Fall finale is here! The Rookie 4×09 “Breakdown” is a time bomb in every way. The episode is a preparation for the final explosion for a lot of storylines, Chenford included. And not all the consequences are positive. Time for a review!
Here we go!
The Rookie 4×09 “Breakdown” surprises us a lot about Bailey and Nolan. He’s already at that point of proposing to her, he just knows it. But first, Henry must meet her and this is the right thing to do. That is, Henry is older but if his father is thinking of sharing life with a woman, the least they both deserve is to meet.
At first, I have to say that I distrusted Bailey in the sense that I thought maybe she was trying to get away from meeting Henry because she was afraid of how serious it would make her relationship with Nolan but she caught me talking to Henry on her initiative. It looks like Bailey is ready to take the next step, too.
However, just when Nolan is about to propose, Bailey, runs into her…husband! WHAT?! She’s married…but I don’t think that marriage is alive. From what she asked him, I think he just got out of jail and even though they’re still married, they’re separated. The problem is, she didn’t say any of this to Nolan and, like Angela and Wes, trust and relationship are put to the test. And we hope they get over it, they’re too cute together to break up.
Angela and Wes’s relationship is also put to the test in The Rookie 4×09 “Breakdown.” Although they show a united front to end Elijah, their relationship is not going as well as it might seem. Angela tells Wes that the important thing is that their family is safe and everything is going to be fine precisely because that’s the important thing right now, what they have to focus on.
But Angela is still disappointed with Wes, a lie like that from the person you love and trust the most takes much longer to heal. Right now, Wes and Angela don’t have time to focus on each other as a couple because the priority is to take down Elijah to get their family to safety. But when that happens, they’re going to have to start rebuilding their relationship. Wes will have to regain Angela’s trust and work from there.
However, The Rookie 4×09 “Breakdown” surprises us and, after Elijah, puts on the road a new challenge for them: Gabriela. I don’t understand the motivations of this villain, that is, in theory, she’s a mercenary, and La Fiera was just one more client, why does she risk so much for revenge? I hope they explain this point very well.
That said, I think Gabriella’s threat forces Wes and Angela to wait a bit longer to take a closer look at their relationship because the priority remains to keep their family safe. This can bring the two to bond and inadvertently take a big step in the right direction in solving their problems as a couple.
Chenford finally took a step! Not the step we expected but still. We believe that The Rookie 4×09 “Breakdown” is a turning point between them. Let’s be honest, Tim didn’t need Lucy to test that gun, he asks her to go with him because he needs her.
Tim is facing all the trauma that his father caused him at once and feels that he cannot do it alone, not when he feels that the world is closing in on him to discover that this man could reach even lower than he thought. Of course, he thinks the worst about him because the only thing that man showed him is violence, so it was a perfect fit for him to be a cold-blooded murderer.
Yet for once, he helped someone in need. But one good deed doesn’t erase a lifetime of abuse. Yes, he was decent for once, but so what? With Tim, with his sister, with his mother, with his family, he was never a decent man, he was always the monster of their nightmares.
Amid all that mess, the moment of the real confrontation arrives. That man despises his mistress’s husband as an abusive pig without realizing that he is the same kind of pig. Surely that pig was saying the same thing to himself: she deserves it, I’m just building her character. It’s the typical excuse of any abuser. It’s how they justify themselves for what they do.
And this was the last straw for Tim. This man was always the monster of his nightmares, but seeing him like this, lying on a bed, believing that he did something good…Tim sees him for what he is: a pathetic abuser who was forged if own destiny. Tim only wishes him to suffer a tenth of what he did to him, his sister, and his mother. For the rest, Tim doesn’t want to know anything about him, Tim doesn’t want him in his life.
And I’m proud of Tim for doing this.
It’s a completely different way from how his sister deals with this trauma, but that’s good. As we discussed last week, the experience of abuse and how we cope with it are not the same for everyone. There is no correct answer here, a different thing works for each of us and that is perfectly fine. It works for Tim not to have anything to do with that man, not to see him and not have him in his life in any way, and the opposite works for his sister, forgiveness works for her.
