Oh, f**k.
I don’t have an intro for this. What do you even say?
I will preface, however, my plan was to cover Episode 810: “His Name Was Martin” and Episode 811: “Aftermath” in the one post. Seeing the internet coverage of 810 I considered delaying the Complete Comments post on The Rookie to cover 810 in it’s own post, however, having watched it I think I have decided to stick with my original plan as I think there will be more to say once we have both episodes.
Hey, so, having written this post. It’s about a 30 Minute read time and I think stands on it’s own. So like, as you read it, keep in mind I was intending to only do half a post and now I have, in fact, decided to publish as is and delay the Complete Comments on The Rookie for another two weeks as we will surely be discussing 811 next week.
That said, while this won’t publish for another week and a half I am starting this having just finished 810, so let’s discuss that briefly, shall we?
MAJOR SPOILERS ahead, my dudes
Episode 810: “His Name Was Martin”
I don’t think a single one of us could have possibly predicted this was going to happen, and it is so much worse than anything we did predict. That said, I was checking my math for a few things in my post ‘Questionable Math‘ the week before this episode and ended up on Lucy’s fandom wiki page to double check some stuff. While I am sure it has been updated since, at the time it suggested Lucy’s one and only confirmed kill was Luke Moran. Which I found laughable.
You see, this show makes a big deal of first kills, at minimum, if not most kills. There’s a couple times where characters who we know to have taken lives before do not hang on it because we’ve had more pressing matters. Chiefly, coming to mind because I rewatched Episode 211: “Day of Death” – and the episodes either side of it, particularly for her recovery in Episode 212: “Now and Then” – before this one, Harper kills Caleb and they don’t discuss that one at all because we have more pressing issues like finding Lucy. I appreciate that the show otherwise does make a point of it, at the very least often mentioning the relevant IA investigation, because most cop shows do not, in my experience. Half the cast of Criminal Minds are probably racking up kill counts higher than half the serial killers they’ve caught and not a single one of them seems bothered by this. On the flip side, John, Wade and Lucy were very bothered.
I mention this, because, completely unrelated to any of the theories around 810, I was discussing the fact that Lucy definitely did not get the kill shot on Luke Moran because we would have heard about it. Not to mention her reactions to nearly but not quite killing someone in both Episode 604: “Training Day” and Episode 714 “Mad About Murder”. In both instances she is terrified at possibly having taken a life and exceedingly relieved when both survive surgery. If she had killed Luke Moran, boy, would it have been a thing.
Then, of course, as I was discussing this they released the stills/lines, and as one is discussing “Yeah, she hasn’t killed anyone yet-” the phrase “Time is doing funny things.” really sticks in your brain and Oh Shit-
What if Lucy kills someone this season?
I’m not saying I’m a genius but I’m a f**king genius.
We all thought she was just going to get attacked, though. I recognise the ridiculousness in the phrase ‘just attacked’, but that would have been simpler. We theorised about stalkers, revenge plots, ambulance rides and near deaths. The Feral Timothy we were so sure we would get and instead… She’s physically fine.
Couple cuts and bruises. Nothing she’s not had before. She got very very close to much worse, yes. It was her or him. Physically, though, she’s been worse. She’ll survive that.
It’s the other stuff. That’ll be harder.
Cuts heal. Gunshot wounds heal. Stabbings heal.
This is a burden. A heavy one. She’s kind and good and empathetic. This will weigh on her. We know that enough. Even without knowing anything about 811 anyone who’s been paying attention should know this will weigh on her, because that’s who she is. How does she – how do you- move past something like that? How do you carry that with you every day?
Sure, it’s a risk they take, and the dramatisations we watch every day make it seem like it happens a lot, but it doesn’t. When she signed up to this job she didn’t sign up with the expectation she would one day take a life, she signed up with the expectation she would help people.
If she’d only been injured, even deathly so, it would be simpler and easier than this.
We should’ve known this was coming. Not in a this specific scenario way but in the fact O’Neil described this as ‘a cops worst nightmare’ and she’s said in interviews that she had to explore something she had no experience in, something she’d not done before and it was difficult and rewarding.
Lucy’s already been attacked, man! She was buried the f**k alive! We’ve should’ve known it was so much more than that. We should have seen something like this coming.
It’s not like she wasn’t attacked. She very much was and that scene alone, before you get to everything that happens after it, is equally it’s own horror movie. It is hard to watch and you are praying to all gods that she will fight that guy off. You are tense when we see the second one pick up a knife. You hurt when you see her smashed into the ground.
Then following you’re watching the life leave her eyes, and she is covered in these bruises and cuts, evidence of what nearly could have been. She looks as rough physically as we are so sure she feels emotionally.
She did not feel like a hero when she shot a guy who had killed several people, she definitely does not feel like one now.
