Hey! Dear readers or lack thereof.
So, it’s been a minute, hasn’t it?
I could explain where I’ve been but that would require an author’s note level exposé and none of us want that so let’s just dive in, shall we?
I haven’t not been writing. I do some writing and then I either don’t finish it or I do and I don’t edit and schedule it. So, there’s a few backed up I’m getting around to editing and publishing for you. One I wrote three weeks ago you’ll get next Friday actually! It is related to this one.
As, one show has brought me back to my keyboard. The lovely, the wonderful and ongoing, The Rookie, and while a Complete Comments is right around the corner for you, written for when I caught up to this delightful show, two months of watching this show later and I am still on my shit about it so it’s getting a Catch-Up because I feel deranged, I gotta talk and I feel like sparing my friends some rambles.
So, let’s get to this shit.
SPOILER WARNING
Like so many. Catch up before you read or perish, you’ve been warned.
Season 8
Yes, we’re doing a Catch-Up because Season 8 is still ongoing and doing a Complete Comments post on a season that’s not done airing feels like a fruitless exercise in futility. Also I can guaruntee with some certainty that this post will hardly be coherent so a Catch-Up it is.
Season 8 is, as far as I’m concerned, very good. I am keeping up with it as actively as I can, and twice over as of this week. It has been sweet, daring, dramatic as all hell and exactly the sort of thing I have come to expect from this show.
It has so far delivered on the promises the season trailer gave and I am loving every second of it.
A few notes/thoughts on the aired episodes:
Chenford moving in together is adorable and I love them. This means they’re finally endgame, right? They’re endgame. I love a slowburn but I equally love domestic bliss and after seven long years endgame feels earned. More than earned. They’re solid. They’ve grown. They’ll be fine, right? Every scene we get of the Chenford home is honestly so adorable, and they obviously interact at work as well. They have been so cute all season and I’m obsessed with them. No coherent thoughts about it.
Sergeant Chen!! Low-key, honestly, I get a little proud every time I see her Sergeant stripes. Chen is killing it. She’s a supervisor now, she outranks Harper and Lopez. This is awesome. Look at her go. She’s doing great.
Nolan and Bailey had me so stressed for a minute, but they seem fine. I honestly love pretty much all the couples so every time one of them is in jeopardy it’s very stressful and it’s like, guys! Hands off, leave them alone. They’re fine. John and Bailey seem fine again, though. They’re handling DC alright, if not with great longing and a little loneliness. I genuinely believe Bailey will be back in no time. She cannot sit still and she surely is not going to get near enough action in what sounds like a desk job, DC/Pentagon or not. She’ll get bored. She likes action.
LUNA! I adore Luna. I actually do and as of this week, what have y’all done to her? She was thriving and now she’s emotionally cheating? Absolutely not. Fix the Grey’s. Fix them now.
Can’t believe they demoted Harper honestly. Lopez and Harper have become one of my favourite Detective Duos I’ve ever witnessed over the course of the past few seasons and they split them up! Not only that the switcheroo led to a whole bunch of other switches!
I am loving Chen and Celina as a pair at the moment. We obviously can’t have Chen and Bradford anymore, as much as the show has worked very hard to find excuses for them to work together in the past after all the plots regarding chain of command and how objective they cannot be about each other that partnership at work is kind of dead in the water… and they work great together. Chen and Celina however has been a great substitute and with them paired up and Lopez and Harper partners there was some female power going on and I love it.
Now, Celina rode with Nolan! You split them up too! That said turns out I missed their partnership too and they were quite enjoyable to watch, and then she hopped in with Chen at the end anyways. So, I guess Celina will just be wherever she feels like it for the next few weeks. It was nice to see all three of them work together. With all the focus on Bradford and Chen, and Celina and Lucy as roommates in the past seasons it has occurred to me we don’t see Nolan and Chen interact as much as they used to in their rookie years so it was nice to see them like that again.
If Tim is Watch Commander is he not in Chen’s chain of command? Like I know they are both sergeants so they hold the same rank but is he not like… Head Sergeant? Head of everyone (on patrol/shift) anyways? I always assumed Grey still outranked Tim this whole time and Tim’s been sergeant for awhile. Is that not the case? Have I been mistaken? Whatever, I’m just glad Lucy’s off night shift and back to working with everyone. That lasting all of two episodes was the best writing decision they’ve made.
803 called back to the barrel, and like honestly I love to see trauma that is not forgotten. That shit still effects her and it should. Nolan has been nearly killed by at least two serial killers and he almost never brings it up but Chen’s trauma comes up semi-infrequently and each time we see a little bit more of her growth, get to know a little bit more of how much it effected her and see how far she’s come on her healing journey since. Look at her go. Look at her. I’m so proud.
I keep hoping Celina will be Bi. I really do. She brought Elena back to her apartment and I got excited. Like maybe this could go somewhere but who knows. Rodge has grown on me rewatching it, though. So… I don’t know… but also we haven’t had anyone gay since Jackson, it’s been like four seasons! More gay! More Gay!!
The Upcoming
I mean at this point have we not all seen whats in store for us in the coming weeks? Have we not seen the interviews and the synopsis. Are we ready for it?
Look, I am physically incapable of consuming any media to a normal degree. I let it consume me instead. That’s how one ends up with a blog dedicated to the matter. I’m normal.
