S03.E09: Amber

[WendyCR72]

Airing on April 4, 2021:

An Amber Alert sends the team on a race against time to find a newborn infant who was stolen from a local hospital. Jackson and Chen work their last shift as rookies as Nolan continues on for 30 more days.

[Bulldog]

I propose a new drinking game where you take a shot every time one of the shops passes a FedEx truck. 

They should have brought in Tami Taylor to handle talking the kidnapper down.  She'd have had Julie, I mean Rita, down in a heartbeat. 

All in all, I thought this was one of the better episodes this season.  So, now that Chen and Jackson have completed their probation periods, will they be getting new partners?  I guess Jackson has to since Lopez has been promoted.  Will Chen and Tim stay together? Will we see a new batch of rookies joining the force?  

[shapeshifter]

11 hours ago, Bulldog said:

All in all, I thought this was one of the better episodes this season. 

It was a pretty tightly written episode, but it also felt like a literal After School Special PSA because everything came up roses, like with Nice Officer Nolan and Nice Officer Harper escorting the PPD-mother-of-the-dead-baby BABY KIDNAPPER away without any restraints other than a firm guiding hand on each arm. And Nolan's teacher going for the ride along?? Shouldn't she ***know*** that's a harassment lawsuit waiting to happen? And Nolan --who's on probation-- calling out his superior officer with no repurcussions?
What is this? Perfect World Police Department???
"Why yes," Officer Friendly says, "It is."

Edited April 5, 2021 by shapeshifter
Typo

[Sweet Tooth]

Did Chen just shoot down every fanfiction written this past year?

I was glad they had Nolan looking a little wistful as they walked away. Like, we need to see this is affecting him a little. I loved Harper being supportive. I love how her character has evolved.

They really do take the time to give each character their own arc. If you look at how far all of them have come, it is interesting.

[chaifan]

7 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

And Nolan's teacher going for the ride along?? Shouldn't she ***know*** that's a harassment lawsuit waiting to happen? And Nolan --who's on probabtion-- calling out his superior officer with no repurcussions?
 

Why would the teacher's ride along be a harassment suit waiting to happen? 

Nolan and Grey have a different relationship than most rookies with their superiors.  And cops are people, too.  They know how to take a joke, and Nolan's comments to Grey were more of a little dig than insubordinate calling out. 

I am so glad the preview clip that showed Chen "confiding" her feelings for Bradford were a fake out.  I actually screamed at my tv last week when I saw it.  I really didn't like Chen's plot last week - her all whiny and needy over getting dumped - but they redeemed her this week. 

This almost felt like it could be a season finale, with the first episode of next season jumping a few years ahead to Nolan having finished school and being a training officer.

 

[paigow]

Who is running hospital security? CTU?

[Msample]

Good job the writers did in ditching a potential Chen-Bradford romance , well done. 

This episode seemed like a bottle ep designed to cut costs - it seems a disproportionate amount of the time was just the characters spouting dialogue in the shops. 

[shapeshifter]

2 hours ago, chaifan said:

Why would the teacher's ride along be a harassment suit waiting to happen? 

Nolan and Grey have a different relationship than most rookies with their superiors.  And cops are people, too.  They know how to take a joke, and Nolan's comments to Grey were more of a little dig than insubordinate calling out. 

Sorry for the confusion of my stream-of-consciousness ranting.  
I was thinking of a case of harassment of a student by a teacher who shows up without notice for a ride along. 

[HurricaneVal]

I did like the expository bit about the bodycams.  Actually, I kind of liked the expository bits where Nolan and Harper "filled in" Nolan's professor on police opinions and the constraints and burdens they have to work with.  She says her book is already complete and on the brink of being published.  Want to bet it is a scathing indictment of modern policing, and the professor's eye-opening ride-along was too little, too late?  That ought to cause some major tension between her and Nolan.  But if that happens, I'll bet we'll see the professor on book tour talking about her ride-along in glowing terms and then all will be well.

I liked the technique of using the shop cams and bodycams to tell the story.  They're all on patrol together, in different cars, but the four screen technique brought that point home.

Detective Lopez coming back in her uncomfortable uniform for West's last day with a TO was awesome.  You could see the heart in this show.

How utterly priceless was Bradford's panic at Chen professing her love for him?  I was giggling in my chair, though my jaw had dropped only a moment before with her (fake) bombshell.

[Driad]

Jackson -- when you drive, look at the road once in a while, willya?  Or if you have a secret camera in your left ear, connected to your brain, please mention it.  [/petpeeve]

[Netfoot]

I can't believe he didn't see that coming!

