Nolan's relationship with Russo starts to hit some skids as she suggests they move in together. Meanwhile, Nolan starts building a friendly relationship with Grace, his old flame. Meanwhile, Sergeant Grey assigns the rookies to surveil trouble spots around Los Angeles where criminals and illegal activity is known to flourish.
West teams up with Officer Smitty for a day when the latter takes them to a fast food restaraunt full of parole violators. The situation rapidly turns tragic when one makes a run for it, ditches his gun, and said gun falls into the hands of a child who shoots his mother. The gun was also used in a recent murder but the evidence tying it to the parole violator is thin at best.
Chen sets up Bradford with a beautiful social worker friend of hers, Rachel Hall, as a bet. Since they hit it off, Chen can go back to wearing short sleeves.
- Bad Guy Bar: The point of the episode is to find places where criminals gather and socialize among other hot spots.
- Digging Yourself Deeper: A city councilman attempts to buy drugs and ends up causing himself no end of trouble by trying to weasal out of an arrest.
- Gone Horribly Right: Chen is noticeably jealous of the fact that Bradford and Rachel end up sleeping together.
- Gone Horribly Wrong: West's attempts to do his job properly ends up with a young boy killing his mother.
- Jerkass Has a Point: West is trying too hard when Smitty observes that the parolees are just gathering there. Knowing where they are is a better thing than trying to round them all up and panic them.
- My God, What Have I Done?: West blames himself for the fact that a woman was killed by her own son using a dropped pistol.
- Opposites Attract: Rachel Hall is a social worker and bleeding heart while Bradford is a tough talking warrior cop.
- Pet the Dog: When a pursuit with West results in an autistic child accidentally shooting his mother with the perp's gun, Smitty shields the boy from seeing his mother bleeding out, and then pulls West aside to give him a gentle assurance that what happened was out of his control and that blaming himself will only make it worse.
- Police Are Useless: Smitty takes the attitude they should actually do less policing as observation is better than actual arrests. See Jerkass Has a Point.
- Reckless Gun Usage: The boy holds the gun like a toy, clearly not believing its loading or understanding the danger.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: The city councilman caught attempting to buy drugs in a high end neighborhood.
