We’re back! The Rookie Season 8 Episode 11 ‘Aftermath’ deals with the consequences of what Lucy experienced in the previous episode, including her feelings of guilt, while Randy reappears to make Nolan’s day even more chaotic, and the Glassman case reaches a point of no return. Ready?
Here we go!
Guilt in The Rookie Season 8 Episode 11 ‘Aftermath’
In The Rookie Season 8 Episode 11 ‘Aftermath,’ Lucy is physically ready to return to work. But mentally? Not so much. She tries, but she can’t shake the thought that Marvin was a victim. If he were a criminal, it would be easier for Lucy, but knowing that he was an innocent person, someone who didn’t choose to be in that situation…it’s killing her.
Tim is there for her, by her side. He tries to make Lucy see that she had no other choice. Marvin was going to kill her, victim or not. At that moment, it was either her or him. And Lucy knows it. Rationally, she knows she had no other choice. But that doesn’t stop her from feeling guilty, as if she failed in her most basic duty as a cop: to serve and protect. But it’s her first day, so she has to put all that behind her and focus on the job.
Tim is aware that Lucy is worse off than she wants to admit in The Rookie Season 8 Episode 11 ‘Aftermath.’ So he made some…adjustments to try and protect her. To be there if she needs him. And while it’s sweet and well-intentioned, it makes things worse for Lucy. She doesn’t want special treatment. She doesn’t want to remember what happened; she just wants to move on and get on with the job.
So she agrees to patrol with Tim, but she sets some boundaries. What happened isn’t going to dictate the calls she responds to. It’s a normal day. Lucy needs it to be a normal day. And everything goes more or less well—as well as it can—until Marvin’s sister shows up at the police station and accuses Lucy of killing her brother. An innocent man. She’s certain her brother did nothing to provoke Lucy into shooting him.
In The Rookie Season 8 Episode 11 ‘Aftermath,’ it becomes clear that Marvin’s sister still doesn’t know the truth about the circumstances of his death. Lucy is the one who has to tell her. Lucy wants Marvin’s sister to hear the truth about what happened that night. More than anything, she needs her to believe it. Understanding would help too—maybe even forgiveness, although Lucy isn’t sure she has the right to expect that. The reality is that she’s been carrying what happened with her ever since. She knows she didn’t really have another option in that moment, but that doesn’t make it easier to live with.
Tim doesn’t let her. He talks to her about lawyers, a lawsuit, a trial, a sentence…and she can’t understand. Lucy can’t understand how something like that could take precedence over basic humanity. Marvin’s sister deserves to know the truth about what happened to her brother. And Lucy needs her to know the whole story. Nothing else matters. But Tim is inflexible, so much so that his boyfriend side comes out and he sends Lucy home.
And we understand both of their positions. Tim’s advice is the best he can give Lucy at that moment…but it’s Lucy’s decision, no one else’s. Tim crossed the line here by sending her home and not trusting that she could get through it.
MORE: The Rookie Season 8, Episode 10 Review: ‘His Name Was Martin’
Absolution
It’s a direct order from a superior…but, even if he doesn’t admit it at the time, Tim wasn’t thinking like a Watch Commander, but like a boyfriend. If he had only been thinking like a Watch Commander, he wouldn’t have left a shift without a supervising sergeant. And Lucy knows this, so, as we see in The Rookie Season 8 Episode 11 ‘Aftermath,’ she completely ignores him.
And, as we said, she has a point here. Lucy made it clear to Tim that she didn’t want special treatment. And giving her special treatment is exactly what he’s doing. Yeah, she had a difficult moment after Marvin’s sister’s visit, but Tim didn’t trust her to handle it. He didn’t listen to her. He simply made decisions for her. And that’s not right. Tim didn’t do it consciously. It’s, once again, the protective Tim—the one he learned to be since he was little, the one who took his father’s beatings to protect his mother—instinctively taking command.
The best part? Chenford communicates. Lucy doesn’t hesitate to tell Tim how she feels about what he did, and he acknowledges that he didn’t do the right thing and that she’s right. This shows growth for both of them, individually and as a couple. So Tim learns his lesson in The Rookie Season 8 Episode 11 ‘Aftermath’ and begins to listen to Lucy. She confesses that she needs to talk to Marvin’s sister, regardless of the consequences.
Lucy’s empathy and compassion have always been part of what makes her such a good police officer. Those same qualities are also some of the reasons Tim loves her. So even if part of him thinks going to Marvin’s sister might only make things harder, he still understands why Lucy feels she has to do it. For Lucy, there’s no real way forward without telling the truth. And in the end, Marvin’s sister listens. She believes Lucy—and she understands what happened.
She sees Lucy’s tears and hears her sincerity. And she knows that Lucy had no choice but to end Marvin’s life to save her own. Explaining the story out loud to Marvin’s sister is cathartic for Lucy in The Rookie Season 8 Episode 11 ‘Aftermath’. She somehow atones for her guilt through this confession, accepting the consequences of what she did and why she had to do it. Now, knowing that Marvin’s sister knows the truth and understands, Lucy can begin to move on.
MORE: The Rookie Season 8, Episode 9 Review: ‘Fun and Games’
Other Stuff in The Rookie Season 8 Episode 11 ‘Aftermath’
- Randy is a mess. And brilliant, as always. He took too many blows to the head, though.
- They’re setting the stage with Bailey for her return to LA. We have no proof, but we also have no doubt.
- Nolan being the protective husband…oh well.
- We can’t believe Glassman is on the street.
- And that Vivian helped him just to bring Wesley down, but it’s the only explanation that makes sense. You have to be another monster like Glassman to do that.
- We like that two iconic villains are reappearing with a new storyline and that they’re not the same old ones.
- That said, this show has gotten a little too used to featuring shady lawyers.
- Nyla needs to be careful now, as do Wesley and Angela. We love that they don’t give up and we know they’ll catch him, but they have to be very careful.
- Grey and Luna are still in a bad place, and our hearts are broken.
- Lucy not being able to look at that dead body broke our hearts again.
- And the moment when she confessed what happened to Marvin’s sister…
- We don’t understand why they included Nyla’s storyline of wearing the uniform again and being a TO only for everything to be resolved in the next episode. And to top it off, the scene referencing this in the previous episode was cut from the final edit. No sense at all.
The Rookie Season 8 airs Mondays at 10 pm on ABC.
