In its eight seasons on the air, The Rookie has proven that it likes to bring back old characters and familiar storylines. In many ways, this makes the procedural feel familiar and acts as a connective throughline from each season to the next. If you’re a long-time watcher, you can get a deeper understanding of the ethos of the show. However, there are times when some of these prior storylines should be left in the past. Episode 3 introduces us to an utterly creepy villain, but it’s the return of a storyline from last season that brings the whole episode down.
‘The Rookie’ Brings Back My Least Favorite Cop
In The Rookie‘s seventh season, a new rookie named Seth Ridley (Patrick Keleher) joins the Mid-Wilshire police department. The entire season, he causes chaos by repeatedly lying about pretty much everything, including the fact that he has cancer. Eventually, he’s kicked off the force, but is later allowed to return because he claims that he was the victim of an insurance scam. In Episode 16, Seth ends up being shot, leading to his leg having to be amputated. His police career is summarily over, and John Nolan (Nathan Fillion) gives him a pep talk that he now has the opportunity to turn his life around and stop with all of the deception. I thought that this was truly the last we’d see of Seth, since he’s by far the most annoying and irksome character, but in Episode 3, Miles Penn (Deric Augustine) shows up at Seth’s apartment. Miles has learned that Seth is skipping physical therapy, and judging from the mess around the apartment, he has kind of given up on life.
Miles tries to make up with Seth, but in true Seth fashion, all he can do is complain about how everyone is treating him so unfairly. Miles quickly realizes that Seth’s injury has not changed him as a person at all. Later in the episode, Seth has an epiphany and asks Miles for help. Miles says Seth has to stop feeling sorry for himself, and that he’ll help if Seth will engage in “radical honesty.” So, I’ll be radically honest here: I would be just fine if Seth’s character left the show forever. Keleher is a capable actor, which means that I actually feel how self-righteous and narcissistic Seth is. But with that in mind, I don’t feel like the show needs to keep rehashing the same storyline with Seth in another brand-new season. There wasn’t really a need to follow up with Seth on his journey, and I definitely don’t want to see more scenes devoted to Miles helping him.
We’re Introduced to Another Evil Villain in ‘The Rookie’ Season 8, Episode 3
The Rookie has always been incredibly skilled at coming up with villains that are inherently watchable. Episode 3 introduces us to another truly evil bad guy, and we can’t help but get sucked into his world. We meet Ezra Kaine (David Krumholtz) as a seemingly down-on-his-luck unhoused man seeking refuge in a rec center. The team quickly realizes that Ezra was linked to a triple homicide three years ago. A husband and wife were brutally murdered in their home, and the body of their teenage daughter was never found. Nolan is tasked with interrogating Ezra, and Lucy Chen (Melissa O’Neil) and Celina Juarez (Lisseth Chavez) go to his last known location. Ezra was actually staying in a hotel, and it’s there that they discover a frightened young girl named Samantha who happens to be the missing daughter. She has clearly been brainwashed by Ezra and fears the police. The most tragic part is that she doesn’t even know that her parents are dead.
Samantha is taken to the hospital, and the rest of the Mid-Wilshire gang works to put the pieces of Ezra’s life together. Turns out that he believes he’s a demon named Amon, and Samantha assumed that he was going to kill her that night. The team realizes that Ezra has kidnapped another girl to take Samantha’s place, and are eventually able to locate her and get her medical attention. In one terrifying scene, Ezra mentions something about “the Red Place” in his interrogation, and Lucy discusses it outside Samantha’s hospital room. Upon overhearing the phrase, Samantha starts stabbing herself in the arms with a syringe and has to be restrained. It turns out that this was an actual red-painted room that Ezra would take Samantha to “punish her,” and the phrase was a programming prompt to get her to hurt herself. Lucy ends up sharing a bit about her own kidnapping experience (back in Season 2), and this seems to help Samantha feel like she’s going to be okay. Bringing back this thread of Lucy’s past trauma helps make her character feel even more developed. The conclusion of the storyline is Ezra being walked out in cuffs, never to hurt anyone again, but the immense damage he has inflicted is obvious.
There Is Some Tension With Chenford in ‘The Rookie’
There was no way that The Rookie writers were going to allow Chenford to ride off into the sunset in complete bliss. Episode 3 shows Lucy and Tim Bradford (Eric Winter) experiencing some minor tension as his home is now filled with boxes from Lucy’s move. It’s clear that Tim is itching with unease at his space being so messy, and Lucy is more than happy to go at her own pace while unpacking. The tension is an easy way to see that their path won’t simply be smooth sailing, but it’s super nice to see them co-existing together after so much upheaval in their relationship. There’s also a side storyline about Angela Lopez (Alyssa Diaz) and Wesley Evers (Shawn Ashmore) both forgetting their own wedding anniversary, but this honestly just felt like mere filler in this episode. Evoking this more silly storyline also made the episode have weird tonal shifts since the storyline with Ezra was so dark and disturbing.
The inclusion of Ezra’s character shows that The Rooke is able to introduce creepy villains with ease, even if they’re around for just one episode. But it also highlights the fact that bringing back old characters like Seth is completely unnecessary. Plenty of drama can be drummed up with these investigations into scary criminals, and the series would be best served by wrapping up the Seth storyline for good as soon as possible.
New episodes of The Rookie air on Tuesday 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 villain provides the storytelling with lots of twists and turns.
- David Krumholtz perfectly portrays a creepy, evil man.
- The more light-hearted storylines seem out of place in an episode that’s pretty dark.
- Seth’s return drags down the episode.