One reason The Rookie has continued to be popular for (soon-to-be) seven seasons is because the series is a unique approach to a police procedural. The focus is, mostly, on the street-level policing experience, and the cast is populated with likable characters. The beat cops in the show end up in more gunfights in a single episode than many officers have in an entire career. Yet, this is a television show meant to be thrilling and cinematic.
Rather than looking at The Rookie as a slice-of-life police show, it’s almost better to view the series as one does superhero shows. The cops in the Mid-Wilshire Precinct have their hearts in the right place, but sometimes circumstances or human error means the wrong thing happens. This kind of drama is what makes a show like The Rookie special. It’s characters have flaws just like everyone else. While making television on a network schedule is hard, The Rookie has more than its share of flawless episodes from beginning to end.
Officer Jackson West Outsmarts His Racist Training Officer
For One Episode, The Rookie Fought the Good Fight Against Bad Cops
In Season 3, Officer Jackson West was paired with former Superman Brandon Routh who played a very unheroic character. His new training officer Doug Stanton was an industry veteran who spent many years on the streets. Over the course of Season 2, West watched as Staton racially profiled and abused his authority. Despite being still just a rookie, West wanted to take him down to protect both the community and the police force he served. However, the best episode in this arc came in “Lockdown” — an episode where John Nolan was held hostage in a van rigged with a bomb outside the precinct.
As his fellow officers raced across Los Angeles to save him, West and Stanton continued to have trouble. When West is jumped by a gang, Stanton watches him get beaten. Then, while pretending to care for his “boot,” West turns on Staton’s body camera, revealing the footage that got him kicked off the force, at least for a bit. The unsatisfactory ending to this season’s story might be why Jackson West was eventually killed off. Still, for this one flawless episode of The Rookie, the bad cop got what was coming to him.
A Season 2 Episode Shows Not All the Cops Are Good
A Beloved Friend of the Rookies Dies In the Line of Duty
While The Rookie has a large cast, the characters’ worlds are bigger than even fans see on screen. One episode in the second season showed that the series’ rookies were still friends with their fellows from the police academy in different precincts. The first of a two-part episode, “The Q Word” involves the death of one of those officers, Chris Rios. The show always highlights the dangers of the job, but the death of Rios made those dangers personal to the characters.
The second-part of this story is one of The Rookie’s best episodes, but the season finale cliffhanger made it an incomplete story. While “The Q Word” is also only part of a story, it does tell a complete, tragic narrative. The characters on The Rookie are lovable and most episodes are fun. This one allowed them to flex their dramatic muscles in an emotional story where there was nothing the heroes could do to save the day. It was moving and made audiences eager to keep tuning in.
Season 1’s Big Death Proved The Rookie Wasn’t Just a Fluke Procedural
No Character Was Safe on the Series When Zoe Andersen Died
In The Rookie Season 1, “Greenlight” is a remarkable episode because it killed off Captain Zoe Andersen, a big presence in the series. She was an important character, if only because she was one of the few people who believed in John Nolan and his ability to make it on the job. What makes it a flawless episode of The Rookie is how action-packing and thrilling it is, and it was the first “over the top” premise that has become a classic part of the series.
“There’ll be time for grief later. We have a job to finish…. Look, I know what’s in your hearts. What you want to do more than anything. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want it, too… But that’s not what Captain Andersen would want. Killing this loser won’t honor her memory. Doing our jobs will. And we owe it to her to do it the right way.” — Sergeant Grey to the Mid-Wilshire Precinct.
Still the oldest rookie on the force, John Nolan is given a “greenlight” by the city’s criminal element. This means he has to dodge execution from brazen criminals willing to kill a cop. Captain Andersen agrees to ride with him that day, and it ultimately leads to her death. Not only does Nolan lose his biggest champion, but he blames himself for the circumstances leading up to her shooting. Yet, this episode is where The Rookie reaffirmed its police officers live up to an ideal that’s all too rare in the real world.
Officer John Nolan Shows Up for His New T.O. in a Surprising Way
From Rescuing Nyla Harper While Undercover to Helping Her With Her Daughter
After Afton Williamson left The Rookie, John Nolan needed a new training officer. He got Nyla Harper, a former undercover officer trying to get her life together. She, like Nolan, was a single parent, but she was estranged from her daughter. All too often, her duty got in the way of being a parent. While on an undercover operation with her rookie, Harper was almost taken prisoner by the criminals she was supposed to infiltrate. Acting on his own, Nolan stepped in not just to save her life but to help save her family.
In one great scene, Nolan pretends to be Harper’s “man” and threatens the killers trying to take her with his own weapon. This endeared her “boot” to Harper, but it resonated beyond that. She was able to help her be there for her daughter. Elsewhere in the episode, Bradford and Chen continued to bond as a team, while Jackson West was able to meet someone, an actor playing a cop in a film. It was one of the few times The Rookie put a queer relationship story at the center of its episodes.
The Late Annie Wersching’s Final Role Was a Devious Serial Killer
Rosalind Dyer Was The Rookie’s First Great Villain
Annie Wersching was an incredible actor, and one of her last roles before passing away in 2023 was on The Rookie. She played Rosalind Dyer, a sinister serial killer locked up who had a fascination with John Nolan. (This echoed a character she played in Nathan Fillion’s previous series Castle.) Watching Wersching and Fillion in scenes together was truly a highlight of not just the episode, but the series itself. She had information about a new serial killer, but things were more involved than that.