Martin was a civilian and that changes things. When Nolan killed someone he shot a man who was pointing a gun at him. When Wade killed someone it was a woman sent to assassinate him. Martin was just a man who needed help.
Legally, Chen will be fine. We know already she’s back at work next week, so I’m going to say that with some certainty. Any questions or doubts will be covered by her body cam footage, which will show her fighting off not one but two and coming seconds away from being stabbed herself. Not to mention the many visible injuries she had. Legally, it’s self defence.
However, he wasn’t a criminal. I’m not suggesting that made it easier for Wade and Nolan. In fact, Tim has killed people both presumably in combat and on the streets as a cop and he suggests drinking in Season 1 to cope with it. I assume the therapy attending Tim has grown beyond this mind set, but that’s not my point. Taking a life is still taking a life whether they were guilty of a hundred crimes or none. Both Nolan and Wade visibly struggled with it. But they both assured each other with ‘you did the right thing, they were going to kill you’, and more so, the person was a criminal. That doesn’t mean they deserved to die, doesn’t mean it made it any easier to stomach and carry forward. Even in this episode we see Nolan still carries it with him.
I am, however, suggesting, that the very empathetic Chen, who generally just wants to help, may or may not feel extra guilty because this was just a man who needed help whether he was going to kill her or not.
Wade’s was an assassin sent to kill him. It was him or her. Nolan’s was a close range gunshot, if he hadn’t fired he may have been the one bleeding out instead. Both of those people were intent on killing the other person in the room so far as we know while being of completely sound mind and body. They chose their actions. Martin didn’t. Martin was doing a job. Martin, as Harper suggests in the start of the episode, was a victim himself.
Personally, I do think that fact will make it harder for her.
Most of this episode is spent in what can best be described as a zombie horror, and quite frankly, with all the press and all the stuff I saw online I find it misleading. I was expecting trauma and I got 30 minutes of zombie horror instead. It was well constructed zombie horror but all the juicy stuff really happens at the end.
Which brings me to my next point:
It wasn’t enough. It was a lot, it was plenty, it was harrowing and haunting, but it wasn’t enough.
Chen and Juarez are second on site. They get attacked and separated almost immediately, leading to the aforementioned ambush and self defence killing. We are so far into the episode at this point and it has been almost exclusively Nolan, Harper and Penn. Who, for one, don’t get any knife wielding zombies, and for two, with varying effectiveness manage to regularly outrun and take out the zombies.
You thought this episode was about Lucy? You have been tricked.
Though! The show is absolutely brilliant at balancing its cast, which means no one episode is about any one character. Sure, we spend an extended amount of time with exclusively three this episode, but overall it’s about at least five of them. The press surrounding it has been geared towards Chen (and zombies) which buries the fact that actually, she’s not even the focal point for like 30 minutes. Something, that considering she was not in the promo at all, I feel I should have seen coming.
However, the last 10(ish) minutes of this episode are phenomenal. Doesn’t even matter what the arc was going to be we all knew Melissa O’Neil was going to knock it out of the park. Her performance is stunning and heartbreaking. She does such a damn good job portraying every emotion and stage of shock and grief that Chen goes through in just that afternoon.
That is all we get. That afternoon. With past situations like this we have had several hours to days of watching them process it within just the one episode, so when it all happens right at the end and then she breaks down and that’s just it? It doesn’t feel like enough!
It is an absolutely beautiful sequence. You can see the state of shock on her face. They go from step to step to step and she just looks numb. “Time is doing funny things.”… and then we’re at the Chenford residence, and she’s finally, for the first time since, alone, and she breaks down and the episode ends there.
It is beautiful, on O’Neil’s part. Every second of it. We know how talented she is and this just proves it further. There is not a minute that goes by that she is not absolutely killing this sequence and her portrayal of this alone is enough to haunt you. I cannot give enough praise to her performance in this episode and I am looking forward to see what she does with 811.
I skipped some moments in there. Like when Tim finds her. Tim is important here, obviously, he doesn’t get a lot of time to shine as LIBF Tim, but his face says everything. The way he handles her and I mean in the way he is physically gentle as he guides her out of the tunnel and past the body. That’s boyfriend Tim, holding her arm on the way out, keeping her steady, physically, the best that a Tim who currently has to be her Watch Commander first can do to show that he’s there for her. You can see a slight pain on his face in the sequence of taking evidence. As if he wants to say more, to be there for her in a boyfriend capacity and he can’t right now.
As he says, when he finds her, they have to do this by the book, and they do. He’s very on it. He handles it, professionally speaking, very well, and I think his dialogue in the scene and Winter’s delivery of it does perfectly capture this intersection of both ‘I need to be your boss right now’ and also reassuring and ensuring his girlfriend is okay. She does know this, as she says, but she’s never been through it and he’s here to make sure, in both capacities, that she makes it through this.
