The Rookie Season 2 Episode 1 Review: Impact
Christine Orlando
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Just when you thought the terrorist attack was over, The Rookie Season 2 Episode 1 revealed that it's never a good idea to let your guard down.
It also highlighted that celebrities are a part of everyday life in Los Angeles, which is the only reason why I don't find their guest appearances more annoying, that and the fact that they tend to keep them blessedly brief.
No offense meant to Mr. Cuban, but I don't tune in to see famous faces; it's the stories of these police officers I'm more interested in seeing.
Speaking of which, we might as well address the elephant in the room as quickly as the show did.
Officer Talia Bishop took a job with ATF believing that she'd never have the career she wanted with LAPD after lying on her application.
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I suppose that's as quickly and cleanly as they could have written her out of the show after the actress quit this summer, and on the extremely off chance that she ever returns, it still leaves that door open.
But that leaves Officer Nolan without a training officer, although with so many bullets flying in the opening sequence it hardly seemed to matter.
I'm still not sure what the point of opening fire on a police officer in an ambulance at a hospital was, but it made for one heck of an action-packed five minutes that got the heart racing.
Officer Bradford came out of his anaphylactic shock in the nick of time to save Nolan who was scrambling to reload at a crucial moment.
Bradford: Are you okay?
Nolan: I should have reloaded on the move. You?
Bradford: I should have taken yesterday off.
Fast forward two weeks and Nolan is renovating his own home.
I hope that the new living arrangements don't mean we won't seeing Ben. Not only was his house gorgeous but I'm a big fan of actor Currie Graham, and Nolan could use a friend outside of the LAPD.
With Bishop gone, Nolan ended up riding along with Sgt. Grey and pondering his relationship with Jessica.
Jessica hasn't necessarily done anything wrong. She's been on the job a lot longer than Nolan and has built up her mental and emotional armor to be able to deal with life and death situations regularly.
But Jessica's seemingly cavalier attitude after shooting and killing a man or laughing on the phone just feet away from a burned body, didn't sit well with Nolan.
You’ve been demoing your house for about a week and you’ve already got callouses growing. Your body does that to protect itself, your mind does the same thing whether you want it to or not.
Sgt. Grey
Will this be the crack that eventually breaks Nolan and Jessica apart?
Perhaps, although she did seem to appreciate his soliloquy about feeling every moment.
The last six months have been the most intense in my life. I killed a man in the line of duty. I watched my Captain die. I fought for my own life more times than I can count and I felt every second of it. Yesterday you told me I would feel less the longer I did the job and a part of me wanted that so badly but I can’t go numb. It’s not who I am and it’s definitely not who I want to be, so if I’m going to do this job I have to feel all of it no matter what it does to me.
Nolan
But can Nolan do that without burning out? And can he love someone like Jessica who is adept at compartmentalizing her emotions to do the job.
Jessica also pulled Nolan out of the squad room under the guise of helping her track a lead, when all she really wanted was to know why he hadn't answered her phone call the night before.
Now that seems like a serious red flag. Not only wasn't she willing to give Nolan some space to work out whatever was on his mind, but she didn't hesitate to use her position at work to corner him.
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Somehow, I don't forsee these two lasting the entire season.
But Nolan and Jessica weren't the only couple going through growing pains.
Who knew Angela was a closet slob? Certainly not Wesley before he moved in with her.
Those are the things that you might never see when you date someone, although a grilled cheese sandwich in the shower is a bit extreme.
The best part was how hard Wesley was trying to address their issues without having the conversation turn into a fight, and despite what seemed to be an abysmal start, his tactics eventually worked.
Wesley: This is only going to work if we talk to each other, you know that, right?
Angela: I’ve never lived with anyone before. I’ve never been in love like this and I’m scared I’m going to screw it up.
Wesley: You won’t. I won’t let you.
Angela: Good, because we’re getting a maid.
Angela will probably have to put in a little more effort into not leaving food in the bathroom, but having someone come in to clean the apartment is a practical compromise.
When the rookies' exam results were posted, I had little doubt who got the lowest score, but Bradford worried it was Chen.
As much as Bradford can be a hardass and making Chen wear the long sleeves and the tie was bordering on mean, his methods are effective.
This isn’t a joke, Boot. You don’t have the experience to evaluate people yet so your default should be suspicion, not compassion. Understood?
Bradford
And even though Lucy may have felt humiliated having that powder explode in her face, she'll always remember not to use her radio when searching for an explosive device. That hard-earned lesson may save her life one day.
That said, Chen was absolutely right to call out Tim's hypocrisy about her police report.
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He had her turn a blind eye to everything he did on the job for Isabel during The Rookie Season 1 but expected her to turn him in for mentioning he'd rather shoot himself than slowly die from a dreaded virus.
Not that a possible suicide attempt should ever be taken lightly, but given the circumstance, Lucy had every right to stand up for herself in the face of Bradford's criticism.
Finally, we get back to those test scores.
It didn't surprise me at all that West received the lowest result. Overconfidence is a killer.
Nolan and Chen knew they were fighting for every point, while West felt he'd been training for this his whole life and had it covered.
I’ve seen a lot of strange things over the years but never would I have imagined that the Golden Boy would tank his test.
Sgt. Grey
Worse than the low test score was his presentation to the high school Cadet Program which bordered on the bizarre.
During The Rookie Season 1, West talked about the statistic that one out of three rookies washes out in the first year.
When he said it, it was obvious he figured that Nolan or Lucy would be the one who failed.
He never would have believed he'd be two points from a failing grade.
So what did you think TV Fanatics?
Do you like Nolan in his new digs?
Will he and Jessica survive the season?
And will Officer West pull it together or end up being the one out of three who fails their rookie year with the LAPD.
Check back in for my review of The Rookie Season 2 Episode 2 and until then, you can watch The Rookie online here at TV Fanatic.
C. Orlando was a TV Fanatic Staff Writer. Follow her on Twitter.
