'Rookie' Begins Season Four with Devastating Loss, Thrilling Premiere

by Julian Spivey

Photo: ABC

ABC’s “The Rookie” kicked off its fourth season with a devastating shock to the fans and ultimately one of the show’s best episodes to date. 

Season three of the series ended with Det. Angela Lopez (Alyssa Diaz) being kidnapped before her wedding by cartel leader Sandra “La Fiera” De La Cruz (Camille Guaty), as revenge for not being able to protect her son from being killed (and Lopez’s rather callous reaction to it). 

Within the first few minutes of the season premiere “Life and Death,” written by showrunner Alexi Hawley, we realize Officer Jackson West (Titus Makin Jr.) has been killed by being shot in the back trying to resist being kidnapped along with Lopez. It comes as a shock to viewers because West is an original cast member of the series, played a crucial role in the show’s third season and unlike many cast changes during the summer is one that was kept underwraps well by the show. 

It’s disappointing to see the character killed off “The Rookie,” but with Makin choosing to leave the show and how season three ended the show didn’t really have much of an option when it came to the character’s fate. 

I will say I’m a bit fed up with actors abruptly leaving shows at the moment, as this is something Fox’s “The Resident” is also having to deal with right now, to a much worse extent. 

Officer West’s death is particularly hard on Sergeant Gray (Richard T. Jones), who was a bit of a father figure to him, and Officer Lucy Chen (Melissa O’Neil), a longtime friend and roommate of his. One of the best scenes of the episode is when Grey captures West’s killer and has this moment of whether or not he’s going to get revenge by killing him. 

While Grey and Chen are focused on finding West’s killer, Officer John Nolan (Nathan Fillion), Officer Tim Bradford (Eric Winter) and Det. Nyla Harper (Mekia Cox) head to Guatemala where La Fiera is holding the very pregnant Lopez with the intention of kidnapping the child upon its birth and raising it as her own as replacement for her deceased son. 

Yes, it’s bit of a ‘Rambo’-esque move for “The Rookie” to make with three Los Angeles police officers going to a foreign country to save one of their own and some fans online have an issue with that, but it’s a television show I don’t expect everything to be completely realistic. I think the high-stakes action plotline of the premiere made for one of the show’s most thrilling episodes to date. 

The only real criticism of the episode is that many of the characters don’t really seem to be taking West’s death all that hard - or as hard as you’d expect - but it’s probably because they’re mostly focused on not losing another friend in Lopez. Hopefully the show will delve deeper into the grief felt by the officers going forward, but as the episode ends with a three month time jump there’s a chance we won’t get to see this take place.