Heartwarming / The Rookie (2018)

Unmarked Spoilers Ahead

Season One

1x07 - "The Ride Along"

• When Payne talks about how he feels that no one really cares about the movies he's made, Nolan tells him how his films helped him bond with Henry when the boy was young.
• Realizing his insensitive actions towards the troubled boy from the neighborhood, Payne tries to make amends by offering to pay for the boy’s treatment. It unfortunately went sideways when the brother demands everything he has in his safe, but it is still the thought that counts.

1x11 - “Redwood”

• Lopez and West disobey their orders to stay at their post with the snipers protecting the Vice President’s route to go assist Nolan and Bishop who are currently under fire from a group of criminals before being tasked with bringing a gunshot wounded victim to the hospital.
  • When this is brought to his attention by the fuming head agent, Grey says that Lopez and West made the right choice, as he taught them to make educated assessments when it came to engaging threats, and that protecting people currently in danger is more important to protecting someone not in danger.
• Arriving at the hospital, West notices Chen in the waiting room, awaiting for her lab results after accidentally getting a hypodermic needle. Seeing that she is anxious, West decides to sit and wait with her.
• While he does end up deciding to let his ex-wife sell their house, Nolan is surprised and overjoyed that his son Henry sent him the door jam that he used to measure the boy’s height.

1x13 - "Caught Stealing"

• Nolan decides that he can't live in Ben's house for free and insists on paying rent. While he asssures him that it's not a big deal, Ben agrees to Nolan's request, on the condition that rent should be whatever is within Nolan' income.

1x15 - "Plain Clothes Day"

• One of the items that Jackson was able to give back to the widow was a broken watch. The widow is touched to have it back, as it was a gift she had gotten her late husband for their first wedding anniversary
• While Bradford predicted that Chen would second-guess every decision during Plain Clothes Day, he was very impressed to see that she really came through in the end.

1x16 - "Green Light"

• When Nolan is sent home after the department learns a hit has been put on him, Chen and West volunteer to spend the night at his place to keep him company.
• The following day, Nolan chooses to return to the station to get back on patrol, regardless of the hit placed on him. As he walks in, Tim is the first of the cops in the room to stand up and applaud Nolan.
• In response to Andersen's death, Grey immediately goes to the prison, and angrily demands that Leonard Midas to give up Cole's location. Considering how he was able to keep his cool when he came earlier in the episode, Grey being ready to destroy this crime lord's whole operation really shows how much respect he had for Andersen.
• As he tells the rest of the officers of the plan to apprehend Cole Midas, Grey insists that he is just as upset about Andersen's death, but reminds them that they still have a job to finish. And while he would love nothing more than to see Cole dead, he knows that Andersen would have wanted them to finish the job the right way by arresting the man for his crimes.
• When Nolan starts to blame himself for Captain Andersen's death and should have just stayed out of sight when he got the hit on him. Bishop assures him that it is not his fault, and that Captain Andersen died doing her job the best way she knew how.
• Wesley, who has been giving Lopez the cold shoulder after she looked through his phone a few episodes ago, finally calls her and the two start to reconcile.
• When the LAPD team finally has Cole surrounded, Sgt. Grey lets Nolan be the one to arrest the man. While Bishop respectfully protests, Grey says that it has to be Nolan, as it was the only way for the rookie to get past his guilt over Andersen's death.
• When arresting the Midas, Nolan does it professionally, remembering how Andersen had taught him that as a police officer, it is not his job to punish Cole, but to make sure to bring him to be punished.
• In the final scene, Nolan fondly recounts to Grey about how he had embarrassed himself when he first met Andersen after being tricked by Lopez and Bishop. In response, Grey tells Nolan that it was Andersen who had him assigned to Mid-Wilshire in the first place, as she believed that his experience as an older rookie would be a valuable asset to the department.

1x17 - "The Shake Up"

• When Lucy's mom calls her to tell her that her father is in the hospital after one of his patients broke his arm during one of their sessions, she promises to go check on him after her shift, only for Bishop to immediately tell her that they can go their now. Chen then askss if it is okay for them to go while still on shift, Bishop assures it is fine as it is a family emergency, and calls for another officer to transfer their prisoner so they can get to the hospital.

Season Two

2x02 - "The Night General"

• After he is evicted from his apartment following his landlord's arrest, Jackson spends most of the episode trying to find a new place to live with very little success. When she learns of his predicament, Chen invites him to move into her apartment.

