Well, that was a weirdly lackluster hour despite a series of things that should’ve made it anything but that.
One of the best things to come out of The Rookie Season 4 Episode 7 was the escalation of danger and threats from Elijah led Wesley to tell Angela the truth. It was long overdue.
Outside of that, Lucy and Bradford’s bet was the epitome of mindless fodder, and Nolan’s kidnapping was redundant.
In hindsight, it made no sense that Bradford and Lucy extended their bet with each other in some desperate attempt to win. It especially was pointless if they’d consider it some kind of draw by the end of the hour, and Bradford dropped the whole thing.
Everything about their portion of the hour was filler to pad the installment. It had some fun moments, and it’s always a good time when the two of them bicker and banter with each other.
Somehow, Grey even got in on the gig, and he gave them a new set of rules and a mission to achieve to win. Grey has his moments when he’s like a bemused father indulging his children.
Part of his involvement at all was odd when you consider that these are the type of shenanigans you’d expect from Bradford before he became a sergeant or something.
Overall, Grey gave Bradford the most difficult penal code to meet. Somehow, their case led them on a wild goose chase of hopping from one problematic suburbanite woman to the next.
Mrs. Carter was the one who used Tiger’s Blood in her beauty care products and fancied herself a rival for Gwenyth Paltrow’s Goop line. But then she directed them to Sloane, played by another lovely soap actress and Teen Wolf veteran Susan Walters.
Sloan: My husband’s a doctor. It’s the family prescription pad.
Chen: That’s not a thing.
Her line about her husband’s prescription pads being the “family” one was hilarious.
Her method of redirecting Lucy and Tim’s attention was to bring up Aston, who she knew was trying to hire an assassin to kill her husband.
It was a busy day for Lucy and Tim, and more good times came when Bradford had to go undercover as the hitman. Lucy ragging on Tim for his clothes (and making that apt Lifetime dig) only served to give us a shirtless Tim as she wired him and tried not to look at his glorious body.
I mean, it was pointless as heck, but Winter is aesthetically pleasing to the eyes, so there are certainly no complaints here. And no one could blame Aston for trying to shoot her shot while hiring a man to take out her husband.
For a moment, it was unclear if she was soliciting Bradford as a sex worker or something or to kill her husband, but you have to respect a woman who’s trying to kill two birds with one stone.
Pardon the pun and all.
It was the weakest plot of the hour, but Nolan’s umpteenth kidnapping attempted to give it a run for its money.
After that massive explosion, somehow, you’d have anticipated more excitement surrounding this arson case. Instead, there was zero momentum with this storyline for the majority of the hour.
And then all of it came in the last 15 minutes, and I do mean, and there’s no exaggeration when one mentions how they painstakingly used all 15 of those minutes on Marcus and Nolan.
The rest of the events in the hour abruptly took a backseat so we could watch a predictable unsub (oops, Marcus was a classic Criminal Minds bad guy, so the language flows naturally) chase Nolan around a construction warehouse cackling like a comic book villain.
Marcus is the only other character they introduced throughout this case, so of course, he was the real killer. They showed their hand with ease when they shared that he had access to Fred’s home and would enter whenever he felt like it. He stood out, hanging around for the sake of it, despite his not sharing the same profession.
Bailey got some relief in learning that Fred wasn’t the guilty person as he seemed. Marcus didn’t do the greatest job of setting him up.
We have a deal, remember? I run towards fires. You run towards bullets. Time to run toward bullets.
Bailey
Fortunately, Fred’s name is in the clear.
But it took longer than it should’ve for Nolan to figure out Marcus was the serial killer. And when he did, for some dumb reason, he stood in the middle of the street and tried to call it in when he noticed Marcus’ bruising.
You couldn’t even feel badly for Nolan when Marcus ran him over with the car. It was cliche.
Ironically, Lucy brought up that Aston’s hitman quest was that of a woman who watched too many Lifetime movies. Still, during this hour, Nolan’s entire plot felt like he was the damsel/heroine in one of those Saturday night popcorn thrillers that the network is known to have in heavy rotation.
The woman gets her idea about crime from Lifetime movies.
Lucy
Marcus roofied Nolan, transported him to this warehouse, and proceeded to behave like a certified lunatic in the most cartoonish way imaginable.
He wasn’t even a terrifying villain or a funny or interesting one. He was annoying as all hell. He talked way too much, and he came across as one of those types that would deliver a two-minute monologue before he did anything.
At some point, you wanted him to go through with what he intended for Nolan or get caught, whatever it took to move along the plot.
The game of chase and hide and seek lasted longer than it needed. Any suspense created, they killed as the scenes dragged on with Marcus laughing like a madman and randomly pulling out guns.
He was sadistic and ridiculous at the same time.
Nolan got his poetic justice when he hit him with the car and called it in, but one couldn’t care less by then.
They insist on Nolan as the show’s Mary Sue, but for the love of everything good, maybe they should hold off on people kidnapping his character or holding him hostage. It’s gotten old.
Wesley’s portion of the hour was the only exciting part. He’s in it way too deep with Elijah, and it spiraled out of control in the worst way yet.
Lately it seems all of your clients are on Elijah Stone’s payroll.
Grey
The stress was getting to him, and everything was closing in on him, too.
Grey’s pulling Wesley aside to let him know he noticed some off things about Wesley, and his connection with Elijah came as a genuine surprise.
Grey is intelligent and very little flies under his radar, but his blunt confrontation with Wesley was unexpected. Wesley went from the guy who defended the underdogs to what Grey compared to a mob lawyer.
You would think Elijah would’ve considered how shady it looked that Wesley’s clientele shifted drastically. West was determined to let Wesley know that he’d help him through whatever was going on if he got himself in trouble for the sake of Angela, who he cares about as if she’s his sister.
It sucked that Wesley didn’t take advantage of that offer when he had the chance. It would’ve saved him bruised ribs and one of the most harrowing days yet while working under Elijah.
The threats don’t disappear. It’s no way of getting from underneath this as long as he gives into Elijah, and Wesley will spend the rest of his (potentially short) life in fear at the rate this is going.
He’s also blurring the ethical and moral lines more and more for Elijah, compromising himself and his career. He set up a witness, had them arrested for an illegal firearm they possessed in their home. And he did all that to protect the cousin of Elijah’s wife.
But Elijah can turn on the drop of a hat. It’s disturbing that Elijah’s failure to understand what Wesley did by getting the witness arrested, preventing them from testifying, and keeping Elijah from killing the person, had Elijah and his sidekick beating Wesley in a parking garage with bats.
Wesley: Angela…
Angela: What’s wrong?
Wesley: I screwed up. I need help.
As much as Elijah can comment on Wesley’s poor communication, it goes both ways. He jumped to conclusions, and he nearly killed Wesley for that. You can’t work for someone that unstable.
Surprisingly, Angela didn’t figure out anything when Wesley snapped at her after forgetting the food. But she knew something was wrong when he came into the house looking defeated and favoring his side.
It was time for Wesley to tell her the truth, and she’d be pissed to hear what he sacrificed for her and how long it took for him to share the news.
But Wesley is in over his head, and his badass wife is one of the few people who can figure this out and save him. The only real way they can do that and free Wesley is to take Elijah down.
Bailey: You got him.
Nolan: I told you I would.
Over to you, Rookie Fanatics.
Was this a weaker episode to you? Are you relieved Wesley is finally telling Angela? Do you think something will prevent him from getting it out? Hit the comments below.
The series doesn’t return until December 5, but if you want to relive the season while you wait, you can watch The Rookie online here via TV Fanatic.
Jasmine Blu is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.