S04.E13: Fight Or Flight

[WendyCR72]

Airing January 30, 2022:

Quote

Officers John Nolan and Lucy Chen must fulfill three quests if they want to get a stolen police helicopter back safely from a teenage thief. Meanwhile, Officer Nyla Harper and Aaron Thorson must guard a convicted cop killer in the hospital following a prison riot.

 

[paigow]

Did Harper actually pay for the food and doll? The dude stole food for her and bought something off the dark web.

[HurricaneVal]

Smitty!!

[Netfoot]

This episode just aggravated me to the point that I was clenching my teeth. 

The Hero of His Own Story stole a police ID, unlawfully entered a police facility, stole a multi-million dollar helicopter, flew around the city with no prior experience of flying a helicopter thereby putting the citizens at risk, denies the city the use of that helicopter for several hours causing unknown harm to an unknown number of people who might have benefited by the authorized use of the helicopter, similarly denied the city the use of a mobile unit and two cops with the potential for additional harm to citizens from their inability to do their jobs, plus sundry other time-wasting of police resources as other personnel were involved in the tracking, investigating and supporting the effort for his apprehension. Result? A slap on the wrist and a simultaneous pat on the back.

The other Hero of the Other Story is a convicted cop-killer who maimed a prison guard causing permanent paralysis. Quick! Quick! Let's all bend over backwards to get him sprung from jail!

Pregnant-two-weeks Nyla is already having pregnancy "issues" so without a doubt the show will proceed over the next few weeks (possibly months) to demonstrate conclusively that pregnant cops should be immediately sent on leave while declaring the exact opposite.

 

 

[Msample]

There must have been quite a filming gap the last few episodes - the actress playing Nyla went from not showing to a visible baby bump ( usually covered by the out of place looking windbreaker while everyone else was in the usual shirt sleeves ). Good to see her boot again, he has some interesting story lines. 

[milkyaqua]

It was nice to see Alimi Ballard though he usually plays a cop and not a killer.

The quest thing was dumb even if they made arrests and got the young guy's mom away from her drug dealer boyfriend.  But really, there was no way to get this guy down and not lead the cops around?  It was also nice to see Tim and Angela working together.  Likewise, I liked John and Lucy working together.

The other nice thing was no love/relationship drama which was appreciated.

I can agree about Nyla's pregnancy going sideways in a couple of ways.  Has it been established that the baby isn't her ex husband's?

Also, why is Wesley still offering up legal advice?  What the heck show?

Smitty and the access badge...of course!

[Netfoot]

1 hour ago, milkyaqua said:

Also, why is Wesley still offering up legal advice?  What the heck show?

"When I get my license back..." So, is that a given?

1 hour ago, milkyaqua said:

The quest thing was dumb even if they made arrests and got the young guy's mom away from her drug dealer boyfriend.

So, he had to steal a helicopter, instead of just calling in to a tipline? What, no more mobile minutes?

ETA: Maybe the value of the helicopter was less than $950...

Edited January 31, 2022 by Netfoot

[HurricaneVal]

I thought the before credits bumper scene would be a return to the old "humorous/significant interaction" one-and-done little vignette like they used to do.  Instead it set up the whole episode, which I assumed it would since the scene didn't come to any conclusion.

See, I figured it would go like this:  Nolan confronts the youth in the parking garage about being in an unauthorized area.  Youth gives his bona fides as the son of another officer.  Nolan accepts that, but while in the elevator asks some probing questions.  "So and so in Property Crimes?"  Youth says "yeah, <then details about divorce and custody and only time to be together>"  Then Nolan says "So I'll just get the fourth floor for you then...."  Fresh-faced, innocent, and earnest Youth says "Thanks, I don't want to spill dad's triple shot latte."  THEN the scene ends with an exterior shot of the elevator doors opening, the coffee dripping down the walls, the youth in handcuffs getting perp-marched out of the elevator by Nolan who says "Property Crime is on the second floor, genius, and So-and-so only drinks decaf, black."

So when the scene didn't go that way, I figured the kid was up to something else.  That was an elaborate set-up just to do the whole "divorced dad giving advice to child of divorce" hug scene.  I certainly didn't have to wait too long for the pay off!

