When The Rookie got rid of Seth Ridley (Patrick Keleher) a few episodes back after he got exposed for lying about the return of his cancer, it was a great moment. Sergeant Grey (Richard T. Jones) confronted Seth alongside Lucy (Melissa O’Neil) and Tim (Eric Winter), finally punishing him for his string of lies. The only problem was, it seemed a little too good to be true that Seth was just gone, especially because the show had left his new romance with Tamara (Dylan Conrique) open as a loose end. Well, as it turns out, that wasn’t the last we would see of Seth.
This week’s episode of The Rookie, “The Return,” brings back both Seth and Tamara, who are still dating. Lucy and Tamara have somehow magically made up off-screen, and Tamara urges Lucy to give Seth a second chance, in the form of a dinner party at Tim’s house. All the while, Nolan (Nathan Fillion) takes Seth on as his new rookie, now that Lucy is no longer a T.O. (and obviously doesn’t want to work with Seth again). This ultimately leads to Nolan getting to step in at the perfect T.O., and Seth getting a redemption arc that just comes a little too easily.
‘The Rookie’s Latest Episode Brings Seth Ridley Back to the LAPD
As it turns out, Seth wasn’t bluffing when he threatened to go to the department after being fired, and he comes back to Mid-Wilshire this week as Nolan’s new rookie. Nolan is very blunt with Seth about the fact that he doesn’t trust him, but he is also fair to Seth, telling him that his actions will speak for him. Under Nolan’s leadership, Seth starts putting in the work to be better. Seth covers for Miles (Deric Augustine) after Miles punches him, advocates for someone who’s being unfairly arrested on one of their calls, and really tries to prove that he’s changed.
Off the clock, Seth accompanies Tamara to a dinner party with Lucy, Tim, Celina (Lisseth Chavez), and Rodge (Zander Hawley). There, Rodge brings up the fact that Seth is not trustworthy (to Celina in Spanish, which Seth unfortunately understands), while Lucy notices that Tamara is wearing a promise ring. Tamara gets mad at Lucy here for not giving Seth a chance, and for bringing up the $10,000 that Seth got from the department for claiming wrongful termination. By the end of the episode, Seth assists Nolan during a shootout and gets shot in the leg. After Nolan gives Seth a speech about choosing what kind of person he wants to be, Seth confesses to Tamara that he lied about his cancer returning, and she dumps him.
‘The Rookie’s Redemption Arc for Seth Doesn’t Feel Earned
I was initially excited to see Seth come back as a villain, and glad that The Rookie was going to properly resolve Tamara’s involvement in this storyline. The problem is, the show works too hard to redeem Seth in this episode, and I just don’t buy it. Miles is right in pointing out how unfair it is that he has done everything right and is still living in Smitty’s (Brent Huff) trailer lot, while Seth got rewarded with a lot of money for lying. Still, Tim encourages Miles to take the high road, and calls Seth heroic for helping Nolan (even though Tim validates Miles and states that Seth is a bad person).
When Seth assists Nolan, he gets shot in the leg so badly that it has to be amputated below the knee. I can’t help but draw a parallel here to one of my favorite fictional characters of all time: Game of Thrones’ Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau). It feels like The Rookie is trying to give Seth a Jaime-style character arc, but done way too easily. Whereas the loss of Jaime’s hand symbolized so much more for his character, and was explored throughout the rest of his character arc (with the notable exception of his disappointing ending), Seth’s loss of part of his leg feels like a lazy way to gain sympathy for him. In his very next scene, Seth is rewarded with Nolan encouraging him to come back to work soon, and it just feels like too sharp of a 180 from where the episode started.
Seth (Patrick Keleher) in a police uniform in Season 7 of ‘The Rookie’
‘The Rookie’s Redemption Arc for Seth Is Unfair to Lucy
Another major issue I have with Seth being redeemed like this is what it means for Lucy’s character. Although Lucy didn’t plan to be a T.O., she went into it open-minded and eager to teach a new rookie. Seth took advantage of her kindness and manipulated her with his lies, while also tricking her into keeping him around longer than she wanted. This ended with Lucy no longer being a T.O., and continuing to feel bad about what happened. Now, after just two days, Nolan has somehow gotten through to Seth more than Lucy did in her months of training him. He got Seth to work to be good at the job, open up about his insecurities, take accountability for his actions, and risk his own life to help Nolan.
Nolan is a better T.O. now than he once was, but he has never been especially great at it. Just earlier this season, when Celina was still his rookie, she called him out for taking the reins on a call instead of trusting her. Now, Nolan gets to be seen as the excellent T.O. who was able to change Seth, while it’s implied that Lucy simply wasn’t good enough to get through to him. I don’t like this idea, or the notion that Lucy’s negative experience with Seth is somehow erased just because he saved Nolan. Seth still lied to Lucy, made her job very hard, and nearly got her and Tim killed during the wildfire. It’s looking now like Seth will come back to Mid-Wilshire, and that Seth and Tamara will get back together eventually, but I would have preferred that The Rookie just didn’t bring him back at all.