[dargosmydaddy]

4 hours ago, chaifan said:

I am so glad the preview clip that showed Chen "confiding" her feelings for Bradford were a fake out.  I actually screamed at my tv last week when I saw it. 

Now see, as soon as I saw the promo I knew it would be a fake-out, because that's how Rookie promos work.  Had it been real, they wouldn't have shown so much of it; they would've cut out after Chen said she had something important to tell him (or however she phrased it). The fact that they showed her "admitting feelings" led me to believe it would be a dream or a role-play or something like that.

I'd like to think that even without the preview I would have realized pretty quickly what Chen was doing, but as it was as soon as Bradford said she's incapable of lying I was waiting for it, and cackling the whole time at his complete flabbergasted awkwardness. But geez, he really should have caught on, too, and I would have loved it if he'd played along to see which one would break first. 

14 hours ago, Bulldog said:

So, now that Chen and Jackson have completed their probation periods, will they be getting new partners?

The previews for next week made it look like they were partnered together (they were in the same squad car). I will miss Chen/ Bradford, and I do wonder what they'll do with Bradford. Seeing him start over with a new partner might seem flat after the awesomeness that was the Chen/ Bradford bond (and I mean that in a strictly platonic way). Though it might be interesting to see whether he does the exact same thing with a new rookie (all the hardcore tests and hardass behavior) or whether Chen has changed him a bit, I don't think that will sustain a bunch of storylines.

[shapeshifter]

I'm not so sure we have seen the last of Chedford or BradChen or whatever it would be called.

[Sweet Tooth]

48 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

I'm not so sure we have seen the last of Chedford or BradChen or whatever it would be called.

I would absolutely put all of my money on that bet.

[paigow]

Smitty is a T.O. Maybe he gets reassigned and Lopez is already gone... So Nolan gets fast tracked into the job

[Thomas Crown]

1 hour ago, paigow said:

Smitty is a T.O. Maybe he gets reassigned and Lopez is already gone... So Nolan gets fast tracked into the job

When you say Smitty gets reassigned, I hope you mean he gets reassigned to Chicago where he teams up with a Canadian Mountie and his pet wolf. Together all 3 help solve crimes in Chicago.  I'm totally down for a Smitty spinoff. 😀

Seriously though I really enjoyed last night's episode.  One of the better ones in a long-time for me despite most of the scenes being inside the police cruisers.  And I'm with Shapeshifter, I believe that Bradford and Chen will continue to be in each other's orbit leading to an eventual romance.   

[shapeshifter]

24 minutes ago, Thomas Crown said:

When you say Smitty gets reassigned, I hope you mean he gets reassigned to Chicago where he teams up with a Canadian Mountie and his pet wolf. Together all 3 help solve crimes in Chicago.  I'm totally down for a Smitty spinoff. 😀

I’d give that show a go! 😀

[Mrs. Stanwyck]

12 hours ago, Thomas Crown said:

And I'm with Shapeshifter, I believe that Bradford and Chen will continue to be in each other's orbit leading to an eventual romance.   

I am hopeful that we won't.  I think I've read the the producers??? (someone connected with the show) have said they won't pair them romantically.  Also, there was the whole storyline in season one about how Lucy shouldn't date a fellow cop.  And Bradford married one and it didn't go well for him.  I am certain they will remain in each other's orbit since they are all leads in the show but I hope the relationship stays where it is now.

[shapeshifter]

28 minutes ago, Mrs. Stanwyck said:

I am hopeful that we won't.  I think I've read the the producers??? (someone connected with the show) have said they won't pair them romantically.  Also, there was the whole storyline in season one about how Lucy shouldn't date a fellow cop.  And Bradford married one and it didn't go well for him.  I am certain they will remain in each other's orbit since they are all leads in the show but I hope the relationship stays where it is now.

Yes to all of the above, but I can also imagine writers gleefully salivating at a chance to make Chen and Braford a OTP in spite of all that
--and now the Cinderella scene of the birds fitting the ball/wedding gown is replaying in my mind. 
But I hope I'm wrong. Mostly. How about if Bradford has a long-lost, separated-at-birth twin brother that's is *not* an evil twin?
--keeping in mind that Nathan Fillion, an executive producer of the show with a strong/wicked sense of humor started out in a soap opera.

Edited April 6, 2021 by shapeshifter

[jabRI]

I'd also prefer Bradford and Chen to remain safely in the friend zone. I think it's much more realistic in the work place for people to have colleagues rather than see potential romantic partners every place.  Its too complicated to date someone you work with.