Edited January 31, 2022 by HurricaneVal
more better words

[preeya]

"Who's Cupcake?"  Do ya think it'll continue into the next episode?

Edited January 31, 2022 by preeya

[HurricaneVal]

Isn't Cupcake the alligator?  I'll bet Smitty adopts Cupcake when his owner goes to jail.  Cupcake will go live with him in his trailer in the loser cop trailer park.

[Clanstarling]

1 minute ago, HurricaneVal said:

Isn't Cupcake the alligator?  I'll bet Smitty adopts Cupcake when his owner goes to jail.  Cupcake will go live with him in his trailer in the loser cop trailer park.

Yep, Cupcake is the alligator. I thought Cupcake's drug dealer owner was hilarious, pretty much the best character in the episode. He was so sincerely concerned about his alligator, and seemingly not at all concerned with his drug arrest.

As for the rest, yeah, it had some problems. Wesley continuing to offer legal advice continues to be WTF for me. Surely they could add a dimension to his character. Struggling stay at home dad, barista, anything but flaunting the conditions of his suspension.

So Nyla is at 8 weeks pregnant by now, that can be a tense time if you've had issues with pregnancy before (speaking from experience)

The aide was funny - I think the Rookie's mom was probably charged for all those things, since she's the one who hired him.

 

[Angeleyes]

7 hours ago, Netfoot said:

This episode just aggravated me to the point that I was clenching my teeth. 

The Hero of His Own Story stole a police ID, unlawfully entered a police facility, stole a multi-million dollar helicopter, flew around the city with no prior experience of flying a helicopter thereby putting the citizens at risk, denies the city the use of that helicopter for several hours causing unknown harm to an unknown number of people who might have benefited by the authorized use of the helicopter, similarly denied the city the use of a mobile unit and two cops with the potential for additional harm to citizens from their inability to do their jobs, plus sundry other time-wasting of police resources as other personnel were involved in the tracking, investigating and supporting the effort for his apprehension. Result? A slap on the wrist and a simultaneous pat on the back.

The other Hero of the Other Story is a convicted cop-killer who maimed a prison guard causing permanent paralysis. Quick! Quick! Let's all bend over backwards to get him sprung from jail!

Pregnant-two-weeks Nyla is already having pregnancy "issues" so without a doubt the show will proceed over the next few weeks (possibly months) to demonstrate conclusively that pregnant cops should be immediately sent on leave while declaring the exact opposite.

 

 

They probably would have had to clear all airspace at LAX and other smaller airports in the area since they could make no prediction of what Hero of His Own Story was going to do. That would have gotten the FAA involved which then propels Federal charges. 

[Zaffy]

This was so frustrating...at one point I just hoped the helicopter would crush down and kill that annoying little brat.
So every kid in family troubles can go and steal a police chopper and put countless lives in danger and basically gets away with it. 
AAARGH!

So Nyla dear... since that convict hurt a guard he has no right to fight for his innocence for the crime that put him in jail? Does pregnancy kills simple logic?
What if he wins the re-trial? Wouldn't the time he has already spent in jail be merged with the time he will probably get for crippling the guard?

I want a spin off with Cupcake!! 

[HurricaneVal]

41 minutes ago, Zaffy said:

I want a spin off with Cupcake!! 

It could be the down market mash-up of The Rookie with Miami Vice!  With Smitty as the older and uncool version of Sonny Crockett, the trailer the uncool version of Crockett's live-aboard sailboat, and Cupcake as the meaner Elvis who occasionally shorts out the electricity or zaps neighbors in the loser cop trailer park because she ate the taser. 

[paigow]

7 minutes ago, HurricaneVal said:

It could be the down market mash-up of The Rookie with Miami Vice!  With Smitty as the older and uncool version of Sonny Crockett, the trailer the uncool version of Crockett's live-aboard sailboat, and Cupcake as the meaner Elvis who occasionally shorts out the electricity or zaps neighbors in the loser cop trailer park because she ate the taser. 

Smitty would never feed it... so the trailer park would be terrorized by a hungry, roving gator....

