‘The Rookie’ Season 2, Episode 14 ‘Casualties’ Review: Black Ops

The Rookie is no stranger to high-stress, high-risk operations. Recently, one of their survives an attempt on her life. This time, everything seems normal; at least to an LAPD cop’s perspective. However, things quickly take the fast route to danger as one case leads to another with National Security risks.

On Sunday’s episode of The Rookie, Detective Nick Armstrong (Harold Perrineau) returns to work after vacation. Initially, Officers Tim Bradford (Eric Winter), Lucy Chen (Melissa O’Neil), Angela Lopez (Alyssa Diaz), and Jackson West (Titus Makin Jr.) work on strange, mundane cases. However, LAPD’s finest soon takes on a Black Ops mission as Detective Nyla Harper (Mekia Cox) and Officer John Nolan (Nathan Fillion) stumbles upon a mysterious dead body.

Added Responsibility

Richard Cartwright/ABC

Before we discuss what went down on the field, we take a look at their lives at home, specifically Lucy and Jackson’s. Jackson wakes up to a pitbull coming out of nowhere who turns out to be Lucy’s new pet, Kojo. Throughout the shift, Jackson rants to Angela about how Lucy not discussing getting a dog with him. To make things worse, Lucy receives a call from their neighbor about Kojo. She and Tim then arrive at her ruined apartment, including Jackson’s room.

Although Kojo did destroy Jackson’s stuff, he handles it with a cool head. Sure, Lucy had to give Kojo away but luckily, the recipient is no other than Tim himself. The same person who disagreed with Lucy having a dog is now the guy who takes care of Kojo, happily walking him down LA’s streets.

Stress Reduction

John Fleenor/ABC

After quite some time, the show brings back the spotlight on John’s case as a 40-Year-Old rookie. Things with him and college sweetheart Dr. Grace Sawyer (Ali Larter) are going great, but Grace notices something about John. While being a cop made him physically fit, it also takes its toll on him in terms of stress, elevating his blood pressure. Usually, cops under the stress he is in are in their prime 20’s, so John had to find a way to destress.

Once again, John becomes the roll call’s subject of laughs as the device that monitors his blood pressure did its trick on him. Also, it frequently notified him throughout the day. Eventually, John heeds the advice of someone least expected: Officer Smitty (Brent Huff). As seen in the image, John and Grace have a great time practicing goat yoga at the end of the episode.

Homeless Veteran

Ron Batzdorff/ABC

Now to the serious stuff. Nolan and Harper find a dead body during their pursuit of a fleeing suspect. Unfortunately, they soon identify the body as Joe Dela Cruz, a war veteran. They soon find Joe’s hotel room and later his roommate, Mitch (John Siciliano), also a war veteran and member of Tim’s squad during his time in Afghanistan. Mitch had a prosthetic leg as a result of the war and Tim blamed himself this.

One thing that Tim could do is solving Joe’s murder, so he does alongside the others. However, Tim receives true closure not after cracking the case. At the end of the episode, Tim takes a walk with Mitch, offering his army buddy a job. Men like Tim and Mitch often prefer to hide their emotions, but this time, Mitch reassures Tim that what happened to him was not his fault. It is in moments like this where the show perfectly humanizes its characters using real-life situations.

Black Ops

Ron Batzdorff/ABC

Harper and Nolan’s murder case becomes something more than they anticipated. It turns into something Sergeant Wade Grey (Richard T. Jones) warned them about during roll call: a possible blue-versus-blue situation. Sergeant Grey himself orders them back to the station as they followed up on the lead. All that Grey could say is that the murder case is linked to an agency way high up the chain, so they need to walk away. Of course, that is not what any of them did, not with an innocent man’s murder unsolved.

The lead from Mitch tells them that Joe found stacks of money in the warehouse where his body was found. He got lucky the first time, hence his and Mitch’s hotel reservation and new clothes. However, The second time Joe snuck in was his last time as whoever owned the money took him out. Eventually, the LAPD finds out that the money Joe and Mitch had was counterfeit. Also, they found out who they are dealing with: the Defense Intelligence Agency. The man disguised as a camera repairman, Norman Jangus (Roger Cross) goes as far as visiting Nolan’s home to deliver a warning. Still, Nolan and the others knew that the DIA will do something like that so they track him from there.

At the docks, they find the rest of the counterfeit money as Mitch described. Jangus and his crew eventually catch them, but the team prepared for such an event with having Lopez train her sights on Jangus’ chest. With that said, the two sides make a deal. Jangus hands over Pettigrew (Torrey Drake), Joe’s killer and in turn, the team lets them carry on with their business. Sometimes, bending the rules serves the purpose of upholding the law, despite how contradictory that sounds.

‘The Rookie’ Season 2, Episode 14 ‘Casualties’ Final Verdict

The Rookie plays with situations not unheard of in cop shows. However, it does tweak such stories, refining them to suit the show’s well-achieved realism portrayal. Also, it brings back the show’s initial premise, highlighting the main character’s ways of keeping up with his peers. The cherry on top of every episode remains present as one of their toughest breaks character that essentially sums up what the show is about: cops can feel.

The Rookie continues Sunday, March 22nd with ‘Hand-Off’ at 9/8c on ABC.