2x04 - "Warrior and Guardians"

• Bradford in particular is wary of Detective Harper, so he tells Nolan that if he finds himself in a compromising position with her to text Chen. He adds that the reason he's saying this because it bothers him when training rookies should be treated professionally.
• Karin Arnoux tells Lopez that despite her paralysis, she still has a good life, having met her husband during her phyical therapy, and now raising two boys. While she initially was angry at Alice for being responsible for her injury, she later feels sympathy for her upon learning the woman had a breakdown and became homeless out of guilt, and asks if she could stand up for the woman during her trial.

2x05 - "Tough Love"

• Impressed with how he and Lopez flipped the FBI informant, Gray finally lets West wear short sleeves, allowing the young rookie to move up with Nolan and Chen in their training.

2x06 - "Fallout"

• Rachel manages to convince Bradford to take it easy on Chen for the day, as she predicted that Chen will be a bit depressed because she received invitation to the wedding of her former best friend and ex-boyfriend. His way of going easy on her: letting her drive the shop for the first time and not calling out her mistakes in front of others. Chen eventually catches on, but it is the thought that counts.
• Wesley calling Lopez when the missile alert comes in, with him assuring her that it will be a false alarm.
• When she gets the missile alert, the first thing Harper does is pick her daughter up from school and bring her to the police station to keep her safe, knowing that her actions could have serious consequences since she does not have custody of her.
• Later, her ex, Donovan arrives at the station, furious at Harper for taking Lila from the school and demands to have her arrested for parental abduction. Grey tries to reason with the man, reminding him of the missile situation. When that doesn't calm Donovan down, Nolan steps in, having finally realized what was going on, and tells Donovan that Harper has changed. He brings up that there was no way she would have used her golden ticket to go back to blues and be a training officer unless it was for a reason, and seeing Lila, he knows that Harper swallowed her pride and sacrificed a chance to move up in her career for her daughter's sake.
• Harper assures Donovan that while she is really trying to be better and she is going to make mistakes along the way, her number one priority will always be their daughter's safety.
• Before he takes her home, Donovan realizes that he was too hard on Harper, and tells Lila to go give her a hug. Harper is touched by this as Lila gives her a warm hug.
• After Donovan and Lila leave, Harper thanks Nolan for sticking up for her.
• Even when she and West should simply go to the nearest underground shelter, Lopez refuses to abandon the group of kids standing on the ledge of a building, awaiting for aliens to take them away.

2x10

• Grey and Armstrong commending the team on the work they did, and even though they weren't able to catch Rosalind's protege killer, Grey affirms that they did not fail as their actions saved a woman's life.

2x11 - "Day of Death

• Worried about Wesley after he almost seemingly O'D, Lopez already goes and calls in sick to be with him, even though he insists that he doesn't need someone to watch him.
  • However, when Bradford calls to inform her about Lucy's abduction, Lopez is ready to drop everything to get back to the station.
  • Wesley tells her to go without him, but when she tells him about Lucy's abduction and she needs him there at the station so she focus on the investigation, he almost immediately gets off the couch to get dressed. While at the station, Wesley even offers to help by handling the calls from the public regarding Lucy's disappearance.
• When trying to determine what happened to Lucy after she was kidnapped, Armstrong presents the possibility that she could already be dead. Harper immediately shoots this scenario down. Despite not having known her that long, she believes Chen to be a fighter who will try everything possible to stay alive until they can find her.
• Throughout the episode, Chen's abduction really brings out a lot of growing concern from Bradford, as he is a bit more aggressive when he is interrogating the criminals who have information that could help them find her. He even tells Lopez about how he feels responsible for pushing Chen towards Caleb and how he should have seen the man coming. Lopez assures him that there was no way he could have predicted that some random guy like Caleb would have been Rosalind's accompolice.
• Bradford is the first to find the spot where Chen is buried and starts digging with his hands as he calls the others for help. After successfully revitalizing her, the first thing he does is embrace Lucy while she breaks down in tears.
• Even though he says he didn't, Bradford clearly stayed by Chen's bedside at the hospital all night.
• Nolan brings Chen a large stuffed pink teddy bear.
• When Chen says she could really eat some food, Bradford immediately pulls out a bag of food consisting of Chen's favorites: a veggie burger and fries with extra pickles.
• Gaining some perspective from Lucy's situation, Wesley has decided to face his internal anxiety and panic attacks properly by going to therapy, promising Angela that he will ask for help if he ever starts to get panicky again.