[chaifan]

As others have noted, the plot lines were ridiculously written, not even a sliver of an attempt to comport with reality.  But...  the tone of this episode was perfect, and is why I watch this show.  For the most part, it was light and fun.  Yeah, silly and impractical, but fun.  This is what Fillion does best, and I think the rest of the cast is better in lighthearted moments, too.  The parts with Nyla sending the assistant on impossible hunts, and him actually finding what she wants, was great.  Nice to have Thorson back, even if he's still doing the stupid reality show.

I will take episodes like this, as farfetched as they are, over equally farfetched plots of Mexican drug lords and "romantic" episodes with no chemistry. 

Was I the only one who was hoping Cupcake would somehow cross paths with Wesley and eat him?  And then move on to Bailey for dessert.

[Netfoot]

5 minutes ago, chaifan said:

Yeah, silly and impractical, but fun.  This is what Fillion does best, and I think the rest of the cast is better in lighthearted moments, too.

I'll go along, but the lightheartedness could have been tempered with some slightly believable consequences for Hero. I mean, he didn't even get community service! His mom didn't even give him a bolicking! In a few episodes he'll be back protesting high gas prices by taking hostages at the nearby nuclear power plant!

[shapeshifter]

15 hours ago, Netfoot said:

This episode just aggravated me to the point that I was clenching my teeth. The Hero of His Own Story stole a police ID… stole a multi-million dollar helicopter, … Result? A slap on the wrist and a simultaneous pat on the back

The helicopter thief was led away in handcuffs, under arrest. 

[Brian Cronin]

Why'd they make a point of having Dez Robinson be a guy that Tim knew when he wasn't from an earlier episode? Especially since this show FREQUENTLY brings characters back?

[NYGirl]

I'm still stuck on the kid knowing how to pilot a helicopter after learning in a video game????!!!!!????

[TAG42481]

I'm concerned that the following episode won't air until February 27th - not a good sign if they're pulling the shows for all of sweeps month.  Although I don't know if they change that up when the Olympics are occurring or not ...

[bros402]

3 hours ago, TAG42481 said:

I'm concerned that the following episode won't air until February 27th - not a good sign if they're pulling the shows for all of sweeps month.  Although I don't know if they change that up when the Olympics are occurring or not ...

They're changing it up because of the Olympics - pretty much everything is going off the air, or having alternate programming.

One thing I was wondering is why they didn't have helicopter kid get put on an immediate psych hold. He was definitely not... sound.

[HurricaneVal]

8 hours ago, NYGirl said:

I'm still stuck on the kid knowing how to pilot a helicopter after learning in a video game????!!!!!????

Not too far-fetched though, something similar happened a few years ago in Seattle.  Not a helicopter but but a ground crew guy with only video game and airport ground crew experience stole a Q-400 passenger airplane and flew it around for a while.  It was very tense in the area while that was going on.  He had video game flying experience, but no real landing experience.  They almost got him talked down onto a strip at a local military base, but he flipped out and that didn't happen.  When he stole the plane, it was empty and not fueled up, so he did eventually run out of fuel.  He essentially got herded to a sparsely populated area in Puget Sound and after some aerobatic maneuvers (a barrel roll!) crashed on an isolated island.  It was a nine day wonder around here.  

That incident was in the forefront of my mind during this episode.  Flying a helicopter is by all accounts much harder than flying a fixed wing airplane, so that was extra.  The big crashing noise at the end when the kid was bingo fuel made me think he'd come to a bad end, but it turns out he was OK.

2018 isn't exactly "ripped from the headlines" but, yeah, real world experience says stuff like that can actually happen!  To be fair, when the 2018 incident was going on, I literally thought "Man, if that came up as a plot in a TV show I wouldn't believe it!"  So you are in good company.  Well, you're with me, at any rate!  😆

[yourmomiseasy]

5 hours ago, HurricaneVal said:

Not too far-fetched though, something similar happened a few years ago in Seattle.  Not a helicopter but but a ground crew guy with only video game and airport ground crew experience stole a Q-400 passenger airplane and flew it around for a while.  It was very tense in the area while that was going on.  He had video game flying experience, but no real landing experience.  They almost got him talked down onto a strip at a local military base, but he flipped out and that didn't happen.  When he stole the plane, it was empty and not fueled up, so he did eventually run out of fuel.  He essentially got herded to a sparsely populated area in Puget Sound and after some aerobatic maneuvers (a barrel roll!) crashed on an isolated island.  It was a nine day wonder around here.  