Not to mention him making her tea and the forehead kiss. That alone is some cute Chenford and supportive LIBF Tim from this episode. They better hug next week. I adore Chenford hugs, they’re one of my favourite things about them, and it’s been a hot minute! Hug, guys! Hug! I got distracted. My point was going to be, that small moment was adorable, and you can just imagine Tim driving them home. The silence, the patience, the concern on his face. You can imagine him opening the door, Lucy just following him in and just standing there, because what is she supposed to do with herself? You can hear him offering to make dinner, to make tea. You can imagine every moment from the minute they left the station. Partially, because at this point we know these characters so well, and also because it is written, shot, directed, acted, produced and edited so well and in such a way that we can feel like we know what happened even in the moments we didn’t see.
And he leaves her to be alone, as she asked, because sometimes you need space. Sometimes walking away is just as supportive as staying. Everything he does in this scene is Tim saying “I got you”, and everything Lucy does is utterly heartbreaking.
Additionally, there’s the moments of her just staring at the corpse, and what else would you do? As they step away you can hear her hold back tears, you can hear it in her voice. She doesn’t cry at work.
And Tim’s face when he sees her there just staring at it! What do you even think in that moment? What does anyone think at that moment?
There’s Celina, reassuring her. Celina is right, but she can’t talk right now. Not until they’ve done the process. That hurts. It isolates them. She’s stuck in her own head until it’s over. You can see Tim clawing at himself to say something, Celina wanting so badly to be there.
We are told they’re going to the hospital first to get her checked out, obviously, she has many injuries. It is daylight when they leave, it is not daylight when she gets to the station and as far as I can guess it was maybe mid-afternoon latest when everything at Westview went down. She was at the hospital for hours! Just waiting. Knowing there was more still to do.
She’s not just an officer who has seen this happen to her fellow officers, she’s a supervisor now, which likely means she knows the procedure inside out, as they do reference.
So, just waiting, knowing that even when she leaves there she won’t get to go home. That the worst is still to come. That there’s interviews and procedure and that’s going to take hours too. By the time she’s alone on that couch it’s probably nearly midnight, she’s not been alone since it happened and yet barely able to talk to anyone. Just stuck in her own head with it. Full or as empty or as noisy as it may be.
Just Hours.
Then there’s Nolan. Nolan is the best choice for Union Rep they could’ve made. He’s actually very good at it. You can feel his empathy both with Grey and here with Lucy. He knows this. He knows exactly what they’re feeling and he’s got their back. May we all have a man like John Nolan in our corners when we need it.
Nolan, in his position as Union Rep, does get to be there for her, in between all the procedure. It’s only a short moment, because we cut to the Chenford home and she’s still in shock until she’s left alone, but, he is there for her.
This episode is both horrifying and then harrowing and still somehow I wanted more. Just a little bit. But not because I think it could’ve improved the writing in anyway. Their timeline may be a hot mess but I rarely have any notes on their writing, it’s quite good. Somewhat analytically speaking, The Rookie, genuinely has some very good writing for it’s genre. Most episodes are tight and well constructed, and this episode in it’s entirety is no different.
However, as a fan, ending with Lucy breaking down, alone, is heartbreaking and I want more. I want more yesterday. Not next week.
Don’t get me wrong, the fact that Chen’s shock doesn’t break until she’s finally alone is beautiful writing. I want to cry. Ending on her weeping into her jumper is heartbreaking and haunting. It is an excellent punctuation to what just happened because we don’t get closure. We are left burdened with this as Chen is. You are left thinking about it and hurting for her. She is still in pain and so are we. If they had put any scene after that it would have completely lessened the impact of it.
As much as I want more, I do not think I would’ve written it any differently myself.
An absolutely diabolical title choice, by the way. It gives away basically nothing until in the last few minutes of this episode it’s everything.
When she asks his name, you know what Nolan’s going to say, and it hits you in that moment with a level of significance I don’t think would have otherwise been delivered. There is a realisation then as you remember what the episode is called, and it sort of makes the episode as equally about the dead man as it is about the person that took his life.
Ya know, they could’ve used any kind of zombie pun or whatever to cover the reality of Chen’s situation, but titling it “His Name Was Martin” emphasises the emotional core of an episode that essentially waits till the last ten minutes to reveal it you. Furthermore, it calls some attention to the fact he was just a man. Not a shooter or a particular violent man outside of this drug induced frenzy he’s on against his will. He was just an unwell man.
The point of this episode is not the zombies, it’s the dead guy, and his name was Martin.
Next week is titled ‘Aftermath’ and from the promo alone we know this is still going to be part of the story. I may want more now, but I am assured in knowing they are going to continue to make a point of it. So, thank gods. I was excited for this week because I like myself some angst. I am more excited for next week because the only kind of angst better than the physical kind is the mental kind. Whatever arc happens next week, and whatever focus it pulls, I know I am going to like it.
