Way to go, Mad Max.
John’s frustrations about how he couldn’t do more searching for Emma was telling of John’s personality. It also echoed the unspoken division between the departments.
John also had moments of self-doubt: Grey and Bishop constantly told him he needed to change his “old life” way of thinking.
Are you gonna be a cop in that moment, or are you gonna be a guy who’s in over his head?
Nathan Fillion’s character was primed for change. In fact, all three rookies were set up to evolve into the kind of police officer their TOs said they needed to be.
Time and time again, Bishop and Grey warned John he needed to change his ‘old life’ ways, move past decades of instinct honed from his experiences if he was to succeed. Lucy thought she wanted to abide by the book, follow the path to her career. Lopez kept telling Jackson she needed a more reliable partner.
At the end of the day (episode) though, everyone learned something about each other, taking that one step closer and slowly accepting who they are.
John was a good guy and stayed as such despite Bishop chiding him he needed to stop finding “reason behind the tragedy.” He reacted like the viewers did when he discovered the junkie stabbed the boy. And yet he was berated for it. When he caught up with the serial killer with a tackle and a punch, Captain Andersen reminded John “as a civilian, you can be driven by emotion, but as a cop, you rise above it.”
Deep down, a part of you liked it.
Lucy realized that despite how much Bradford grated her, he was the better TO for her. She knew the cop she wanted to be in the pilot. She wavered when she got Wrigley as her TO. But instead of following Wrigley’s lead, she opted to jump in when they got the call about Bishop and John. It turned out to be yet another test by Bradford; Lucy passed and realized Bradford may be a pain in her ass, but he was the TO she needed to become a good cop.
Good job, Officer West.
Jackson was shaken by his reaction during the shootout. He was around guns all his life, but he was not as prepared as he thought he was even though he insisted he was still “Officer Extra Credit” from the academy.
Lopez saw Jackson as the VIP rookie, but one who could get in her way to becoming a detective. I thought her methods were extreme: they took on a PCP addict and a tough warrant call to test Jackson’s nettle. When she saw how Jackson took the Aryan fugitive down, she begrudgingly admitted Jackson did a good job. There was still a long way to go, but Lopez appeared finally willing to meet Jackson halfway.
A present for your maturity.
Grey, determined to see John fail, couldn’t deny John has his heart in the right place, though. He approved how John looked out for Christine. Grey told John he did a good job and the show flipped it to a humorous moment (John first checked behind him in case Grey was talking to someone else) to avoid it from getting too cliché.
And Bishop, acknowledging the same, shared filling out the paperwork. And later, she bribed the motor pool to get them a new shop. Too bad it looked like John’s poor affinity for cars took one more victim when the episode faded to black.
So far, so good…
Ultimately, everyone around John started to change, recognizing something the captain and Lucy saw in John. While John course-corrected his thinking along the way, he generally remained the same modest, decent guy we met in the pilot.
John proved that by being himself, he can still get the bad guys and save Emma. When we see John waiting by Christine’s bedside to tell her Emma was safe, it was a surprise, a great payoff and reassuring to know John was still mostly the decent guy from PA.
The Rookie managed to stay unique in a sea of tropes. In the pilot, I felt the abrupt switch to John’s body cam was jarring. Getting used to it, I came to appreciate this different perspective of John and the show’s creative way to acknowledge what our uniformed has to go through.
Speeding right along…
The show kept the cases short as it jumped to each rookie, highlighting the controlled chaos in the police’s daily routine. Sometimes they’re comical (big giant PCP addled perp coaxed to compliance with the promise of water). Sometimes they’re not; the realization the junkie stabbed a boy was a sobering end to what we first thought was going to be a quirky side story.
With the cases this short, the episode sped along nicely, even when the kidnapping case took over the latter half of the hour. However, I felt the show short-changed the character development in exchange. Sure, the cases were fun and exciting to watch, but the scenes revealing the characters’ progress were anemic.
Maybe the show will continue to sprinkle the season with more bits about our rookies and their TOs. I certainly hope so. The episodes so far have been quick paced and as exciting as a car chase, but the show needs to be careful. The show needs a little bit more on our rookies. Otherwise, they’ll go into the backseat as the show charges forward into average police drama.
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