So, with The Rookie on the brain it’s fair to say I have been, and will be, nothing short of deranged about it for the next two weeks! Which is why you’re getting a post about it before my already written Complete Comments drops next week. Let’s break down the forth coming hell, shall we?
Melissa O’Neil has described the events as “A cops worst nightmare”. See here, and like hey, when she said that several months ago we didn’t know what it could possibly mean. I didn’t even realise how close we were getting to that until this week and now here we are. Episode 10 is next week, are you ready? Are you?
She otherwise seems excited about it… from clips from German Rookie Con confirming the episode and such. Seems like it was one hell of a task to do. I, personally, am not not excited for it. I like some angst but I also can’t be normal about anything so we shall just see, won’t we?
We sure have been waiting for this. You know how I know that? Because of the fans collective reaction to that one Tim scene last week. “You will regret this.” Will he? Will he how? My reaction was “Oh, they’re cooked” and every other reaction I’ve seen is exactly the same. Fans were so sure. This is it.
I am not so sure now we know there’s zombies which brings me to another point.
ZOMBIES?!?!
How? Why? What? How?
We’ve done zombies before here and they were just high on drugs. Personally, when I watched that episode I thought it might be rabies. A thought I remembered this morning and then very quickly died inside when I realised that could in fact be the case next week… and I’m just saying that better not be the case next week.
Attacked by a zombie is she? I saw a screenshot of the original season trailer and that may very well be the case, so it better not be rabies. That said, what is the explanation this time? The same drugs? Is it still drugs? What is going on? How? What? How?
There was a rumour it would be a stalker... and that sure as hell does sound nightmarish for a cop but one can only speculate, and with the addition of zombies well… that doesn’t seem all that likely, at least this week, but who knows because…
The episode teaser tells us next to nothing. Seriously. No idea. Not a single clue in that 30 second promo as to what might be going on there… and like sure to show us anything would be something akin to a major spoiler for a major plotline but also. Low-key we already know about it. Like, sure, you haven’t confirmed anything but you sure as hell have spoken enough about it and hyped it up enough for us to be about 98% sure. Like we know, just give us something.
The Episode 11 Synopsis is out. This all but confirms an attack and further more all but confirms a PTSD recovery arc, or something akin to it. It’s not like our girl hasn’t gone through this shit before, but I’m just saying if you’re gonna all but confirm it there give us something in your weekly teaser to see, please. We know! WE KNOW!
Speaking of the teaser, how are we back at Westview? Seriously how are we not done with this place yet. It causes us nothing but trouble. Within that abandoned facility, in no particular order, they have so far found:
- A serial killer
- Said killer’s kill grounds
- A corpse (unrelated)
- A CIA cover up
- Drugs in the walls
- A missing woman
- Ghost hunters
Like… what else is there at this point. Why does it house all this shit in its creepy ass flippin’ walls.
Finally, so far all the couples that have reached endgame have encountered a situation similar to what we are expecting at least once. Chen and Tim are obviously the only pair where they are both cops, which is a little different. Main examples of these situations being: Wesley’s stabbing, Bailey’s drowning and James’ shooting. It puts the couple through it! One could theorise Chenford are due.
That said, the ones listed above are obviously not the only times people nearly died they’re just the ones that came to mind in considering this particular idea. Where we got episodes that focused on both halves of the couples reaction to the incident and them working through it together as partners.
Ya know, Chen’s already nearly died once and Tim reacted completely platonically to it for sure… difference is they’re dating this time.
Literally had this scheduled to go up and then they released stills so real quick. Neither the stills nor the synopsis for 810 even indicate Lucy has anything going on. It’s like a close guarded secret in a glass jar. It’s in the interviews, it’s referenced in future synopsises. We know it’s coming. Yet to give us anything more this week would be spoilers, wouldn’t it?
I suppose if we didn’t already have very strong suspicions and they did give us something before release we would be so mad because that would be a major spoiler for no good reason! So… I’m chill and I totally get it.
That said the stills I’ve seen of Lucy all look like they’re from one scene, but at least she looks happy… and she’ll totally stay that way the whole episode.
But also seemingly Bailey’s got a B-Plot going on, in a separate state, in the same episode. Is someone playing games with us? Is it all lies?
To conclude on this point I am insane. Somethings going to happen, it will drive me insane.
I am both excited for the prospect and not prepared for it at all. I am expecting a devastating arc with Chen and, as I have seen fans saying, a feral Tim. I like angst. Angst is good! It’s entertaining. Make me cry, that’s a challenge I hope they fulfil… but oh my gods, the suspense!
Be normal. Just Be normal.
To Conclude
Yeah, I think this post was as incoherent as I warned. Thanks for reading nonetheless if you did. Hope you’ll tune in next week to discuss more of this show… and then probably for many weeks after that, to be honest. This is just where my head is at and has been for two months. It’s fine. Everything’s fine. We’re halfway through Season 8 now, my brain has to peter off at some point.
As always:
Feel free to leave a comment or send me a DM on socials. If you like this show even a little bit I want to talk about it.
You can follow me on Instagram at: @thebomff or on Threads at: @thebomff
On to the next!
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the images, narratives or characters present or referenced in this post. All rights belong to ABC and all other relevant parties.