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‘The Rookie’ Officially Returns to What Made the Procedural So Good With This Fan-Favorite Character
Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Season 8, Episode 14 of The Rookie.At first glance, Episode 14 of ABC’s The Rookie seems like it’s going to be a light-hearted romp. Tim Bradford (Eric Winter) has souped up one of the shops so that he’ll be riding around as Watch Commander in style. But then, the series does something that allows it to put out an excellent episode — it actually highlights one of its best characters. Even though the episode also returns to a storyline with an old character (which has been happening in nearly every episode this season), The Rookie still soars when it goes back to its heart.
‘The Rookie’ Focuses on Celina’s Excellent Police Work
Celina Juarez (Lisseth Chavez) is tasked with working as a temp with a detective. She chooses Missing Persons, but everyone questions her choice. Detective Hernandez (Carlos Gómez) is known for being a pessimistic sad-sack who isn’t really devoted to solving cases anymore. When Celina tries to get acquainted with him and learn what her duties would be, he calmly tells her that she won’t really be putting bad guys behind bars. In fact, Missing Persons cases are often solved because the individuals aren’t actually missing at all. Celina is still looking at things through rose-colored glasses and insists she can do some good here (especially because she’s driven by her own sister’s case years ago). She starts to dig through case files and finds one case of a missing woman, but after Celina drags other police officers into the city tunnels looking for her, she’s informed that the woman actually checked back into a shelter and is perfectly fine. Lucy Chen (Melissa O’Neil) reassures Celina that she shouldn’t give up on her instincts, even though this case was a dud.
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Before long, Celina comes across another missing person case that feels significant to her. Apple coincidentally lived in Celina’s building and went missing 30 days ago after attending Coachella. Celina goes home, and even though Hernandez encouraged her to give up, she knocks on Apple’s apartment door anyway. Apple’s roommate (Kiara Barnes) answers and allows Celina to come in and look around. Right away, the roommate starts listing all the reasons why Apple was difficult to live with. But Celina doesn’t catch onto the fact that she’s in danger until she looks under Apple’s bed and discovers what will live in my nightmares for weeks.
Before Celina can actually register that she’s holding a tooth, the roommate maces her and chases Celina around the apartment with a hammer. Celina is eventually able to subdue and handcuff her, while the woman screams that Apple was actually “the worst roommate ever!” Back at the station, Hernandez is angry with Celina for putting herself in danger and breaking protocol, but Celina insists that she remains “undaunted” in the fight to help victims. Perhaps she has inspired Hernandez to look into more cases to solve in the future. This storyline proves that Celina is one of The Rookie’s strongest characters, who has the most heart and dedication to the job.
‘The Rookie’ Season 8, Episode 14 Features a Teenager-Focused Investigation
ERIC WINTER, NATHAN FILLION
The secondary storyline this week follows John Nolan (Nathan Fillion) and the return of Dash (Beckett Hawley). He calls Nolan to report that he’s standing in front of a dead body. The victim turns out to be Kenneth Morris, an English teacher at Dash’s school. Lots of teenagers are interviewed, and Dash points out his current crush, a rich girl named Autumn Harrington. This classic mean girl won’t give him the time of day. In some impressive Gen Z police work, Lucy researches who initially found the body, and it turns out to be a teen named Reese. She eventually confesses that her mother became enraged when Morris’ tutoring didn’t lead to Reese’s acceptance into Yale. The mother is arrested for his murder, but this isn’t the end of Dash’s storyline.
Dash’s father shows up to take him home, but ends up taking him to his house instead. Dash’s father is clearly a loser who hatches get-rich-quick schemes instead of simply being a good dad. Several men show up at the house and start beating up Dash’s father because he owes them money. In order to get out of this pickle, Dash suggests heading to Autumn’s house (he thinks she won’t be home), so the bad guys can rob the mansion. Autumn turns out to be home anyway, and Dash and his crush are trapped, while the guys loot the home. Nolan eventually arrives after a call for help from Dash, and the villains are apprehended.
Nolan gives some advice to Dash’s father, stating that if he’s going to keep being so disruptive and selfish, he should just leave Dash alone for good. This is a heartbreaking piece of advice, but I loved that Nolan is stepping in as a father figure to Dash. Although I’m super sick of past characters returning, at least this character offers a new side to Nolan’s persona.
Wesley Faces the Music After His Disastrous DA Campaign in ‘The Rookie’
Wesley Evers (Shawn Ashmore) returns to work, having to face Vivian Eckert (Necar Zadegan) after her win in the District Attorney race. She’s incredibly smug (as expected), but the nice surprise is that Sean Del Monte (Michael Trucco) pops up after leaving last season. He’s decided to stay at the prosecutor’s offices and suggests that Wesley stay too. Vivian proudly proclaims that there are 27 cases awaiting prosecution, and she demands that Wesley and Sean get plea deals for each one. In a fun montage, both lawyers basically help the defendants and tank any possibility that they would accept plea deals. I’m definitely all for whatever duplicitous actions that will take down Vivian at this point. In the end, Wesley proudly quits, and Sean decides to follow suit. They discuss opening an office together, which I think could be a really exciting avenue for the series to explore.
Even though Episode 14 brings back both Dash and Sean, the hour is successful largely because it has Celina anchoring it. I was excited that there weren’t any silly Bailey Nune (Jenna Dewan) storylines to get in the way of strong storytelling, and the episode was much more thrilling because the action focused on compelling cases instead of romance drama. Although I have to say that I miss not having a Chenford update in a while, the investigations featured in this episode prove that The Rookie can still churn out quality episodes, even eight seasons in.
New episodes of The Rookie air on Monday nights on ABC, with episodes available to stream on Hulu in the U.S.
- Release Date
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October 16, 2018
- Showrunner
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Alexi Hawley
- Directors
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Tori Garrett, Chi-Yoon Chung, Michael Goi, Sylvain White, Lisa Demaine, Lanre Olabisi, Bill Johnson, David McWhirter, Liz Friedlander, Daniel Willis, Toa Fraser, Anne Renton, Jon Huertas, Cherie Nowlan, TK Shom, Rob Seidenglanz, Valerie Weiss, Barbara Brown, Charissa Sanjarernsuithikul, SJ Main Muñoz, Nelson McCormick, Marcus Stokes, Adam Davidson, Anna Mastro
- Writers
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Corey Miller, Bill Rinier, Zoe Cheng, Mary Trahan, Ally Seibert, Liz Alper, Nick Hurwitz, Racheal Seymour, Madeleine Coghlan, David Radcliff
- Celina is a perfect focus for this fast-paced episode.
- The episode isn’t dragged down by Bailey’s shenanigans.
- It’s still tiring to have old characters keep returning.
- We haven’t had any Chenford storylines in way too long.
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