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‘The Rookie’s Best Season 8 Episode Goes Completely Different With Full Zombie Horror
Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for The Rookie Season 8, Episode 10.It’s crucial for procedurals to come up with a winning formula that entices viewers to tune in every week. But it’s just as important for these types of dramas to also switch things up every now and then to keep things exciting. ABC’s The Rookie has been repeating a few storylines lately, especially with recurring villains like Monica Stevens (Bridget Regan) and Oscar Hutchinson (Matthew Glave). However, this week’s episode allows them to try on a new genre with a lot of success.
‘The Rookie’ Depicts a Zombie-Like Attack on the Crew
When Tim Bradford (Eric Winter) starts out the day by warning everyone that things are a little too quiet for the Mid-Wilshire Police Department, you know that something dangerous is coming their way. Dash (Beckett Hawley), the drone kid from Season 7, who also popped up in last week’s episode, decides to go on a ride-along with John Nolan (Nathan Fillion). Anytime someone innocent gets embedded with the gang, I’m convinced it’s going to be a life-threatening outing. Nolan, along with Nyla Harper (Mekia Cox) and Miles Penn (Deric Augustine) get tasked to do a wellness check at the abandoned Westview Hospital. A crew of clean-up workers hasn’t been heard of for a while (and of course, there’s no cell or radio service there). Right away, they see a dead body and hear garbled screams. Taking a page from The Walking Dead, all of the workers have become some kind of bloodthirsty zombies, who immediately attack the cops.
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Nathan Fillion’s long-running ABC drama left us speechless.
The police quickly realize that the crew must have been exposed to some kind of neurotoxin, making them completely lose control. They spend many scenes fighting off the zombies and running for their lives throughout the creepy hospital and its grounds. Miles does prove his worth, and eventually, Celina Juarez (Lisseth Chavez) and Lucy Chen (Melissa O’Neil) show up once they realize Nolan and Harper have been missing for so long. But in a tragic turn of events, Lucy is attacked by a man with a knife. In their struggle, he ends up stabbed and dies next to a stunned Lucy. When Tim shows up, he takes on the role of her supervisor instead of her boyfriend, asking her standard questions that are required when someone is killed on the job. Lucy is clearly shocked, and after being examined at the hospital, meets with Nolan as her union rep.
By the episode’s end, we see a very beaten-up Lucy experiencing flashbacks to the moments of her attack and of the man’s death. Tim tells her everything will be okay, but the last shot is her crying on the sofa alone. Although this is a heartbreaking scene to watch, I think this death could unlock an extremely compelling storyline for Lucy, especially if The Rookie writers decide to include nuances of Lucy’s past trauma to explore this recent event.
‘The Rookie’ Season 8, Episode 10 Sees Another Wrinkle in the Glasser Case
Unfortunately for Wesley Evers (Shawn Ashmore), the Liam Glasser (Seth Gabel) case is falling apart yet again. Ryan Dearbourne (Patrick Stafford) is the patsy that Glasser manipulated last season to take the fall for his crimes. Dearbourne has schizophrenia, but in this week’s episode, he’s has his symptoms under control and is going to testify in a deposition as the star witness for Wesley’s case. Initially, Dearbourne seems like he’s really going to helpwith the prosecurtors (which had already taken a hit when Glasser’s attorney got Nyla to admit to her inappropriate conduct). Dearbourne offers clear testimony, with heartbreaking details about Glasser using Dearbourne’s schizophrenia to coerce him into believing he had committed horrifying murders. It seems like Wesley might actually be able to put Glasser behind bars for good.
But then, Angela Lopez (Alyssa Diaz) calls Wesley to let him know that Dearbourne had some sort of “incident” and that he’s missing from the facility where he was living. Wesley walks into his office to see an agitated Dearbourne stabbing himself in the leg repeatedly with a shard of glass. This is one of the more gruesome sights for The Rookie, but it’s even harder to watch knowing that Dearbourne can’t help himself. Wesley is eventually able to talk him down, and the police arrive to take over the situation. At the hospital, Wesley learns that Dearbourne had a large amount of amphetamines in his system, which can be catastrophic for someone with schizophrenia. Glasser’s smug lawyer, Malcolm (Sean Patrick Thomas), shows up to brag about this being another snag in Wesley’s case, which leads Angela and Wesley to believe the lawyer has something to do with Dearbourne’s breakdown. Unfortunately, it looks like Glasser might be even closer to becoming a free man.
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Wade Asks Bailey for Help With an Investigation in ‘The Rookie’
In D.C., Bailey Nune (Jenna Dewan) is getting used to her new job at the Pentagon when Wade Grey (Richard T. Jones) calls to ask her for a favor. In a prior episode, the team had captured a career criminal named Everett (Jeffrey Vincent Parise), and it turns out he has a secret connection to the Pentagon, but Wade can’t figure out what. He asks Bailey to go check out an office and see who answers. When Bailey knocks on the door, a mysterious woman with an interesting tattoo comes out, but quickly brushes Bailey off. Bailey doesn’t get any answers, except that this woman is someone to keep an eye on. The woman seems intent on watching Bailey as well. I was hoping to get a little more time away from Bailey’s character since she’s gotten so misguided lately, but it looks like The Rookie is setting up another investigation where Bailey will be involved.
We don’t get a lot of developments in the personal lives of the officers in this week’s episode. However, we do see that Luna (Angel Parker) and Wade are still going through it, now living separately until they can work things out. Wade suggests that Luna quit her job if she really cares about saving their marriage, but this ask just made me kind of dislike Wade. Not trusting his wife enough with her feelings towards her hot doctor co-worker and asking her to give up a fulfilling career that she loves feels icky. It’s hard to root for them if it comes at the expense of Luna’s happiness. All in all, it was exciting to see a full-on zombie attack that helped the show experience a much-needed change of pace.
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
- The zombie attack helps change up the pace for the series.
- Setting up a new challenge for Lucy feels intriguing.
- Many of the scenes were too dark to make out what was going on.
- It might have been good to have a little time away from Bailey’s character.