Well, that was a morbid hour (because of the limbs), among other things!
You cannot say that The Rookie Season 4 Episode 12 didn’t have it all with dismembered limbs, hilariously awkward double dates, a super emotional Harper, and Grey in the field with a dirty cop from Italy.
It was a blast of an hour that was nothing if not entertaining.
Newly pregnant Harper, who is overly in tune with her emotions, is something that will take some getting used to, and you could tell that everyone else agrees. You know it’s out of control when Nolan, who is notoriously upbeat, was looking at her as if she had two heads.
A hormonal Harper will be entertaining, especially since we’ll get to follow her throughout her pregnancy. And congratulations to an expectant Mekia Cox!
Seriously, how much longer are you going to be like this?
Grey [to Harper]
When she wasn’t giggling, she was crying or rambling. They can have so much fun with this development.
One thing worth looking forward to is the friendship she’s developing with Angela, who had one of her best installments this season. It’s been a while since they’ve given her some significant focus, and she was both investigating this case and working alongside Bradford and Chen, and she had her spat with Wesley.
Angela and Wesley are the cutest, but there’s nothing like raising a child together that will show how different their parents raised them. Angela had every right to get upset at Wesley for his behavior during that interview with the private preschool for the kid.
He’s a man who grew up well off, and while he’s always prided himself on advocating for those less privileged than himself, sometimes his blind spots are massive. It’s easy for him to get so hung up on his past experiences at a private school that he didn’t consider why it was important for Angela.
Sorry I’m late. I had to yell at my husband.
Angela
It only takes someone who never experienced going to one themselves especially depending on the district, to react as Wesley did. I’m glad the two of them are finding a way to combine their styles and outlooks on things. And Angela’s murder board for raising Jack is downright hilarious.
Angela provided some humor during an hour blessedly filled with a great deal of it.
The cases were as entertaining as the personal matters developing during this installment. It’s always a classic treat of this series when Grey gets to take off that uniform and get into the field.
He’s a character you can pair up with anyone, and he can play as the straight man to all the comedy that transpires. His collaboration with Romero was fun until it got all too real.
Romero was quite the character. He was a lively Italian who got a kick out of partnering up with Grey in the States and discussing his outlook on life and all the old-school American buddy cop films he idolized.
He and Grey did form a connection, and they could’ve had a genuine friendship if Romero didn’t show his hand after that stakeout. The man is a gaslight extraordinaire, isn’t he?
He looked Grey dead in the eye and lied about Kai having a gun as if Grey couldn’t see the truth with his own two eyeballs. It was crazy how he opened fire on Kai when he saw him. In renegade mode, Romero reminded you of an outlaw out of a western.
Nothing about the shoot he initiated was a good one, and he couldn’t even pretend it was. Fortunately, Grey saw his number, and he was able to orchestrate catching Romero in the act with the help of Nolan and Harper.
It’s not good to work all of the time. You need to enjoy life more.
Romero
Romero couldn’t even wait until the coast was clear or not act suspicious when he went right where he heard Kai was and started shooting. Everything he thought he was avoiding with Kai exposing him as a dirty cop came out anyway, and now they managed to capture two Italian criminals instead of one.
Grey wasn’t the only one getting his badass moments in. Chen and Bradford’s scenes where they tracked down and captured Chester were great, too.
It was an incredibly bizarre case, from the severed hand washing up on shore to the body missing a limb and all the ones they found in his home; it was utter madness.
Chester was unhinged!
But it was slick when Bradford used his body cam to survey the situation inside the morgue, and I loved how he and Lucy talked through all the scenarios and brainstormed the ideal plan while remaining on high alert and ready for everything.
Bradford may have told Ashley that Lucy isn’t his partner, but it’s a baldfaced lie; she is. As it stands, no one knows Tim the way that Lucy does. She’s become Tim’s best friend and partner all wrapped in one, and that’s not even factoring all the ship moments that lie between the lines and under the surface.
The double date was simultaneously cringe-worthy and amusing. No way on earth should Lucy and Tim have ever done a group thing with their significant others. All the time together showed was that they’re very in tune with each other and compatible.
It’s an intimidating thing to witness.
How long can we even expect Tim and Ashley to remain together? By now, it’s evident that their relationship doesn’t work well at all. It’s always some issue, and much of it has to do with how Tim doesn’t respect her feelings or stances on things.
We saw how messed up it was that he dismissed her genuine fear of dogs and focused on forcing her to deal with his dog and his dog to do the same with her.
But Ashley invited him to this restaurant that’s not of Tim’s taste, and he didn’t even know how to hide how disinterested he was in doing something out of his comfort zone.
Regardless of how you feel about Ashley or Tim’s love life, it sucks that she’s with a man who doesn’t know how to commit, compromise, or show her the interest she should deserve as his girlfriend.
I’m sorry, are you really murder boarding our child’s future?
Wesley
It doesn’t even seem as though Tim is into Ashley. It’s like he’s stringing her along, or he forgot to break up with her or something, so he goes with the flow.
It’s a shock that Ashley hasn’t dumped Tim by now. Any woman in her right mind would’ve already. Who wants to hear about another woman all the time, and how frustrating is it that Lucy constantly reminds everyone how well she knows Tim versus anyone else?
Tim and Ashley are on borrowed time. Nothing about their sweet final moments can convince a girl otherwise.
Meanwhile, Lucy and Chris are headed in a stronger direction. The two of them have many things in common, and even though it was awkward for Chris during that double date where you genuinely couldn’t tell who was on a date with whom, Lucy bounced back from it.
Unlike Tim and Ashley, Lucy does seem interested in Chris, and you can see that relationship having some legs and developing into something more serious.
They spared us Nolan’s relationship drama, but his days as union rep are numbered if Briggs has his way.
He’s not in it for the praise or perks. Nolan wants to make genuine changes to better the cops and the general public. He wants to do something with this power rather than wield it for free drinks.
Nolan’s opening up the lines of communication with all the cops so he can get an idea of their needs and complaints fell in line with everything we know of him.
And his attempts to evoke real change regardless of the budget or how others will react to it is what could jeopardize him in the end.
Something tells me he’s not long for the gig, which sucks.
But even if Briggs comes at Nolan guns blazing, intending to make his time as rep a living hell because of Nolan’s inability to kiss the ring or fall in line with their red tape and bureaucracy bullcrap, Nolan will shake things up and make it hard for Briggs every step of the way
Over to you, Rookie Fanatics.
Romero: He had a gun, you did not see?
Grey: No, I did not see.
Romero: He’s a very dangerous man. If I hesitated, he would’ve killed me.
Did you enjoy this installment? What was your favorite part? Do you think Ashley and Tim need to break up already? How do you feel about Lucy and Chris?
Should Nolan beware of retaliation from Briggs? Do you think his union rep gig is short-lived? Hit the comments below.
In the meantime, you can watch The Rookie online here via TV Fanatic.
Jasmine Blu is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.