We’re back! After the previous episode, The Rookie, takes on the consequences and the fight to fire racists like Doug from the police, the difficulty of doing so and even the unexpected allies that such disgusting people can have. This show keeps getting better.
Here we go!
The big story in this episode is the attempt to catch Doug doing something that can be used to kick him out of the police. However, it will not be that easy. West’s words in the previous episode got to Gray and he now knows that a disciplinary sanction is not enough. They must fight to fire him. But since Doug plays with the limits, they need to keep a close eye on him and Gray tries not to let West be alone and to keep Tim and Lucy around him.
But nothing works out. Doug continues with his comments, with his actions, with his systematic racism and West feels sick, he has more and more desire to throw up because of everything that Doug is capable of, because of how he treats the Black community. He feels more and more ashamed to wear that uniform. And Tim and Lucy, they can’t help much because they have their own issues to attend to. But they try to do something else … and they contact Doug’s former rookie.
Tim warns Lucy to gently approach him, because it is dangerous to do more, but her impulsiveness and her desire to help, along with her intrinsic trust in justice and people, make her jump into the pool fully- and it is a mistake. At first, it seems like she gets something like a victory. It is clear that the former rookie knows that Doug is a racist. However, they are also wrong in this.
Doug works with awards. You forget this, you look the other way … and you will have a good promotion, your career will take off. Don’t do it … and your career will end before it begins. And this recruit owes his career to Doug. But that does not excuse his cowardice. To make matters worse, when West and Tim confront him, all he says is “blue protects blue.” Seriously? Doug is a racist, you are Black and can you overlook that just for a promotion? What about Black or non-white people who suffer from Doug’s racism? And the injustices?
The only answer this recruit has is “the system is not going to change.” With people like you, of course not, you fucking idiot. You are part of the problem. Here we see that to be part of the problem, all you need is to consent, to play the racist’s game, to cover for them, nothing more. And, I’m sorry, but this disgusts and outrages me. I have the same faith in people as Lucy and I didn’t expect this.
How could it be otherwise, now that Doug is on notice, things get much worse. There comes a point of no return where West knows that Doug is going to cross another line and hit a detainee and he must choose between keeping the evidence … or preventing a Black boy from being attacked by his racist partner, even filming what happens to kick Doug out of the police for good.
He tries by all means to warn someone … but no one is available and he follows his heart. I would have done the same, honestly. But it’s a decision that is going to cost him dearly because Doug even dares to file a formal complaint about West and take it to Gray, simply to get him out of the way. And that complaint, for such a serious misconduct … means West could end up out of the program.
The cowardly recruit was right. Doug isn’t going to leave without a fight.
By the way, we can not leave without commenting Tim’s change. As an opposite of the cowardly recruit who decides to remain part of the problem, he strives to listen, to learn, and to improve. In fact, he gets angry with himself when Lucy highlights some of his attitudes. Proud!
I’m also so proud of Angela, like, really proud. Proud mama here! But, let us start at the beginning. Her pregnancy is not going to be the easy way it seemed. Wesley insists that Angela change doctors. He seems like an overly protective father at the time and is between cuddly and annoyingly. But we did not imagine why.
The baby may be born with Fragile X syndrome and that makes Wesley really nervous and scared. And he made a mistake by not telling Angela about this before. That is, she is not someone with whom he has a sporadic relationship, she is his fiancée, future mother of his son/daughter. Doesn’t Wesley think he deserved to know? You’ve let us down, Wesley … but at least he’s sorry. We all make mistakes, we have to learn from them and we hope Wesley will.
However, fear leads Wesley to go to Angela’s work and drop the bomb right there, with her fellow detectives close by. And the next thing we see is that they jump Angela in the rotation. Everything suggested that Wesley’s visit had a lot to do with it. And honestly, Wesley … those things are talked about at home, especially when you know that your fiancée is hiding the pregnancy from her partners and boss for perfectly valid reasons. Men … (insert rolling eyes emoji here)
So Angela has a lot on her plate. On the one hand, there is the fear of the possible illness of her baby and, on the other, the feeling of being left out at work, a job that she loves. She so she talks to someone who can understand her: Harper. And we already love this scene. She was also a detective and mother.