I too remember Nathan as Joey Buchanan, and was so excited to see him again on Firefly, I just squealed.  If you haven't seen that yet, do, he's so ruggedly handsome in that show!

 

[edhopper]

So? There are only three patrol cars in L.A.?

[Sweet Tooth]

10 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Yes to all of the above, but I can also imagine writers gleefully salivating at a chance to make Chen and Braford a OTP in spite of all that

I can see that as well.

So...I just had quite the difficult task.

I'm in L.A. Where I walk every day is a really nice neighborhood. So nice, in fact, that I see production trucks there nearly daily. Usually it just has the production company but not what they're filming. Today it had the show. THE ROOKIE. I stopped dead in my tracks for a moment.

Took everything I had to keep walking.

[Thomas Crown]

11 hours ago, Mrs. Stanwyck said:

I am hopeful that we won't.  I think I've read the the producers??? (someone connected with the show) have said they won't pair them romantically.  Also, there was the whole storyline in season one about how Lucy shouldn't date a fellow cop.  And Bradford married one and it didn't go well for him.  I am certain they will remain in each other's orbit since they are all leads in the show but I hope the relationship stays where it is now.

I believe that it was the show runner who said that he wasn't planning on putting them together in an article last summer. IMO reading between the lines I took it as he was saying that Tim's character would never cross the line since he was her training officer.  Now that Tim is no longer her TO, who knows what the show runner has in mind.  Not that I'm shipper, but I do think the actors have pretty good chemistry so I don't mind if they go the relationship route for these two especially if they can make an interesting story out of it.  I thought Lucy's fake out with Tim was pretty hilarious especially watching Tim squirm as he was not expecting that. 

[paigow]

56 minutes ago, Thomas Crown said:

I thought Lucy's fake out with Tim was pretty hilarious especially watching Tim squirm as he was not expecting that. 

She still has that revenge date with EMT... then she can move on to Bradford....

[Sweet Tooth]

1 hour ago, Thomas Crown said:

I believe that it was the show runner who said that he wasn't planning on putting them together in an article last summer. IMO reading between the lines I took it as he was saying that Tim's character would never cross the line since he was her training officer.  Now that Tim is no longer her TO, who knows what the show runner has in mind.  Not that I'm shipper, but I do think the actors have pretty good chemistry so I don't mind if they go the relationship route for these two especially if they can make an interesting story out of it.  I thought Lucy's fake out with Tim was pretty hilarious especially watching Tim squirm as he was not expecting that. 

This makes a lot of sense.

No way the show is going to throw away that kind of chemistry, but it was funny with Lucy basically saying what the fans have been talking about and toying with us that way. And Tim rarely gets flustered, so it was awesome to see him blush and be at a loss for words. It does show how much he's come to care for her that he wanted to let her down easy. At the beginning of the show, he would have reacted entirely differently.

The preview faked me out.

[shapeshifter]

2 hours ago, Sweet Tooth said:

So...I just had quite the difficult task.

I'm in L.A. Where I walk every day is a really nice neighborhood. So nice, in fact, that I see production trucks there nearly daily. Usually it just has the production company but not what they're filming. Today it had the show. THE ROOKIE. I stopped dead in my tracks for a moment.

Took everything I had to keep walking.

😎Why did you keep walking? Does that mean you're now a passer by in the background of a scene, or...?😎

[Sweet Tooth]

30 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

😎Why did you keep walking? Does that mean you're now a passer by in the background of a scene, or...?

HAHAHA. Nope. They had the actual street blocked off with security standing around making sure there aren't any lookie-loos. 

I would be honored to be a background person. 

So much stuff films around there. It's really hard not to wait around for the action to start.

[chaifan]

Bradford & Chen:  I agree the actors have great chemistry, but everything about the characters says no way would that work.  There is a 12 year age difference between the two in real life (33 and 45).  Not sure if the characters are supposed to be that age, personally I think Chen is played much younger, but the age difference is probably the same or close.   Granted, that's not inappropriate or insurmountable, but at those ages it leads to a pretty big difference as to where they are in life.  The bigger issue is the off work personalities of the two characters are nothing alike.  They have nothing in common except for the job.  Chen is pretty much still in 20's party mode, definitely not Bradford's scene.   The few glimpses we've  had into Bradford's personal life, outside the history with his ex-wife, have all been on the more serious side of things. 

I love them in their current mode, which is very little sis/big bro type of dynamic.  He giver her shit, she takes it and dishes it right back.  Or vice versa. 

Now, it would be fun to see them both have to go undercover as a newly engaged/married lovey dovey type couple, play the role to satisfy all the shippers out there, get the co-workers wondering if they will or if they won't, and in the end (of the episode - don't drag this out!) realize damn, this is just not for us. 