2x11 - "Now and Then"

• When she comes in for roll call, Chen is greeted with a round of applause by the rest of officers for having survived what she went through last episode, even though she had asked Nolan to tell them not to.
• Before going on patrol, Harper convinces Bradford to let Chen ride with her for the week, insisting that the recovering rookie should be riding with someone who has experienced what she went through. Considering how much of a lone wolf she is, Harper clearly cares about Chen and wants to make sure that she is going to be okay in the field.
• Throughout the episode, Bradford keeps asking about how Chen's doing.
• When Chen tells her that she can't understand what she's going through, Harper tells her about a time she was taken advantage of by her UC handler, something that she had never even told her ex.
• The hardly impressed Bradford actually seems to think Abigail has what it takes to be a cop, and was even prepared to put in a good word in for her at the police academy before being informed of her criminal past, and even then, he expresses that she seemed like a really great candidate.

2x15 - "Hand Off"

• Realizing the errors of his ways and wanting to repay Nolan for saving his life even after he robbed him, Jordan gifts him with a secret comic book collection that used his stolen money to purchase, which would be more than enough to restore Nolan's credit and his son's tuition.
• At the hearing for the parole of the man who killed Grey's partner, Grey witnesses the man interacting with his son. During the hearing, Grey says that while he has not been able to forgive the man, he hopes that if given a second chance, that the man will do right by his son.

2x15 - "The Overnight"

• At Lila's insistence, Donovan has Harper investigate some strange activities going on around their home.
• At the end of the episode, Harper tells Donovan that he's a great dad, especially with everything they had to go through. She also thanks him for not demonizing her to Lila, as the girl still looks up to her.
• When Donovan tells Harper that he really isn't seeing anyone, she tells him that he really should.

Season Three

3x02- "In Justice"

• Upon seeing that the person who stole her car was a homeless teen that lost her parents, Chen tries to help her get a safe place to live. When the teen refuses to stay at the nearby shelter, Chen decides to let her keep the car until she finds a place.

3x03 "La Fiera"

• Sergeant Grey can't deal with the fact that a monster like Stanton would get away with his racist crimes and decides to stand against him, regardless of the cost to his career.

3x04 - "Sabotage"

• Grey comes to West telling him that he is all for getting Staunton off the force for his racist behavior, and already has a plan in motion to help West.
• When getting an angry call from Grey about his mother's selling Luna skin cream, Nolan arrives at the police station to apologize for his mother's actions, only for Luna to interrupt him, saying that Grey needs to apologize for jumping to the conclusion that Nolan's mom was a con artist.
• Later when they discover the cream is defective, Luna still defends Nolan to Grey, saying it would not be fair for him to be punished for his own mother's actions, having experienced a similar situation with her own father.
• When hearing about the difficult situation that he is in with his mother, Luna gives Nolan some advice about finding his boundaries with her, as she had a similar situation with her father that he has.

3x05 - "Lockdown"

• West clicking the microphone in the shop three times to commemorate the bomb threat at the station being cleared...followed by half a dozen other shops over the radio clicking their own mics, long-distance high-fiving one another.
• Grey telling West that he's proud of him after taking a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown in his fight to get Stanton out of power.

3x06- Revelations

• For an assignment about gender roles in the workforce, Tamara asks Lucy if she could interview her about her job as a police officer, which Lucy feels very touched. When Lucy ended up missing their intended time to do the interview, she apologizes to Tamara, saying that she got tied up at work, promising to make up to her that night, which she does by bringing Harper and Beth with her so Tamara can interview all of them.

3x08 - "Bad Blood"

• While they both were a bit controlling on the subject, it was nice that both Grey and Percy saw that West had great potential in his future career in two separate departments.

3x10 - "Man of Honor"

• Ben returns to LA to celebrate the rookies promotion.
• West's family take him out to a steak dinner to celebrate him graduating from rookie to police officer
• When an emotional Lopez is upset about her bridesmaids pressuring her to pick a dress that hides her baby bump, Bradford tells her not to be ashamed about being pregnant and to wear whatever makes her feel comfortable.
• Despite it being his day off, Bradford helps Lopez with picking out her wedding dress. By the end of the Day, Lopez makes him her Man of Honor.
• For their part in saving Alice's daughter, Grey puts West and Chen up for to received the Distinguished Service Medal.
• When West suspects something is up with Chen, he calls her mom for answers, who informs him of what was said between the women. Disgusted by her behavior, he tells Mrs. Chen that she is not allowed to come back to the apartment until she apologizes to Lucy. And on behalf of his family, he gifts Lucy with a St. Michael necklace like they had gotten for him, just to remind her that there are people who are proud of her and her accomplishments.

