We’re here again! After a long hiatus, The Rookie 4×14 “Long Shot” plunges us back into our favorite series with a transitional but funny episode in which Chenford steals the show and Nyla faces an awkward but necessary conversation. Time for a review!
Here we go!
Lucy and Chenford stole The Rookie 4×14 “Long Shot.” That’s a fact. Lucy always needed to meet her biological father but, over the years, she had learned to crush that need, just to be able to continue having a functional life without that need interfering in her life. In that sense, Lucy put her parents above her own needs because she was afraid that they would feel betrayed if she sought out her biological father, as she wanted to.
Now, the need to search for her biological father comes back and that questionnaire is the perfect excuse. But the truth hurts. And nothing has hurt Lucy more than finding out who her biological father is.
All her life, her mother has made Lucy feel her disappointment, no matter what she did. Lucy worked her whole life to please her, to make her happy, only for her to say once, “Well done, Lucy,” “I’m proud of you, Lucy.” But her mother never told her that, Lucy never felt her support, all she felt was her disappointment and disapproval, all she felt was that she was doing everything wrong, that something was wrong with her, that she was the problem.
In this episode Lucy suddenly finds out that her mom screwed up in a big way. Her mother is a hypocrite and Lucy can’t help but think that her mother never loved her, that she hates her because Lucy reminds her of the only mistake she ever made in her life. That would explain everything because you can’t treat someone you love like that, right?
This is when Chenford comes into action. Tim has seen all the emotional phases Lucy went through in The Rookie 4×14 “Long Shot.” He knows that Lucy needs to talk to her mother because she is the only one who can tell her the truth, but more than that, they need to talk. This secret has forged a wall between them from the beginning, without any of them realizing it. And they need to clear up a lot of things, they need to break down the wall.
But when the wall starts to come down and Lucy is holding back tears, Tim just can’t see her like that. He can’t deny that Lucy’s guess may be a possibility, but it’s not the only one. This secret doesn’t inevitably lead to the conclusion that her mother hates her, but to the fact that she loves her, even if she doesn’t know how to show it. Because no one who knows Lucy could hate her.
And it’s these little moments, where hardly anything is said and everything is said, that Chenford has us glued to the TV.
In any case, sometimes it’s too late. And Lucy is too late to meet her father so she can’t help but wonder what if? It’s inevitable to do it… but the truth is that it doesn’t matter. That man made his own decisions and Lucy did what she thought was best. We will never know what would have happened if everything were different and the decisions of each one are on them, not in anyone else.
On another note, I like that Nyla and Penelope got to talk in The Rookie 4×14 “Long Shot.” I think they deserved this conversation so that things could be cleared up between them so that they would understand each other’s position. Penelope had nothing to do with the custody war between Nyla and Donovan but she was hurt, she lost everything. It’s unfair but…it’s what Donovan caused.
Nyla could only clarify this point, let Penelope know that she never held anything against her and that she deeply regrets using her past as a weapon, taking away her decision to tell Donovan the truth. But there was no other way to do it. She tried, she looked for another way but she had no choice but to use what she had to fight for her daughter. Nyla was in a difficult position and faced with a difficult choice but with her daughter in the balance, Nyla chose her and Penelope can understand that.
Penelope gets it. The easiest thing is to hate Nyla for “taking everything away from her” but the truth is that it was Donovan who didn’t listen to her or try to understand her, it was he who unceremoniously kicked her out of his life. She loves him, of course, she does, you don’t stop loving someone from one day to the next, but even though Nyla uncovered her past, it was Donovan who decided to leave her because of it, it’s not Nyla’s fault. But, normally, Penelope’s first reaction was to blame her, she is hurt, her whole life fell apart and it’s easier to be angry with Nyla than to face the fact that the man she loved could so easily push her away from his life.
PS: We like Randy but, man, calm down. Just CALM DOWN.
The Rookie airs Sundays at 10/9 on ABC.