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They brought a lot of intensity and action with this one.
With a series of hits and Grey high on the list, The Rookie Season 4 Episode 15 was an hour that had us on the edge of our seats a great deal. It’s always nerve-wracking when they place characters like Grey in peril.
And the return of Thorsen and the appearance of Patrick’s father puts the mysterious death of Patrick Hayes at the forefront, too.
The hour hit the ground running with Nolan discovering a dead man on the intake bench, Chenford witnessing a drive-by shooting during traffic, and Harper and Thorsen partaking in a high-speed chase after the shooter.
You barely had a chance to catch your breath before they were onto something else, and the high stakes of it all made things tense.
We learned that some criminal on trial, Rubio paid some moronic, selfish paralegal for the list of witnesses against him during his trial. He hired multiple mercenaries to take each of these individuals out from that point forward, and he succeeded with some.
It was astonishing how bold the mercenaries were. It takes steel cajones to waltz into a police station, poison a person, and slip out without detection.
And unleashing fire in the middle of traffic during broad daylight is downright shocking. Of course, no sooner than the gang pieced things together and determined that Grey was on that hit list, our beloved Seargent had his unfortunate encounter with Pink Trench Coat lady.
Despite Nolan’s advice, Grey will replay those events in his head on repeat for a long time. It was nothing else that he could’ve done differently. She didn’t get that much of a jump on him since he picked up that she had a concealed weapon the moment he saw her.
Lucy: Wesley’s a lawyer. We like Wesley.
Bradford: We accept Wesley because we fear Lopez.
She was quick with the knife, but she was an experienced mercenary after all. She managed to slice his face and shoot him, but it’s a testament to how well he did and adapted that she only got him with a through and through wound to his shoulder rather than anything more serious.
And he got the kill shot. We’ve never experienced Grey reeling from something like this before. Typically, he’s on the opposite end of matters, giving advice and soothing those around him when they’ve endured something terrible.
It was refreshing to see that role reversal as everyone rallied around him, fought to capture the killers out there, and comforted him.
It’s scenarios like this when you sense how much of a family they are and how much they’ve experienced together. Everything changed for them after the murder of Captain Andersen, and now every time they come close to losing one of their own, it takes you back there.
It was interesting to see how much this situation impacted Grey. He’s rarely revealed himself to be this vulnerable.
No, uh uh, point another camera in my face, and I will arrest you for invasion of privacy.
Harper
You would’ve thought in decades on the job that Pink Trenchcoat was his first kill. For a bit, Grey gave the impression that he questioned his time on the job and whether or not he was still cut out for it the way he used to be in his younger years.
He had to rely on Tim to take things over, too, which would’ve been enough to have him pondering his place on the job and if it was a sign that he should’ve retired. Of course, we cannot lose Grey.
The role reversal of Nolan stepping in to support Grey, give him advice, and talk him through things from a similar place of knowing what it was like to kill someone on the job was good for giving them more balance in their relationship and exploring another element of it.
Was it a bit contrived to have Nolan approaching his experienced superior and regurgitating all the pearls of wisdom he gave him not that long ago? Yes, and there’s no getting around that. But Nolan and Grey scenes are always great since they learned to respect one another.
Nolan admitted that Grey’s experience drudged up memories and feelings, and it’s too bad they didn’t dig into that a bit more. It was a confession to Bailey, but it stopped there and didn’t go further. Those moments should be meaningful for his character and make Bailey’s presence relevant, but they always fall flat.
Jenna Dewan is doing a perfectly fine job on this series, but The Rookie struggles with incorporating her into storylines and scenes organically. Nolan never delved into how triggering Grey’s shooting was for him, so we missed out on that.
It was weird that she was just there at the hospital when all the other squad members were there for updates on Grey. And while you have to give the show credit for poking fun at itself with making her this perfect woman who can do it all, the painting shtick was just empty fodder.
It’s curious why they didn’t make Bailey another cop, detective, lawyer, social worker, or other position. They’re jobs that would have her crossing paths with Nolan and the other characters so that they could interweave her into the narrative better.
Wesley does well on this series, but so many of the other characters can fall by the wayside a bit.
The reappearance of Chris came at a time when I forgot he was still a thing. We barely know him because of how underutilized he is and how much time passes between seeing him, so it’s easy to forget that he and Lucy are dating.
As much as they started on the wrong foot, they have chemistry, so their post-shooting scene was sweet by the end of the hour.
It was such an exciting thing to get Chris wrapped up in as he and De Monte narrowly escaped a hitman in the office, and for a bit, it seemed like he could be a goner. Fortunately, they spared him and Lucy a host of pain she doesn’t deserve.
Lucy seems happy, and that’s all you can want from her after everything she’s gone through. Chris cares about her, arguably enough to risk his job by giving her privileged information.
They left it open-ended as to whether it had more to do with his feelings for Lucy versus a flawed moral compass, but we’ll have to see if it’s something that comes up again down the road.
Lucy: Why did you try to give me the witness list? Were you doing it because you thought it was the right thing to do or were you trying to impress me?
Chris: I, um, plead the fifth.
She and Chris always have these ethical disagreements. She even brought the lawyer conversation over to Bradford to talk things over. But did anyone else think Bradford’s response to Lucy about not changing things was problematic?
It’s a bleak and dangerous take to have as a police officer in this day and age when society collectively agrees that some change is necessary, if not an overhaul in the field. What is the job if part of it doesn’t instill positive change?
He does get some kudos for that great line about Wesley, though. He’s not wrong; they put up with Wesley because they’re afraid of Lopez.
And anyone in their right mind would be because that woman is absolutely frightful when she’s angry. One of the best scenes of the hour was how she confronted the paralegal who sold the witness list and got people killed. He was cowering in a corner, as he should have been.
Harper can be scary, too, but Thorsen had much bigger problems. The Plain Clothes Day arc only served as a reminder that the series is lacking something by not having more rookies. Even Thorsen disappears for installments at a time.
It was the first time we saw him again in ages, and he didn’t have his head in the game on the job. Worse yet, Morris was following him around with a camera, filming inappropriate things, and Patrick’s father came into play.
Of all the people Thorsen could’ve pulled over, his luck ran out when it was Hayes. The man couldn’t contain himself either, berating Aaron because he still believes that Thorsen murdered his son. It was difficult to watch.
Harper tried to manage the situation as best as she could, but there’s no book on how to deal with something like that.
Thorsen has reached a boiling point with his past following him, and we’re due for some forward movement. We learned that Hayes viewed Thorsen as a son. Thorsen stayed with the Hayes’ more than his own home.
Knowing how close Thorsen was to the family makes you wonder how Hayes knows that Thorsen killed Patrick without a shadow of a doubt. Why was it easy for him to believe it?
It’s time to get to the bottom of this because it can’t keep affecting Thorsen’s job, and we need to know what happened to Patrick. It’s too bad that there wasn’t more of a side investigation for Thorsen while on the job to build up to find out the real killer.
By dropping the story and Thorsen for installments at a time before picking it back up, the story loses momentum.
Over to you, Rookie Fanatics. Were you worried about Grey? How do you feel about Thorsen Sound off below!
You can watch The Rookie online here via TV Fanatic.
Jasmine Blu is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.