3x11 - "New Blood"

• When Tamara's cousin kicks her out of his house, Lucy insists that the teen stays at her apartment until her new place is ready. When Tamara says that she doesn't have to do that for her, Lucy tells her that she dies, because they are like family now.
• Patrice apologizes to Lopez for being a bit too controlling when it comes to the wedding planning, and that she is excited that Lopez is officially joining the family.
• The episode shows that Tim’s method in teaching his rookies are based on what he believes they need. He explains to Lucy that he was tough on her to help prepare her for the real world that is out to get her, and he was a bit softer on Barnes because he knew that the woman was a bit shell-shocked, and needed her to know that not everyone is out to get her.
• Bradford also gives a bit of praise to Chen, saying that with the right training, Officer Barnes could be just as good as her.
• Even though Barnes ends up resigning from the precinct, Bradford tells her that if she changes her mind, she will always have a place here.

Season Four

4x01 - "Life and Death"

• How every responds to West's death.
  • Grey in particular is devastated by West's death. When he has the murderer cornered, he tells him that he killed someone who was like a son to him.
• Seeing that she has conflicted about going back to her apartment after Jackson was murdered, Bradford lets Chen sleep at his place for the night.
• A desperate Wesley was willing to cut a deal with a notorious crimelord for information on where Angela is located in Guatemala, knowing that he would have to compromise his morals and become a crooked lawyer for the crimelord.
• When Lopez and Wesley return from the hospital three months later, they are treated to a welcome home party by the rest of the team, who gift them with a second fridge, filled with food for themselves and the baby.
• Angela and Wesley name their newborn son Jack in honor of Jackson.
• Angela mentions that her mom and Wesley's mom get along together while watching baby Jack.

4x02 - "Five Minutes"

• In light of West's passing, Chen has Tamara move into his old room at her apartment. After spending most of the previous season being jumped around from the street to temporary housing, Tamara finally has a permanent place to live.
  • Both ladies are having mixed feelings about the transition. Tamara in particular feels that she is erasing West's memory every time she changes something in his room. Chen insists that West would want something good to come out of what happened.

4x06 - Poetic Justice

• Bradford has to convince Jerry Mc Grady, the oldest officer in the department, to finally retire. At first it seems like the setup for a comedy sketch; a young man has to tolerate an old codger while he bumbles around all day. But it turns out Mc Grady is still a pretty sharp officer, if no longer as physically able as he used to be. He gives Bradford crucial help solving a really big case, and in the end accepts his retirement gracefully. He ends his career on a high note and is honored by the whole department as his last shift comes to an end.

4x11- End Game

• When Lopez's homicide victim turns out to be a friend of Tamara's from the street, Lucy and Tim return to the apartment, as Tamara is their only lead to find out what happened. Knowing that the news would be devastating for Tamara, Bradford tells Chen to deliver the it not as a cop, but as her friend, and to tag him in if it becomes a bit too much for her handle.
• After seeing what happened to her friend Beca, Tamara thanks Chen for everything that she has done to help her get out of the streets, knowing that the very same thing could have happened to her.

4x17- Coding

• For moral support, Tamara accompanies Lucy to the DA's office to testify Caleb's crimes in order to add few more life sentences to Rosalind.

4x21 - "Mother's Day"

• Evelyn, spends her time at the police station while the gang tries to recover her stolen pearls. In the meantime, she speaks to a few of the cops and gives them a bit of pep talk. In one scene, she talks with Chen, who is still feeling a bit uneasy about the holiday, considering how strained her relationship with her mother is. Patrice says that it sounds like Chen's mother is a piece of work, and that it was not for Chen to make amends with the woman if she was the one that has caused a rift in the relationship.
• Wesley feeling guilty about oversleeping on Lopez's first Mother's Day, and makes it up to her by watching their baby son for the day, even bringing him when he goes to work so she can go get a medicure and blowout.
• Harper is beyond frustrated at Donovan for taking Lila to spend Mother's Day with his mother Maris, something that Lopez, Bradford, and Chen all agree was a selfish move. At the end of the episode, Lila and Maris comes to the station to surprise Harper after Donovan had gotten a bad rash. Like the rest of the officers, Maris agrees that it was wrong of Donovan to keep Lila away from Harper on Mother's Day.
  • Even more, despite how things ended between Donovan and Harper, Maris bears no ill will against Harper, calling her the daughter that she never had.

Season Five

5x08 - "The Collar"

• While talking her through the bomb situation, Nolan tries to keep Pam calm. He even gets her to smile by telling her the only thing she has to worry about the bomb defuser is his really bad dad jokes.
• When putting out the idea of them getting a house together, Chris assures Lucy that he will make sure there will be place for Tamara, knowing that she wouldn't leave the girl behind.

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