There has been one major plot hole that has bothered me this season of The Rookie. Bailey Nune (Jenna Dewan) works with a professional hitman named Malvado (Jimmy Gonzales) to go after her ex-husband, Jason Wyler (Steve Kazee). In Episode 5, he successfully takes Jason down, and then is able to elude the police and escape. We’re now well into the season, and I’ve been wondering if The Rookie writers were ever going to circle back to Bailey’s involvement in this crime. Well, in Episode 14, I got my wish (but it wasn’t as satisfying as I thought it would be). Plus, Lucy Chen (Melissa O’Neil) and Celina Juarez (Lisseth Chavez) tackle a case that brings up a lot of Celina’s past trauma (and has given me plenty of nightmare fuel for a while).
Tim Is Targeted on the Dark Web in ‘The Rookie’
The episode begins with Tim Bradford (Eric Winter) finding out that he’s been listed as a target on a hitman-for-hire site on the Dark Web. The team investigates the site, which is basically filled with assassins. They set out to warn the targets on the list that their lives are in danger, and they bring in Laura Stenson (Britt Robertson) from Rookie: Feds to assist. During their pursuit, they spot Malvado, who has been using the site to get jobs. The team ends up tracking him to a golf course (where his next target is located), and through a wild chase, Malvado goes after John Nolan (Nathan Fillion) and Tim. Malvado clearly has impressive combat skills, and it looks like Nolan and Tim are going to be defeated, when Angela (Alyssa Diaz) arrives in the nick of time, and shoots Malvado in the chest.
Although this sequence was fun to watch, I’m disappointed that this is truly the end of this intriguing assassin. We never really got the chance to learn more about him, and it seems like it would have been a much more compelling storyline to have him try to connect with Bailey again (perhaps with a blackmail attempt). Bailey is now officially off the hook since no one else other than Nolan knew about her connection to Malvado, and I’m a little bummed that she won’t ever really have any consequences for turning to the dark side. The good news is that the FBI now has control over this site on the Dark Web and can catch many more bad guys. One question remains though: will we ever find out who put Tim’s name on the list?
‘The Rookie’s Lucy and Celina Investigate a Missing Sister in Season 7, Episode 14Lucy (Melissa O’Neil) and Celina (Lisseth Chavez) outside at night in ‘The Rookie’
Lucy’s storyline in Episode 14 starts out with her listening to a true-crime podcast (which makes her a very relatable queen). She’s surprised when she learns that the podcast will be covering the abduction and murder of Celina’s sister, Blanca (which was detailed back in Season 5). Celina is outraged that the podcaster named Heather is investigating (or rather exploiting) her sister’s case and insists that she’s a vulture. Celina is able to prevent her mother from doing a full interview but later offers an explanation of her hesitancy about the podcast. She tells Lucy that she doesn’t understand why the true-crime genre is popular, and Lucy empathizes, acknowledging that it’s not always clear what the line is between “entertainment and exploitation.” This is an insightful conversation about a relevant issue that I wasn’t expecting from a series that typically injects a lot of humor into their episodes.
When Lucy and Celina go to confront Heather at the beginning of the episode, a young woman named Aubrey (Destiny Hernandez) approaches them, and asks for help. Her 21-year-old, pregnant sister, Aria (Julia Rose), has gone missing. There are a couple of red herrings with this plot (it’s not the boyfriend or the girl’s controlling family that are responsible for her disappearance). Then Lucy and Celina get a break in the case when they follow up on a lead that Aria had considered renting a room from a Mother Teresa-type woman named Greta. Greta insists that she doesn’t know what happened to Aria, but of course, Lucy and Celina know she’s lying. Turns out, Greta has actually taken Aria’s baby as her own and has Aria tied up in her basement. In a terrifying scene, Greta almost stabs the baby, saying mysteriously, “The ties that bind us must be cut.” I’m sorry, but that’s one of the creepiest things I’ve seen on this show. Greta then attacks Celina, kicking her down the basement steps, but Lucy ends it all by shooting Greta.
The baby and Aria end up being okay, and Greta survives, but Lucy and Celina are both clearly shaken by the ordeal. Celina is still grieving her sister, which is a realistic throughline for her character, and she shuts down Heather about ever coming on her podcast. Heartwrenchingly, she says she doesn’t need to honor Blanca’s memory by sharing their story, because she carries Blanca with her wherever she goes. I loved this comeback delivered to a woman who never seemed even remotely sympathetic to Celina’s pain.
‘The Rookie’ Throws in a Few Lighthearted Storylines This Week
The cast of ‘The Rookie’ outside the station in Season 7 Episode 14
I have been kind of reeling from the murderous baby kidnapper story, so I’m glad there are a few sillier plotlines in Episode 14 as well. Miles Penn (Deric Augustine) gets tasked with creating new training videos for the department, and the Los Angeles Police Department is gearing up for its flag football game against the Los Angeles Fire Department. At first, Miles is reluctant to dive back into his football past, but after he’s able to negotiate a deal with Tim, who agrees to star in the training videos, Miles steps back onto the field. The episode ends with the big rivalry heating up, but, of course, with the help of Cooper Manning in a cameo as their coach, the LAPD team comes out victorious.
We get another minor side plot about the police reform meeting, but it doesn’t seem like that’s going all that well, given the low turnout for one of their events. Hopefully, the series will be able to do a more in-depth story about this before the season ends. There’s also one scene that features Angela reminding Tim how grateful he should be to have Lucy in his life, saying, “That girl is the best thing that ever happened to you.” Preach, Angela! The downsides to Episode 14 are that we don’t really get a lot of development into the Chenford romance, and I have to say that Bailey’s constant touting of Amazon Prime and its super-fast delivery did make me want to scream at the screen (it goes way beyond mere subtle product placement at this point). However, with the conclusion of Malvado’s storyline and the moving Lucy and Celina case that allows for some deep emotions for these characters, I’ll still count this episode as a win.