But no one can force another person to forgive his/her abuser. Survivors don’t have to. Society makes us believe that time and forgiveness are the answer to all kinds of problems and abuses, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Sometimes forgiveness is not the answer and that is perfectly fine. That’s why I like that The Rookie 4×09 “Breakdown” treats this issue by contrasting these two responses regarding abuse.
That said, even though Tim maintains his composure in front of that man, what he says makes him think. Isn’t that the same as he says about his “Tim’s test”? He also claims that it is for the sake of his recruits, to forge and train them according to their own needs, exactly as his father claims to have done with his abuse.
And this connection that Tim’s head makes, this thing that he can’t help but think about…it’s killing him. He has spent his whole life fighting not to be someone like his father and thinking that he may be following in his footsteps makes him sick and suddenly he can’t breathe. He needs to know, he needs to know that he is not repeating history.
It’s Lucy who reassures him, the one who makes Tim see that he is nothing like that man and that the “Tim’s tests” are real training and, at best, they can be classified as practical jokes but, in no case, as abuses. Tim is not like him and the way he’s rethinking his entire life right now, how sick it makes him just to be a little like his father, is living proof that Tim is the complete opposite of his father.
Lucy hugs him and Tim hugs her back with everything he has because he needed that hug, that sincerity, that sweetness…he needed her.
Tim is a proud man who doesn’t like someone to see him in a vulnerable state. He knew that facing this whole story of his father was inevitably going to affect him and surely he was going to feel vulnerable and the only person that Tim wants to be there, that he needs to be there is Lucy. Why?
Because he knows that she’s the only one who will tell him the truth, even if he doesn’t want to hear it. Because he knows that she’s going to be there, right next to him, holding his hand, without judging him. Because Tim knows that she will guide him down the right path, even if it’s the hardest and he’s reluctant to travel it. She always does.
Tim needed this, he needed to close this chapter of his life. He needed to tell that man everything he thinks of him, everything that was is and will continue to be for him.
After Tim closes this bitter chapter of his life with his father, it’s time for him to make things up with his sister. The two have different ways of dealing with the abuse of his father but what doesn’t change is that they’re brothers and love each other. Now, Tim is ready to clean up the remains of that house, sell it, and forget about it forever, and he’s also ready to rebuild a true family relationship with his sister. And we love it!
Nyla also faces some problems in The Rookie 4×09 “Breakdown.” Honestly, what did the ex-husband expect of her? That is, she didn’t want to get to the point of having to put Penelope in all this mess because she had nothing to do with it and Nyla didn’t want to do that damage, so she tried to talk to her ex-husband to reach an agreement, but he didn’t want and made it clear that he was going to play dirty if he had to do it to take his daughter.
He left her with no way out. So if he is willing to play dirty and try to show that Nyla is still incapable of taking care of her daughter when that is not true, he can’t complain when she fights with the same ferocity as him. It’s not only for Nyla, but it’s also for her daughter, she needs her mother in her life and Nyla’s ex-husband was willing to do anything to take away the possibility of being together, I find it very cynical that when she fights with the same cards as him and she wins the game, he goes to claim her and blame her because their daughter is crying.
To my knowledge, he didn’t care that their daughter cried when he was determined to separate her from her mother. Could Nyla have told him what she was going to do if they couldn’t make a deal? Yes, but make no mistake, Nyla doesn’t owe him anything and she didn’t have to.
The truth is that neither of them measured the damage they were going to do to their daughter if they didn’t reach an agreement, but Nyla, at least, tried, he did not. So it’s not okay for Nyla’s ex-husband to blame her for his own mistakes, it’s time for him to learn to take responsibility for them.
We’ll back in three weeks with a new review. Happy Holidays!
The Rookie airs Sundays at 10/9 on ABC.