“[My victim] thought we were going on a picnic. There was a moment, as we got deeper in the woods, when he showed just a sliver of fear, but then he remembered he was a man and didn’t have to worry about things like that.” — Rosalind Dyer to John Nolan.
The other half of this episode involved Lucy Chen who was trying to strike a better work-life balance. On the job she met a man named Caleb Wright whom she fell for and even went on a date with. This episode ended with Wright revealing he was an acolyte of Roslind Dyer’s and kidnapping her, leading to one of The Rookie’s most flawless episodes.
Lucy Chen Is Forced to Choose Between Family Loyalty and Police Commitment
The Episode’s Earthquake Shook Up Lucy Chen’s Familial Relationships
Along with learning to be police officers, The Rookie Season 1 was when the audience began to learn more about the characters and their histories. John Nolan was a divorced man making a change. Jackson West was the son of a decorated police officer living up to this family example. In “The Shake Up,” audiences learn that Lucy Chen’s choice of career was one which led to her family being deeply disappointed in her. While most of the episode involves the response to a Los Angeles earthquake, it’s Lucy’s story that makes this episode shine.
Lucy Chen learns her father, a psychologist, was injured by one of his patients. While visiting him in the hospital, viewers learn how disappointed he is in her. He is not fond of the police, specifically how they tend to arrest people who have mental illness or injury and need other help. Even though arresting this patient earns the ire of her father, Lucy does try to enter a report about mitigating circumstances hoping to get the offender the medical help he needs. This episode revealed that while she was a police officer, Lucy also had a big heart.
From a Criminal Attorney to a Hospital Shootout, The Rookie Is Big TV
While Over-the-Top, Episodes Like These Are Ones Fans Love
One of the final episodes of The Rookie Season 6 is another example of the series at its best. There is an interesting and, slightly, over-the-top criminal case to solve, but the characters get all the focus. While John Nolan and his wife Bailey Nune visit a fertility doctor, a gang war inundates the hospital with trauma patients. Meanwhile, criminal attorney (meaning a lawyer who is also a criminal) Monica Stevens is almost killed in her home, and she avoids the police to handle her own lethal investigation.
What makes “Punch Card” such a flawless episode of The Rookie is how well it does what other police procedurals couldn’t. The fertility troubles of two central characters are equally important stakes in an episode that also features a big-time gang war, that leads to the deaths of officers. The climax of the episode is also a big, action-movie-style shootout in a hospital with the police and the gang members there. Meanwhile, Monica is able to kill her attacker without being discovered. It’s classic The Rookie drama leading into a big two-part finale.
A New Rookie Shows a New Side of Officer Tim Bradford
The Rookie Told a Unique and Powerful Veteran Story
As the characters began to be promoted and no longer needed training officers, The Rookie needed to introduce new rookies. One such bit of “New Blood” was Officer in Training Katy Barnes who was a combat veteran before being a police officer. While many stories about war veterans focus on how they are broken, The Rookie took a different approach. The normally tough-as-nails Bradford took a soft touch with Barnes, helping her to understand the difference between being a solider and being police.
“I want you to take a deep breath. Feel the sun. Go ahead. Close your eyes. I’ll cover you. This is your present. You made it home. Life is good. You’re safe.” — Tim Bradford to Officer Katy Barnes.
One reason this episode of The Rookie feels flawless is that the storytellers stayed true to their show. The officers in this series are often in gunfights, which is not unlike the experience of war. Barnes is a necessary part of stopping the violent baddies in this episode, too. While sad to see such an interesting character go, Barnes decides to quit the force at the end of the episode. If she hadn’t, the lessons Bradford tried to teach her would have rang hollow.
Lucy Chen and Tim Braford Go Undercover as a Romantic Couple
The Rookie Delivered a Thrilling Episode and a Gift to Chenford Fans
While the status of Tim Bradford and Lucy Chen’s relationship is currently up-in-the-air, the best part of any romance, real or fictional, is often the beginning. The Season 5 premiere of The Rookie was the true beginning of that romance. Thanks to some classic “identical cousins” TV shenanigans, Bradford and Chen are forced to go undercover. Only rather than posing as criminals, they also have to pose as a couple.
The Rookie again balanced fun, lighthearted character moments with its heavy police drama. Only the really interesting stuff happened after the assignment was over. For fans of Chenford, The Rookie took things slowly, but that slow-burn approach allowed the couple to fully ingratiate itself in the hearts of the fans. While they may be somewhat apart for now, “Double Down” and the rest of Season 5 shows The Rookie works with the characters as a couple.
One Episode Showed Lucy Chen’s Bravery and Tim Bradford’s Heroism
The Rookie’s Big Two-Parter Helped Shape These Characters
The second season of The Rookie was when the series really started to hit its stride, and it may have peaked with the two-part episode featuring Rosalind Dyer. After Caleb Wright captures Lucy Chen, he buries her alive in the middle of nowhere with a webcam broadcasting her last moments. Melissa O’Neil’s performance in this episode is stellar as she blends heroic defiance with genuine human frailty and fear.
- This episode was the second of a two-parter, the first of which is also on this list.
While “Chenford” was still just a dream of the fanfiction writers, the scene in which Officer Tim Bradford finds her is one of the most emotional on The Rookie. The entire cast rallies together to save her life, and they are able to pull it off. Also, The Rookie was still new enough that audiences genuinely feared for Lucy Chen’s safety. The episode is a highlight of the series, and the effects this had on Lucy Chen were felt throughout future seasons.
