating Chastity the stripper. However Nolan's big storyline of the season is how he's dived head first yet again into another relationship, this time with fire fighter Bailey. Early in the season she gets mingled up in a serial killer case that John, Angela and Nyla stumble upon, seeing as the killer's MO involves arson. Even her fire chief is conviently a suspect for a couple of episodes, only for it to be proven it's his neighbour instead. As things get serious pretty fast between Nolan and Bailey more conflict arises for them when we find out midway through the season that Bailey is married and can't seem to get rid of her emotionally abusive ex-husband, Jason. As the ex turns out to be a pretty bad guy overall, he does get mixed up in some pretty illegal activities and though he tries to frame Bailey, in the end John helps to clear her name, get Jason arrested and helps put her divorce in motion as well. It's been smooth sailing for them for the last few episodes with the only shocking development lately being John realising they've actually moved in together without realizing (which has been pretty obvious to the audience for a while now).
With John now a P2, Nyla gets handed off another "problematic" rookie when she gets paired up with Aaron, who comes with a lot of baggage. His "no quit-can do", affable and approachable personality manages to thaw any objections she originally has against him, and for the most part of the season we get to see how her partnership with John, has actually turned her into a pretty amazing T.O. She has a lot to teach to Aaron, and as episodes go by he proves to her that he is well worth teaching. More than that she acknowledges he can be a pretty good sounding board which, as her parternship with Nolan showed us, is something she herself needs... and with the way the season has played out for her, she does seem to make excellent use of that, whether it's taking his input on relationship advice or how she needs to stop beating herself up for past mistakes.
It is unclear if James ever finds out about the cheating ordeal, but for the second half of the season, and as Mekia's pregrancy started to be harder and harder to hide, the show has gone all in with the James/Nyla, from her telling him she's pregnant to them getting married in episode 4.18. I've personally been holding my breath, fearing we're about to get some baby-daddy drama eventually, where the paternity will be questioned. But so far the characters seem to be fully operating under the assumption that the baby is James', and I certainly hope TPTB keep it that way.
The one absolutely lovely thing that has come from Nyla's full on belly the last few episodes though, is that the show has put her back in detective duty and paired her off with Angela for a few cases. Watching those two interact on a more regular basis, especially as their hubbies have slowly throughout the season been stricking up a bromance on the side, has been a genuine treat.
Instead a huge chuck of the first leg of the season consisted of tensions arising in her marriage due to Wesley's deal with Elijah. Wesley started out trying to keep it all a secret, and not give into Elijah's threats, his secretive behaviour frustrated his wife. Eventually he was unable to avoid engaging in unethical behaviour, but after coming clean to Angela he agrees to become an informant and help catch Elijah. The plan works but leads to him having his licence suspended for 6 months. And that brings a different set of marital problems between the two, as Wesley's aimlessness, puts a strain on the structural stability of their home. Mr Evers Esc, a handyman he is not. Thankfully James' community center has become a safe haven for the show's wayward lawyer. Still Wesley's constant quest to beat the system has him even considering switching sides to become a prosecutor in order to maybe start fighting the beast from the inside.
On another note Tim's troubled childhood also got addressed this season, far more prominently than previous years, as we got to meet his sister and his abusive father, who we learn is dying. Little sister Genny (Peyton List) visits in an attempt to push Tim to help her sell their childhood home. She confronts Tim about him pulling away from her and Tim argues his case of not having the same fondness of his childhood that she does. Personally, to me it felt rather insensitive and somewhat dismissive of Jenny to push Tim so much, when clearly he still carries so much of the trauma, but I can understand her need to want her brother back in her life, and I'm not surprised Tim caved and seemed willing to help mend their relationship. I do certainly hope to see her again in future seasons. Who we can never (and probably won't see again) is Tim's dad (a brilliant bit of casting in the always excellent James Remar) who though terminally ill still has a hold over him. As Tim and Lucy investigate a weapon that was found in the house during the renovations, they connect it to an unsolved murder of one of their neighbours, whose wife Mr.Bradford was having an affair with. When confronted, Tim's dad admits to the murder but as Lucy and Tim dig deeper they find out it was the wife who killed him. Tim's dad simply covered for her. Tim visits his father in hospice one last time to deliver the news that they arrested his former lover, and without any forgiveness in sight at least seems to get some kind of closure. Thankfully Lucy is by his side through it all.
For starters Tamara herself, has her on a constant lookout, and as a stalker roamed in their apartment building walls during Haloween and one of Tamara's friends from the streets was found dead, she still worries that Tamara holds onto a lot of unresolved issues about her safety. Next her parents, and her mother in particuler (always a sore subject for Officer Chen) even though they have not shown up this season at all, are far too prominent in Lucy's periphery. Starting with the gross overstepping of booking Lucy an appointment to freeze her eggs. After much delibertaion Lucy at least considers in taking up an exploratory meeting. However as the process progresses and she has to fill out some medical papperwork we learn an interesting little tidbit about Lucy's backstory, in that the man she's been calling dad (who we met all the way back in S1) isn't actually her biological father. And while this is information Lucy has obviously grown up with and is seemingly pretty okay about, the fact that she has to explore her roots with the excuse of medical reasons stirs things up for her. When she turns to her aunt for answers, only to find out that her mother had an affair with a patient (who she also finds out has passed away), she is rightfully hurt and indignant, of the hypocrisy of being expected to always be perfect and do everything right.