That incident was in the forefront of my mind during this episode.  Flying a helicopter is by all accounts much harder than flying a fixed wing airplane, so that was extra.  The big crashing noise at the end when the kid was bingo fuel made me think he'd come to a bad end, but it turns out he was OK.

2018 isn't exactly "ripped from the headlines" but, yeah, real world experience says stuff like that can actually happen!  To be fair, when the 2018 incident was going on, I literally thought "Man, if that came up as a plot in a TV show I wouldn't believe it!"  So you are in good company.  Well, you're with me, at any rate!  😆

I remember that, it was amazing!  My whole office was following along from a safe 1200 miles away.  

I'm not sure if Nolan is supposed to be the number one best cop ever (always saving the day in some implausible way) or a bumbling Barney Fife (letting randos into restricted areas without a second thought).  Also, not that it matters, but I'm pretty sure the airships are not kept at random police stations, they are all at the air support division, which would be harder to get into than stealing Smitty's badge and duping Nolan with a sad-dad story and hug.

[Clanstarling]

16 hours ago, NYGirl said:

I'm still stuck on the kid knowing how to pilot a helicopter after learning in a video game????!!!!!????

The Matrix is real! 😆

7 hours ago, HurricaneVal said:

Not too far-fetched though, something similar happened a few years ago in Seattle.  Not a helicopter but but a ground crew guy with only video game and airport ground crew experience stole a Q-400 passenger airplane and flew it around for a while.  It was very tense in the area while that was going on.  He had video game flying experience, but no real landing experience.  They almost got him talked down onto a strip at a local military base, but he flipped out and that didn't happen.  When he stole the plane, it was empty and not fueled up, so he did eventually run out of fuel.  He essentially got herded to a sparsely populated area in Puget Sound and after some aerobatic maneuvers (a barrel roll!) crashed on an isolated island.  It was a nine day wonder around here.  

That incident was in the forefront of my mind during this episode.  Flying a helicopter is by all accounts much harder than flying a fixed wing airplane, so that was extra.  The big crashing noise at the end when the kid was bingo fuel made me think he'd come to a bad end, but it turns out he was OK.

2018 isn't exactly "ripped from the headlines" but, yeah, real world experience says stuff like that can actually happen!  To be fair, when the 2018 incident was going on, I literally thought "Man, if that came up as a plot in a TV show I wouldn't believe it!"  So you are in good company.  Well, you're with me, at any rate!  😆

I never heard of this somehow. They're taking a page from 9-1-1 (or at least, early 9-1-1, where it was really fun because you knew they were basing most of the crazy incidents on real ones).

[Raja]

1 hour ago, yourmomiseasy said:

I remember that, it was amazing!  My whole office was following along from a safe 1200 miles away.  

I'm not sure if Nolan is supposed to be the number one best cop ever (always saving the day in some implausible way) or a bumbling Barney Fife (letting randos into restricted areas without a second thought).  Also, not that it matters, but I'm pretty sure the airships are not kept at random police stations, they are all at the air support division, which would be harder to get into than stealing Smitty's badge and duping Nolan with a sad-dad story and hug.

After the first couple of season they shifted so it seems like the entire LAPD is the Mid-Wilshire Division. Like the Sergeant and Chen showing up at the beach without talking about working overtime in another division

In real life the airships are kept downtown at Piper Tech as seen in the movie Blue Thunder.  I am surprised they didn't shout out to the movie when talking about the post 911 USAF jet shooting the kid down

[sharkerbaby]

Like others... the personal assistant and alligator guy 2 best characters of the whole show.  too bad we got what? combined screen time of maybe 5 minutes.  But on the whole, I agree with @chaifan  I like my show light and fun so in the end, I did enjoy it.  I do hope they bring back hilariously giddy pregnant Nyla over stress inducing high risk pregnancy Nyla

[Netfoot]

2 hours ago, sharkerbaby said:

the personal assistant and alligator guy 2 best characters of the whole show.  too bad we got what? combined screen time of maybe 5 minutes.

Less than a minute, total, would be my guess.