Together, they share experiences and Harper did the same: hide her pregnancy so she wouldn’t be left out. And this scene is all vindication and we are here for this! Nobody demands that men have a balance between their family and professional life. They simply congratulate them when they know they are going to be parents, but for women it is different. They must hide their pregnancy so that they are not neglected or treated as if they were going to break, instead of the strong, wonderful women that they are.
It’s unfair and Angela is tired of that shit. So she explains it clearly to her boss. She’s pregnant but that doesn’t make her less good at her job nor does it make her fragile and she is not going to allow him to skip her shifts simply because he is prejudiced. She doesn’t intend to hide her pregnancy anymore, she doesn’t intend to perpetuate a practice that her predecessors had no choice but to perpetuate. That ends. She would be failing them and those who come after her if she did nothing about it. PREACH, ANGELA! Can we get an Amen over here, please?
Couldn’t have said it better! Things are as they are … but you have to change them and, for that, you have to fight tooth and nail. In the end, nothing was as it seemed and her boss had good reason for skipping her shift and had no idea she’s pregnant. In fact, he sincerely congratulates her for it and makes it clear that he will not treat her differently because he has no issues with pregnant women in his department. And Angela is happy because it’s just what she wanted. We feel sorry that he is the exception … so Angela’s speech is still perfectly valid.
By the way, I really like that little scene between Angela and Wesley. She’s not even angry that she didn’t know earlier because she doesn’t think she would have changed anything. She would have chosen Wesley as the father of her child. She’s just scared … terrified and she doesn’t know what to do. He feels the same. So they support each other. Together, they will be able to deal with everything, whatever it is and Angela … she will be the best mother in the world, no matter what, it’s a fact. They’re so cute! We love them!
In the more relaxed part of the episode, we have Nolan and his mother. She invites herself to settle with her son indefinitely, without waiting for a reply from him. And it is clear that her problem is limits because she doesn’t hesitate to cheat her son’s colleagues and his boss’s wife, no matter what that may mean for Nolan, not only for his career, but for his personal life.
Her mother is the typical selfish person who keeps causing trouble around her and she deliberately avoids worrying about them and facing the consequences. She’s selfish, self centered … and manipulative. Because that last scene … she emotionally blackmails Nolan. She tries to make him feel guilty for putting limits on her behavior and on herself. She even insults him … and that’s harsh.
Hearing your own mother insult you, tell you that you are worthless, that you are selfish … precisely the woman who should love you more, take care of you, protect you, that she precisely insults you and despises you in that way is a very hard and bitter taste in you mouth. Not everyone has the strength to bear it like Nolan and, after that, tell her that he loves her. Not everyone has the restraint to not be influenced by her words and manipulations, by her blackmail.
The problem with this lady is that she believes that staying behind when Nolan’s father left them gives her the right to do whatever she wants, even if it means making a mess of her son’s life. I have no doubt that she loves Nolan and that she is worried about him because he risks his life on the streets. But that kind of dependent love, full of emotional blackmail is not healthy … it is toxic.
And the best thing when the relationship between mother and child becomes toxic is to put distance in between. Then time will tell if you can build a healthy relationship from scratch … or not, but for now, the best thing, the right and healthiest decision, is to do precisely what Nolan has done: put distance. And I’m tremendously proud of him.
On one last note, despite Harper’s new love interest … I still see a lot of chemistry with Nolan and I think they’re headed there with them. We’ll see…
And we love these feminist overtones of the show, not only regarding Angela but also with what has happened between Gray, his wife and Nolan. She always made it clear that she could protect herself … and she did. Bravo!
And here ends our The Rookie review. The show goes on a little hiatus until February 14, we will return then with a new one!
Agree? Disagree? Don’t hesitate to share it with us in the comments below.
The Rookie airs Sundays at 10/9 on ABC.
Fragile X is passed from the mother, not the father