‘The Rookie’ Recap: What Does Chen Learn About Bradford’s Wife?

It’s time for the Halloween-focused episode of The Rookie, and it’s all about crazy callouts and difficult storylines. When John tries to deal with taking a man away from his son, Chen is disgusted at Bradley’s actions. Check out everything that happened in The Rookie episode 3, titled “The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly.”

John Makes A Hard Move

It all starts with John and Bishop chasing after some zombie-dressed robbers through subway cars. When they manage to arrest them, it’s not all good news. John immediately gets a ribbing at the morning briefing for failing to catch the civilian who stole the cash while the police officers were arresting the zombies.

It’s a harsh lesson, but those lessons aren’t finished yet. When John and Bishop are called to a workplace where an employee is being fired, they witness said employee take a hammer to her ex-boss’ car.

The lessons continue as the guy who stole the money is caught and immediately confesses. John and Bishop have to take him in and John struggles when he sees that the man has a son who could witness it all. John doesn’t want to arrest this man but he knows he has to. After all, he did steal the money.

John isn’t the only one struggling with the arrest. Bishop also feels for the kid, but she manages to hide it because she has to. It’s her job. Plus, the feeling can’t stay, as they end up called to another case of two teens driving recklessly.

By the end, John does learn that Bishop bailed out the father. It’s a sort of happy ending for the family for now.

Chen Learns The Truth About Bradford’s Wife

While John learns his lessons, Chen learns some of her own. There’s a man trapped inside a bank’s ATM (he was only checking it) and needs help getting out. There’s a hint of Bradford still being injured from his shooting in The Rookie’s pilot episode, but he tries to cover it up.

After saving the guy, the two call in for a pitstop but someone steals Chen’s belt. Fortunately, Bradford is able to get it and they take off on a call they receive. It’s to a scene with fighting bikers, forcing Bradford to step out and get into the fight himself. This instantly worries Chen, especially since she’d just seen him punch a wall over his wife again.

Chen isn’t sure what to do about her TO, so she turns to John. He isn’t that much help, especially when Chen heads out on another call and this time to Bradford’s wife’s house. Bradford tries to make her stay in the car, but she isn’t going to let him go into the house alone. It’s just what Chen needs as she learns more about his wife, who used to be a narcotics cop. It’s easy to see how she ended up mixed in with the wrong crowd.

West and Lopez Talk Careers

Meanwhile, Lopez attempts to get West to consider a second career choice after his mishap in the pilot episode. West is certain that he’s born to be a cop and isn’t ready to give it up just yet. It’s admirable, but he seems to have overlooked the danger he put Lopez and others in by freezing.

There isn’t much time to focus on West this week, as the three teams join together for a callout with S.W.A.T. They’re called to a house. From here, they all end up going their separate ways again. John and Bishop follow suspects in a car to the hospital, Chen and Bradford get into a gunfight with a suspect, both managing to eventually sneak up on him. Lopez and West deal with other suspects.

The hospital is the biggest scene, with one of the suspects going to the roof of the hospital to steal a helicopter. As Bishop calls the find in, a suspect holds a gun to John’s head. John tries to plead to the suspect’s better nature, giving Bishop time to taser the suspect.

It all ends with the three rookies grabbing a beer together. They had good days in the end, although there are clearly concerns for each and every one of them.

What did you think of The Rookie this week? What can Chen do to help Bradford? Is West in the right career? 

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