[yourmomiseasy]

5 hours ago, Raja said:

After the first couple of season they shifted so it seems like the entire LAPD is the Mid-Wilshire Division. Like the Sergeant and Chen showing up at the beach without talking about working overtime in another division

In real life the airships are kept downtown at Piper Tech as seen in the movie Blue Thunder.  I am surprised they didn't shout out to the movie when talking about the post 911 USAF jet shooting the kid down

Them going all over the city has bugged me since season 1, they regularly bounce from Hollywood to Downtown to the Westside to the Valley depending on what the storyline dictates (and what filming locations they can get, I assume).  But like every cop show set in LA does that, so I've given up.  I live in Wilshire division, which based on name you'd think they were trying to emulate, but it seems like the area they actually spend the least time in.  They also don't seem to have their detectives specialized and patrol does a lot of things patrol doesn't do in real life and they do not stick to the basic car unit policing model at all.  So IDK why the air support division situation bugged me more than all of that.

[bros402]

9 hours ago, yourmomiseasy said:

Them going all over the city has bugged me since season 1, they regularly bounce from Hollywood to Downtown to the Westside to the Valley depending on what the storyline dictates (and what filming locations they can get, I assume).  But like every cop show set in LA does that, so I've given up.  I live in Wilshire division, which based on name you'd think they were trying to emulate, but it seems like the area they actually spend the least time in.  They also don't seem to have their detectives specialized and patrol does a lot of things patrol doesn't do in real life and they do not stick to the basic car unit policing model at all.  So IDK why the air support division situation bugged me more than all of that.

I am guessing because they should take better care of their helicopters.

[Raja]

16 hours ago, yourmomiseasy said:

Them going all over the city has bugged me since season 1, they regularly bounce from Hollywood to Downtown to the Westside to the Valley depending on what the storyline dictates (and what filming locations they can get, I assume).  But like every cop show set in LA does that, so I've given up.  I live in Wilshire division, which based on name you'd think they were trying to emulate, but it seems like the area they actually spend the least time in.  They also don't seem to have their detectives specialized and patrol does a lot of things patrol doesn't do in real life and they do not stick to the basic car unit policing model at all.  So IDK why the air support division situation bugged me more than all of that.

For me it is more than just the geographical boundaries.  Like The Shield it feels to me like an independent department, like say Beverly Hills PD surrounded by LAPD. And Nolan would have come from the Sheriff's police academy to be hired by the Mid Wilshire Captain where other departments wouldn't want the old man. That feeling really escalated when Lopez moved up to detective.

As for geography before the port and beach visits The Rookie hasn't been as bad as its brethren. 9-1-1 literally started in North Hollywood and in a few weeks was the first on the scene after an airliner crashed in the ocean off of LAX.  The short lived Deputy named checked actual Sheriff's stations but seemed bizarro world most likely because they filmed in New Mexico.

[shapeshifter]

On 2/2/2022 at 12:42 AM, bros402 said:

why they didn't have helicopter kid get put on an immediate psych hold. He was definitely not... sound.

I guess if you can safely land a helicopter with no fuel left and having had no training, they give you a pass on being of "sound mind." 🤷‍♀️
A follow-up episode could either be that he succeeds in breaking out of jail or maybe he becomes a CI or some other asset to the Department.

[bros402]

On 2/3/2022 at 3:19 PM, shapeshifter said:

I guess if you can safely land a helicopter with no fuel left and having had no training, they give you a pass on being of "sound mind." 🤷‍♀️
A follow-up episode could either be that he succeeds in breaking out of jail or maybe he becomes a CI or some other asset to the Department.

obviously he becomes The Rookie helicopter pilot in a few seasons

[KittyQ]

The very first scene bugged me. I wasn't in law enforcement, but software development, and years ago we were trained to not fall for such an obvious social engineering tactic. If a person doesn't have access to an area, they can't get in, no matter what "convincing" story they have. This kid's story was pretty lame, and I can't believe that Nolan fell for it.

[Ceindreadh]

On 1/31/2022 at 6:32 PM, Netfoot said:

"When I get my license back..." So, is that a given?

IIRC, Wesley said he'd been given a six month suspension, so I would assume that he'll get it back automatically.