 

 

 

[Raja]

On 4/5/2021 at 8:37 AM, HurricaneVal said:

 

Detective Lopez coming back in her uncomfortable uniform for West's last day with a TO was awesome.  You could see the heart in this show.

 

Only this is not a show where cops go an entire career without firing their weapons. I was afraid enough with a pregnant  Detective Lopez being at the home of a kidnap victim. I was horrified at the thought of her being out on normal patrol.

[bros402]

On 4/4/2021 at 11:41 PM, Bulldog said:

I propose a new drinking game where you take a shot every time one of the shops passes a FedEx truck. 

oh my god I noticed at least 8 FedEx trucks in this episode, I was like "wait why are there so many fedex trucks???"

[paigow]

8 minutes ago, bros402 said:

I was like "wait why are there so many fedex trucks???"

911 calls should go to FedEx... they clearly outnumber LAPD 

[shapeshifter]

9 hours ago, paigow said:

911 calls should go to FedEx... they clearly outnumber LAPD 

I propose 911 calls go through Amazon because they're faster than either the PD or FedEx, but please don't tell my 911 dispatcher daughter I just posted this. 😉

[paigow]

1 hour ago, shapeshifter said:

I propose 911 calls go through Amazon because they're faster

They will just ring the doorbell and leave... also Nolan and Harper complained about finding a suitable bathroom... Amazon just uses the van.

 

[Raja]

59 minutes ago, paigow said:

They will just ring the doorbell and leave... also Nolan and Harper complained about finding a suitable bathroom... Amazon just uses the van.

 

Your's ring the bell? Our's stage them out in the open for a picture and leave.

However I know for a  fact that USPS letter carriers are ordered not to ring doorbells out of fear on contracting COVID from them.

[bros402]

12 hours ago, paigow said:

They will just ring the doorbell and leave... also Nolan and Harper complained about finding a suitable bathroom... Amazon just uses the van.

 

obviously they just need astronaut suits with however they go to the bathroom

[eel21788]

On 4/7/2021 at 11:55 PM, paigow said:

911 calls should go to FedEx... they clearly outnumber LAPD 

On the radio program I listen to, one guy said when he was a kid his mother told him FedEx trucks were federal agents who would drive around and pick up kids who misbehaved.

[shapeshifter]

4 hours ago, eel21788 said:

On the radio program I listen to, one guy said when he was a kid his mother told him FedEx trucks were federal agents who would drive around and pick up kids who misbehaved.

LOL! A modern day version of Grimms' Fairy Tales! 
And I could imagine Nolan (or maybe Lopez or Chen or Bradford or Harper) delivering a line about that to manage a child who was in imminent danger. 

Edited April 11, 2021 by shapeshifter

[Sake614]

On 4/6/2021 at 10:22 PM, Sweet Tooth said:

It's really hard not to wait around for the action to start.

You’d be waiting for hours. Blacklist was filming by my house a few years ago. I hung around to watch them tape the same 30-second scene 10x.  And all it involved was a car driving up to the restaurant. I gave up and went home after about an hour. 

[Sweet Tooth]

On 4/17/2021 at 12:43 AM, Sake614 said:

You’d be waiting for hours. Blacklist was filming by my house a few years ago. I hung around to watch them tape the same 30-second scene 10x.  And all it involved was a car driving up to the restaurant. I gave up and went home after about an hour. 

HAHA. Yep. 

A long...long...looooong time ago, I stumbled upon Corvette Summer being filmed. Hey, I met Mark Hamill, so that was great. But one two-minute scene did take hours to film.

And I think they were still setting up. I didn't see anything going on yet. So, who knows how long it would have taken?

[Sake614]

6 hours ago, Sweet Tooth said:

stumbled upon Corvette Summer being filmed. Hey, I met Mark Hamill,

OMG I loved that movie. Well, okay I loved Mark Hamill lol! That was when he was still good looking, before his car accident that left him with the scars we saw in empire Strikes back. And stayed with him the rest of his life. 

[EtheltoTillie]

On 4/8/2021 at 2:02 PM, Raja said:

Your's ring the bell? Our's stage them out in the open for a picture and leave.

However I know for a  fact that USPS letter carriers are ordered not to ring doorbells out of fear on contracting COVID from them.

Reading this at Covid plus three and it sounds ridiculous now!  

[Raja]

1 hour ago, EtheltoTillie said:

Reading this at Covid plus three and it sounds ridiculous now!  

All of those wash your hands counter COVID signage is still up. And they are everywhere, not just the official safety board