‘The Rookie’ Recap: Will Nolan Break Up With Lucy?

During "The Rookie" Episode 4, the new recruits get new training officers. While Lucy gets a break from Bradford and teams up with Bishop, Jackson has to deal with the strictest TO ever. Meanwhile, Nolan learns a thing or two from Lopez. The big question is whether Lucy will break things off with Nolan to protect her career and reputation.

It’s Time For A Switch

The episode starts with Nolan and Bishop making an arrest. During that arrest, the guy Nolan is arresting wanted to propose to his fiancée. There’s a memorable proposal story for this couple, which makes Nolan think about his and he admits to Lucy that he’ll probably never marry again.

Of course, this is setting up the differences between Nolan and Lucy before the two end up with new training officers. While they manage the new personalities, they also have to uncover something personal about their training offers; something these TOs don’t want people to know. The loser will get to do Saturday night cavity searches and the winner gets a day off.

Nolan immediately gets off on the wrong foot. When Lopez heads to court, Nolan notices that something is off with an inmate. When the inmate escapes, Nolan attempts to run after him but his books and papers from his studying (because he needs to know the rookie handbook by heart) slow him down. He fails to capture the inmate and Lopez is definitely not happy.

So, they head off to the inmate, Garcia’s, house. There’s a kid outside selling lemonade, which is useful since Garcia isn’t answering at home and the kid leads the police to Garcia’s daughter’s 15th birthday.

When Nolan and Lopez allow Garcia to dance with his daughter before arresting him, Garcia shares information about a drug deal that is going down. They’ve got two hours but he does want a deal with the DA before he shares anything else. This is what brings the three teams together.

Bradford Tries to Break West

Of course, Bradford isn’t going to go easy on the head honcho’s son. In fact, Bradford attempts to break West down while they’re on a stakeout for a gun runner.

When they find the guy at a property, dogs start barking and there’s gun fire. West immediately freezes and Bradford knows this isn’t the first time. He immediately turns on Lopez to find out what the deal is. While Lopez doesn’t want West by her side, she couldn’t do anything. His dad is the Internal Affairs commander, after all!

This is possibly the switch West needs. He asks Bradford to help him, but Bradford doesn’t want to deal with “lost causes.” However, it’s clear that Bradford is going to help. The next day, Bradford takes him to see a guy called Wallace, who hasn’t left his apartment for 15 months. When West opens up to Wallace, Wallace makes it clear that West needs to deal with the fear immediately.

Bishop and Chen Talk Relationships

Maybe Bishop isn’t the best TO for Chen. In the pilot episode, Bishop realized that Chen and Nolan had a thing going on and that comes up immediately during this episode. It’s more of some friendly, professional advice and something Chen already knows. The relationship with Nolan is going to ruin Chen’s reputation. Bishop doesn’t really care about that. She’s worried that the relationship might affect Chen’s performance.

There isn’t too much time to dwell on it, as they find a car with an expired registration and four kids who are running away. When Chen catches one of the kids, Bishop is angry. It’s not the driver and they can only charge the driver with the crime so Chen has to let the other kid loose – couldn’t they use the kid to get info on where the driver is?

The Drug Bust

In the end, the teams are called out to the drug bust. As shots are fired, West remains in the car and the other police officers attempt to tackle it. Nolan is able to take down one of the gunmen and West manages to run over another with the car. Bishop and Chen take down the third.

Along the way, the rookies do learn a little about their TOs. Chen learns that Bishop was a foster kid. It’s the most information they manage to get, but all three agree to tell their boss they didn’t learn anything.

Most importantly, Lucy makes it clear that she doesn’t want to break up with Nolan. She likes him too much. Nolan, who learns that Bishop knows about their relationship, decides to break up with Lucy. She’s not happy with the decision.

What did you think about the rookies dealing with different TOs? Did Nolan make the right choice? Can West be helped? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

The Rookie airs Tuesdays at 10/9c on ABC.