Is Chenford Heating Up Again in ‘The Rookie’?
The episode opens with Lucy Chen (Melissa O’Neill) arriving at Tim Bradford’s (Eric Winter) house with the brilliant idea of using April Fool’s Day as a “hall pass.” She claims they’re not actually together, but a 24-hour window that allows them to hook up is the perfect excuse for a little romance. If anyone thinks they’re back together, they can simply claim it’s an April Fool’s joke. Despite the mayhem that’s unfolding around them throughout the day, they do manage to get in a quick make-out session at the station before the April 1 deadline expires. But the two (sorta) lovebirds are not as discreet as they think.
By briefly touching hands at roll call, Celina Juarez (Lisseth Chavez) is quickly onto them. She confronts Lucy by claiming she’s glowing, but Lucy maintains nothing is going on with Tim. At the end of the episode, Sgt. Wade Grey (Richard T. Jones) calls Chenford into his office to reprimand them for dating again without notifying anyone. They protest that it’s just an April Fool’s joke, and then Grey clutches his chest and nearly collapses. Just as it seems that Grey is succumbing to a heart attack, he lands a one-two punch: he’s merely pulling off his own April Fool’s prank and is perfectly fine. That should teach Chenford to play with our hearts.
Wesley Is Tasked With Covering a Difficult Case in ‘The Rookie’ Season 7 Episode 12
Wesley Evers (Shawn Ashmore) is given a case that has an apt name for April Fool’s. Ben Dover (yep, that’s his name) is being charged with murder, and Wesley has 24 hours to decide whether he should take the case to trial or not. Wesley asks his better half, Angela Lopez (Alyssa Diaz), for help. Along with Nyla Harper (Mekia Cox), the trio discover that the victim was killed in a parking garage, and an eyewitness saw Dover on the scene. She also claims to have seen him drop something in a nearby garbage can — exactly where the murder weapon was later recovered. But something seems amiss when they interview the witness. It appears she has been coached by the lead detective on the case. He angrily confronts Nyla and Angela, but through expert detective work, they discover that he was actually having an affair with the wife of the murder victim. He killed his competition and then blackmailed the witness to cover his tracks. He tries to come after Nyla and Angela, but they’re still able to apprehend him, officially putting an end to the Ben Dover case.
‘The Rookie’ Season 7 Episode 12 Features Nolan Taking on a Challenging New Recruit
John Nolan (Nathan Fillion) expresses early on that he has no love for April Fool’s Day, but this episode will likely make him even less of a fan. He’s given a new rookie to train named Connor Craig (David Gridley), who has transferred over from the West Valley precinct. At first, Nolan thinks it’s another prank (there are tons of balls flying out of lockers, and one officer’s desk is completely covered in tin foil), but Grey assures him it was a legitimate last-minute transfer. It’s clear from the very beginning that even though Connor says he has 12 months of training, this rookie is a disaster out in the field. He almost causes an accident while driving, somehow manages to hit his head on the side of the shop when he drops his pen, and incorrectly writes a traffic ticket so that it looks like he’s given himself the citation.
A Social Media Intern Shakes Up Los Angeles
Libby’s response to her firing leads to an all-out crisis in the city. She posts on the LAPD account: “City of LA: For the next three hours, ALL CRIME IS LEGAL. Go nuts, and don’t call us.” Just like in those terrifying Purge movies, crime breaks out across Los Angeles. The purge alerts can’t be removed until the IT department can hack into the system, which could take hours. The 9-1-1 system is swamped, and looting, robberies, and assaults start taking place everywhere. Ironically, Libby herself gets caught up in the crime wave she created. An active shooter appears in the building she’s in, and SWAT has to come in and rescue her. In a wild shootout, Tim, Celina, and Lucy are all attacked in the bedlam. Luckily, they end up taking down the baddies, but Tim takes this opportunity to arrest Libby. He says, “You were at the clerk’s office filing a wrongful termination lawsuit against the LAPD after instigating mass violence…You’re not the victim; you caused all of this.” Although Libby still doesn’t seem like she understands what she has unleashed, at least Tim gets to put her in her place.
Connor Is Able To Redeem Himself in ‘The Rookie’ Season 7 Episode 12
The Rookie, at its core, is always about the upstarts getting a chance to prove themselves as cops. Connor gets an opportunity to do just that when he and Nolan get alerted to shots being fired at Teddy and Anita’s house. The streets are filled with criminals wearing masks, causing destruction. When they arrive at the home, they find Teddy shot to death outside his car. At first, they think the mob did this to him, but Connor makes an astute observation. Teddy’s car seat has been moved forward, which means someone shorter (like Anita) was the last one driving. She more than likely staged the entire thing. Before they can secure the crime scene, the mob appears in the alley. There’s a brief scuffle with them, and Nolan instructs Connor to grab a glass near Teddy’s body and then run.
Back at the station, Connor and Nolan explain to Grey that Anita wanted them to think the mob had killed her husband when she was the one who took him down. Grey mentions that he knew the officers had to do a “tactical retreat.” When Connor asks if that just means running away, Nolan hilariously explains, “Yeah, but it just sounds cooler when you say it that way.” Justice has still been served despite the officers having to make a quick exit. The Purge criminals who surrounded Teddy’s body took a bunch of selfies with him, which made it super easy to identify them, and Anita was located and apprehended at a nearby train station. Because of Connor’s investigative skills and his bravery on the scene, Grey decides to allow him to continue in the rookie program, but he does opt to transfer him to a quieter division to finish out his training.