At least her love life seems to be picking up, when in the second half of the season she began dating a new ADA who's been roaming around the station, Chris Sandford (Kanoa Goo). Their meet cute comes in the way of some verbal sparring while they argue about an arrest, and further move on their dynamic by debating the ups and downs of the institutions they each represent. In a lot ways it feels like a rehash of the early Angela and Wesley days, but these two are definitely missing that same spark. Also not giving Chris any marks in the plus column, is how he handled himself when Lucy was brought in for some trial prep in a follow up from her kidnapping in DoD. During what was a very emotional episode for Lucy, where she had to face her fears (and giving Melissa O'Neil some of the better material to work with since DoD), Chris obtusely found himself humming "Dream a Little Dream Of Me" because he'd seen Caleb's tape. Regardless Lucy, soldiers on as she comes to terms with the PTSD triggered by the trial prep and embraces the fact that she is in fact a survivor which is what matters the most. And she is gracious enough to not hold any resentment against Chris.
The "Special" episodes: I've always been of the belief that a good show is measured by how it handles episodes that break formula. In S3 The Rookie made an excellent case for my theory when it delivered two such episodes: one mocumentary episode (3.07 True Crime) and one episode that was fully from the POV of the real space cameras, most of which are already used occasionaly (3.09 Amber). Because of the success and positive reception of said episodes this season TPTB made the misstep of trying to recreate that exact magic, by delivering identical style episodes, but sadly without the same effect. For the mocumentary episode 4.16 Real Crime the subject matter examined the case of the murder Aaron was convicted for. I will acknowledge that giving the audience a connection to the case, as we had spent the better part of the season getting to know Aaron, and his story bit by bit offered this new character a good opportunity to shine, and he truly did. However some of the peripheral aspects fell short: Wesley talking down the how the police handled the case in France was a rehash of him and Angela talking about it earlier in the season, Bailey yet again popping in by having been a background dancer for a music video of Aaron's dad and the blantant exploitation of the Tim/Lucy shippers by giving them again a joint interview to name a few. For the most part it felt like the episode had a list of things it needed to tick of in order to be similar to 3.07, and it showed. Alternatively the problem with 4.08 Hit and Run, was that it was an episode that absolutely did not benefit from the real space camera format. It was clear the show simply wanted to do another "city wide perview" episode and I suppose it was the fact that the threat of the attack was pretty big and that the "city wide" search feel was required. But I know I certainly didn't feel the urgency of it by the way it was shot. Also another negative was that there were strong character moments in the episode, what with Angela dealing with the anger of learning about Wesley's deal, and Tim's sister visiting and bringing up traumatizing memories from childhood. However those distorted detached cameras were counter productive to bringing up the appropriate emotions required. Eric Winter and Alyssa Diaz were excellent regardless, but it was unfortunate that the show didn't support their performances from a technical perspective. I hope the next time TPTB decide to break formula they try something new instead, or at the very least, if they intend to make those kinds of episodes a yearly thing, they be more innovative about it and pick stories that compliment the format.
The 2 parter Backdoor Pilot for the spinoff: A few months ago there was an announcement that our beloved show would be birthing a spinoff. I think as fans we primarily need to celebrate the vote of confidence from ABC this move showcases towards our beloved show... and now that we have done that... we should talk about the planted episodes themselves.
While Angela and Nyla follow up on what looks like an unrelated BnE, the majority of our gang follow the leads to figure out what the terrorist's next step is: raid an armoury from where he successfully manages to steal a lot of explosives. As everyone gathers to figure out what might be the final intended target, Angela and Nyla's case also comes into play, as their victim, a brilliant but loopy proffesor, had his thesis on trafic stolen, they realise hitting the main highway arteries was the endgame. There is a chace to catch the bombs before they go off, and only managing to stop 4 out of the 5. But what really seems to grab everyone's attention is that somehow the CIA is also involved in this. When Sgt.Grey and SAC.Garza (Felix Solis) reach out to the LA Station Chief, they get stonewalled, which only raises suspicions, and forces them to dig deeper. In the end they find out the CIA is way more involved, and the Station Chief in particular, seeing that this wasn't even a terrorist attack but a vendetta from a former Russian asset from a unauthorized operation, that was left to dry and whose his wife and child died because the CIA didn't offer them protection. Simone seems to have made an impression on Garza enough to have his eye on her for the new division he's trying to start up, and even her dad seems to have warmed up a little bit by being back on speaking terms with his daughter.
Having officially been picked up for next season, we can look forward to see more of Simone, her Dad and SAC Garza (Kat Foster's Agent Fox will not be making the move to the spinoff), and the episodes certainly offered a decent introduction to all 3 characters. Overall there were interesting elements one can look forward to at the very least want to try the show. Niecy Nash is exceptionally charming and with a captivating screen presense, it's hard to not root for her. But the exposition was a little heavy handed, forced and stalled the overall run of the episode. I understand the necesity of it, seeing that it is a pilot afterall, and getting that stuff in there as a way to get to know our characters and the set up of the show to come is a requirement. But it still disrupted the episode flow of the established show and that needs to be pointed out. Having said that, I am curious to see what these characters will be up to all on their own next season!
And that's that for the show so far! Don't forget to tune in tonight for the Season 4 finale of The Rookie!
