The Rookie Season 1 Episode 9: Standoff Review

For our review of the last episode of The Rookie, click here.

Synopsis: Officer Bradford’s wife, Isabel, is found shot but alive and he vows to track down the man responsible. Meanwhile, Officer Nolan must protect his home and the truth after a home invasion attack. (TVGuide)

Writer: Alexi Hawley

Director: John Terlesky

Rating: TV-14

Running Time: 43mins

Airs: Tuesdays at 10pm on CTV (Canada)/ABC (United States)

“Standoff”starts off with Nolan on the floor at gunpoint in front of Kyle Montgomery. He quickly kicks his foot causing the gun to misfire beside Nolan’s head as the two men engage in a fistfight. Lucy emerges with her gun, but can’t get a clear line of sight so Nolan flips over and kicks Kyle through a large glass window. After the botched sting, Bradford apologizes to Lopez for his actions and is scared of what Isabel’s fate is. Bishop and the detectives find her, but she’s shot and not doing well. Back at Nolan’s house, he calls in the break-in and arrest, but Chen starts to freak out about how this can tie back to their relationship. He tells her to run away before anyone shows up so they can keep it a secret.

West’s father and Captain Anderson arrive to question Nolan about the events of the night and he makes sure to exclude Chen’s involvement. He’s later called into the Captain’s office and told that the investigation into Alex’s murder is over and it was cleared as a justifiable homicide, but what happened with Kyle is now being investigated. They decide to put him on desk duty until everything is cleared up. Nolan meets with Officer Yamada and learns the ins-and-outs of desk duty, down to the titillating job of keeping stamps within the designated lines.

Meanwhile, Grey sits down with Bradford to check in on him and reassures him that Isabel is a fighter. Detectives Wolf and Vestri question Isabel’s drug dealing boyfriend, who isn’t too upset about her fate, but they blackmail him into making him a walking human target if he doesn’t help them. He caves and gives them the location of Vance’s girlfriend so everyone gears up to take on this heavy hitter. Chen pulls Bradford aside and apologizes for what happened to Isabel, but he’s concerned with the current task and asks her to grab the Bradford special.

West is pulled aside by his father who questions Nolan’s mental health and what is really going on, but he assures his father that Nolan is the most sane and stable officer from his class. Back to Nolan, who is dealing with police complaints and the newest issue is a violent, divorced couple having to use the station as a proxy to drop off their kid. The woman leaves to work while Nolan is entrusted with watching over her son until his father arrives. While he’s looking for crayons for the kid, Commander West pulls him aside for a little conversation.

They sit down in the interrogation room and he asks if Nolan lured Kyle to his house to attack him, but he says no. West seems content with the answer until he brings up that Kyle had heard another voice at the house and questions if Nolan lied to him, but he again says no. At the desk, Officer Yamada asks Nolan if he’s doing okay before taking the kid out for some food. Just as they leave, the father arrives to pick up his kid, but Nolan notices he is intoxicated and decides to make him stay for a few hours until he’s sobered up.

The team arrives at the apartment complex to find Cesiah Olivo. They go door-to-door trying to find her until Bradford and Chen find a very pregnant Cesiah who feels trapped in her situation. Bradford reassures her that he will make sure that Vance is dealt with and that convinces Cesiah to call him to come over. Vance is hiding in another apartment in the building and hears Bishop at the door, but as she becomes suspicious he starts to fire.

None of the teams can get into contact with a radio jammer in the basement, but they all engage in firefights with Vance’s men. Vance makes his way to Cesiah’s apartment and threatens Bradford and Chen, but they aren’t giving up that easily. Talia sneaks off into the apartment of an older couple seeking treatment for her injured arm and thankfully they have tons of medical supplies. Lopez and West manage to make their way into another resident’s apartment, but find the only exit is the door back into the hallway. And to make things worse, Vance’s men are preparing to break in and Cesiah’s water breaks.

Bradford decides to improvise and fires both their firearms out into the hallway causing a bit of a stalemate between the two parties allowing Chen to shift her focus to delivering Cesiah’s baby. West and Lopez learn from the resident that no one living there really likes Vance and that they could turn off the power in the basement. Lopez discovers they don’t need to make their way outside, but bust through the walls to make their way to the elevator shaft.

Detectives Wolfe and Vestri enter the building through the elevator, but they are ambushed. Luckily, Bishop notices and intervenes before dragging them back to the apartment she was hiding in. Bishop manages to cauterize Wolfe’s burst artery, but they need to get him to a hospital for some proper treatment. West and Lopez descend to the basement and shut off the power allowing Bishop to call in for backup.

Again Nolan is confronted by Commander West who urges him to amend his statement and tell the truth, but Nolan continues to say his statement has always been true. He sits down with Wendell and explains he lied about his father and reveals he is just sobering up in the other room. He decides to confront Commander West about what happened, but he is interrupted by the call for backup. With West’s son one of the officers involved, Nolan is taken off desk duty to help with the situation.

Back at the apartment complex, Chen delivers Cesiah’s baby, but Bradford notices something off about the hallway. He realizes they are making their way around a different way, but it’s too late and Chen is shot in the chest. Luckily she was wearing her Bradford special breastplate and they both engage in a fistfight with the assailants. Unfortunately, Vance is able to escape, but he is quickly grabbed by Grey and armed officers. With West and Lopez pinned in the basement, they feel hopeless until Commander West, Nolan and a tactical team take the staircase and rescue them.

As the men are arrested and Cesiah is taken to the hospital, Wolfe asks about Vestri, but Bishop knows he didn’t make it. Grey gives Bradford the opportunity to talk to Vance and tell him who he is, who Isabel is and that Vance is going to prison for the rest of his life. Back at the precinct, Nolan wants to talk with Chen about their story and how Commander West is suspicious. He wants to come clean, but Chen doesn’t want this one instance to screw up their opportunity to do good. He’s called into the Captain’s office where Commander West clears him of the Kyle Montgomery incident and reinstates him. The episode ends as Bradford goes to the hospital and rekindles a bit of something with Isabel while Nolan and Chen share a beer over his reinstatement and their attempt to return to something normal.

Captain’s Log

• Will Nolan and Chen get back together at some point?
• Will Bishop and Lopez fight for the now vacant detective position?
• What is the family drama in the West house?
• Will Isabel testify?
• Will Grey and Nolan become reluctant friends?
• Which rookie won’t make it the year?
• Does Commander West trust Nolan?

Overall, Standoff was a good return episode. After the huge fall finale cliffhanger, there were big shoes for this show’s next episode to fill and while it wasn’t as emotionally impactful, it still had a lot of thrilling, edge-of-your-seat action. With this type of show so early in its run, it’s impossible to know how safe a character is so the situation from this week brought the stakes to an all-time high. After back-to-back very intense episodes, I expect the next few to be more character-centric episodic stories and with how this show has progressed so far, I’m not mad with that.

Score: 8.5/10

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