Why One of ‘The Rookie’s Most Beloved Characters Is Much More Than Just Comic Relief
Officer Quigley Smitty (Brent Huff) has emerged as a mainstay character of the hit ABC series, The Rookie. Although he only made one appearance during the first season, Smitty gradually became a recurring guest character and eventually a semi-regular part of the cast. At first glance, Smitty comes off as a buffoonish veteran officer of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Mid-Wilshire Division. Essentially, Smitty serves as the show’s comic relief, but more recent episodes prove that he’s more than just the butt of the joke. During Season 6, Smitty was invaluable in uncovering the corruption of Dr. Blair London (Danielle Campbell) and the defense attorney Monica Stevens (Bridget Regan). Smitty might be a goofball, but he comes through for the Mid-Wilshire division when it counts. It’s time to take a closer look at one of The Rookie’s most unforgettable characters, Smitty.
‘The Rookie’ Establishes Smitty’s Character Early
It took a while before Smitty became fully established as a mainstay character. Smitty makes his first and only appearance in The Rookie’s first season during the episode “Plain Clothes Day.” He joins a hunt for a gunrunner suspect, Marcus Quincannon, while rookie officer John Nolan (Nathan Fillion) participates in a plain clothes day on the job. Therefore, Nolan’s training officer, Talia Bishop (Afton Williamson), acts only in an observational capacity, and Nolan must make all the decisions while on patrol. Smitty assists Nolan in attempting to breach a hotel room where Nolan believes Quincannon is staying. Smitty is not thrilled about taking orders from Nolan and looks down upon the rookie cop.
By Season 2, Smitty is upgraded to a recurring character in The Rookie. It’s revealed in “The Night General” that Smitty lives in a makeshift trailer park in the Mid-Wilshire station’s parking lot, which Smitty nicknamed “Shangri-La West.” When Jackson West (Titus Makin Jr.) gets evicted from his apartment, Smitty unsuccessfully attempts to make West his new roommate. Later in the season, Smitty celebrates his final day as “Mr. Irrelevant,” a ceremonial title given to officers who score lowest on the sergeant’s exam and have no chance of getting promoted. Smitty’s Season 2 appearances depict him as an underachiever in his LAPD career. Although Smitty is competent enough as a veteran officer with years on the job, he has no career ambition or desire for upward mobility in law enforcement. Smitty is there to do the job with minimal effort and is allergic to hard work.
Smitty Generally Serves as Comic Relief in ‘The Rookie’
Smitty’s role throughout the last several years of The Rookie is to act as the show’s designated comic relief. The Rookie works best as a dramedy that depicts serious situations but never takes itself too seriously. The series was never intended to be a gritty cop drama in the vein of NYPD Blue, Hill Street Blues, or Southland. When Smitty appears, it’s usually to fulfill the more comedic quotient in a given episode or plot. For example, in the Season 4 episode “Real Crime,” Smitty claims he accidentally founded the QAnon movement. According to Smitty, he suddenly gained many followers when writing This Is Us fan fiction while mixing diet pills and cough syrup. Smitty believes that QAnon stands for the first initial in his first name, “Quigley,” and claims he didn’t start the group on purpose. As he tells the true-crime documentary filmmakers in the episode, “Things just got out of hand.” Yes, Smitty is a total goofball, but he’s part of the show’s quirky aura and heightened reality.
Interestingly, Smitty reveals that he’s smarter than he lets on in the Season 5 episode, “Daddy Cop.” During the episode, Lucy Chen (Melissa O’Neil) works to pull off a “five-player trade” to help her boyfriend, Tim Bradford (Eric Winter), move to a position in the LAPD Metro division. Smitty easily deduces Lucy’s plan before she requests a favor from Smitty to help make the trade work. That represents at least one instance where Smitty reveals his buffoonish demeanor could all be an act, even though it appears that Smitty prefers to exhibit minimal effort on the job. Of course, in exchange for Smitty’s help, Lucy must clean out his filthy trailer, complete with a hazmat suit, in one of the show’s funniest moments.
Smitty’s Assistance Proves Invaluable in Helping Tim Bradford in Season 6
During the Season 6 episode, The Squeeze,” Officers Nolan and Celina Juarez (Lisseth Chavez) enlist Smitty’s assistance for their investigation into the activities of police psychiatrist Dr. Blair London. Tim suspects Dr. London is using information from her patient sessions to blackmail police officers into sabotaging law enforcement operations. Additionally, Dr. London and her partner-in-crime, the attorney Monica Stevens, attempt to pin the suicide of the Metro officer Mad Dog (Nick Gomez) on Tim since Mad Dog revealed Dr. London’s secret to Tim before he killed himself. Smitty’s assistance in revealing the patients of Dr. London in the LAPD becomes crucial in proving Tim’s innocence in Mad Dog’s death. Nolan and Celina convince Smitty to assist them because it would help Tim. Of course, Celina then humorously embellishes, “He [Tim] told us, ‘Smitty is the man, and he’s the only one we can trust with this.'” Smitty may not like to work, but when it matters, he’s a loyal friend and an incorruptible officer. He also clearly respects Tim and holds his longtime colleague in high regard.
Later in the Season 6 finale, “Escape Plan,” Detective Angela Lopez (Alyssa Diaz) recruits Smitty for the task force investigating Dr. London, which soon widens to Monica Stevens. Eventually, Smitty joins Lucy’s plain clothes support team for the operation. Smitty might not be the most reliable officer in some situations, but the fact that Lopez taps Smitty for the investigation proves that he is trustworthy for sensitive police operations.
‘The Rookie’ Returns for Season 7 in 2025
The good news is that The Rookie returns for its seventh season later next year. Hopefully, that means Smitty will be back for more high jinks in the Mid-Wilshire division. It would be hilariously ironic if, somehow, Smitty lucks into a promotion he never wanted, or perhaps some vast fortune, which would be an appropriate event for the character before the show wraps. Smitty often plays the fool, and everyone likes to think of him that way. That said, Smitty is smarter than he appears and does not get involved in corruption, but he suffers from chronic laziness and a lack of ambition. It will be interesting to see if any new proverbial wrinkles in Smitty’s character come to light in Season 7, which will debut later next year on ABC.