In the coming days I may have more thoughts, but we are already 14 minutes in to this post and it’s only halfway done, so, for now, I’m going to leave it here. With the only thing I can possibly say as immediate reaction to any of this: Oh, f**k.
The Extended Cut and O’Neil’s Interview
So, hey, I slept on it.
You would think that would equate to more coherent thoughts but at this very moment it does not. Look, I am so much still on my The Rookie shit that I am considering watching it for a third time in as many months, which will drive both me and everyone around me insane. Still, one considers it anyways. I swear I am capable of talking about and watching something else. I swear.
That said, having finished the episode, typed up the first section of this post, all but deciding to delay all planned posts by about two weeks in order to publish this one this Friday, I then attempted to sleep. Failed massively as I instead read O’Neil’s interview with TV Guide and obsessively watched every extended or deleted scene there was, which add up, by my maths, to about 5 minutes of screen time with the extended cut being roughly 48 minutes or so.
The fact the extended cut not only exists but was released on streaming, I believe, indicates the care and attention they put into this episode. Scenes get left on the cutting room floor all the time, but if the creator of the show turns around and releases them anyway that indicates, to me, a certain level of care for the necessity of those scenes.
Now, as discussed, the episode as aired is constructed beautifully and does not necessarily suffer from having lost those scenes to be cut for time. When you’re writing for script, cutting for time is not an infrequent occurrence and to kill your darlings like that can be painful. Especially in a story of this significance, I do not envy Hawley on that. So, if I had the power to, I too would release an extended cut of the ‘true vision’, one might say.
Interestingly, there was a significant portion of Lucy scenes/extended scenes that were cut, and I have questions. Personally, I would not be cutting quite so many of the scenes of a character about to kill a man this episode.
That said, however, two of them aren’t strictly necessary for the arc, the episode doesn’t necessarily suffer to not have them. Ya know, some extended dialogue about Penn is whatever and not seeing Chen make the choice to take the call to check on Nolan and co is hardly episode altering, though it is evidence of Sergeant Chen in action. It would’ve just been nice to see more of her before it all goes to shit.
One of them is Chenford flirting, worried Tim and some truly diabolical choices in dialogue. Tim’s got a bad feeling, and in the most non-objective idea he’s had since starting as Watch Commander wants to ride with Chen? I mean it’s characteristic of protective Tim, but uncharacteristic of the Tim who definitely knows that Chen can handle herself so what the hell, Tim? But also Worried Tim, and it’s cute. Then! “We’ll be fine.” “Better than fine.”… hahah ha… ha… err.
Then finally, we have the extra dialogue with Nolan in which he suggests calling someone, she says her parents but doesn’t want their judgement and he offers to do it. This is the only exchange I both wish was in the original episode and also understand why it wasn’t.
Look, discussing the difference between what was cut and what wasn’t is kind of irrelevant when the creator just sort of drops the extended cut afterwards anyways, essentially making it all retroactively canon regardless.
However, if I had to cut 30 seconds of the episode this is not the 30 seconds I would have cut. In past instances they have made a point of calling someone before it hits the news, why would you cut that dialogue for Chen? That said, the scene is snappier without it. I think the dialogue is important and should have been there – and in theory is – but at the same time the scene in isolation isn’t worse off and is perhaps even better without it. It’s sharper, simpler. The entire vibe holds stronger without the parental dialogue distraction. It’s just Lucy’s barely present and then Lucy’s asking his name.
Yet on the flip, the idea of calling her parents definitely should be included and it further shows Nolan being there for her by offering to make the call himself. Basically, I want both instances to be true at the same time and in theory… they are.
Anyways all the other scenes are irrelevant to me because they’re just more of what I already think we had enough off except the ones that discuss the couples! I always want more Wopez, I adore and love them just as much as Chenford. Similarly, fix Luna and Wade. Now. Please.
That said there was also some cut dialogue in reference to Penn and Harper’s current punishments. It is not strictly necessary for the entire point of the episode, and can be inferred in later scenes making up for it in later episodes with some ease, so that’s whatever, but it would’ve been nice to know. Of course, is it truly cut? They’re like Schrodinger’s Cut Scenes. They are both canon and not canon and mostly canon depending on which box you don’t open. I am slowly losing my grasp on what Schrodinger’s Box actually applies to.
Just to be clear on this point, the extended cut is both as good as and better than the aired cut. It adds context and flow to the episode that didn’t make it into the 43 minutes. If you get the chance, it is more than worth your time to watch, but it does not diminish the effectiveness of the aired cut.
In the interview O’Neil states: “I think we were at dinner, actually, when Alexi gleefully told me about what we were going to do with Lucy around this story.” and I just want to highlight ‘gleefully’. I write as a hobby and career endeavour myself and I have lots of writer friends, all of which will in fact grin with some sadism as they gleefully tell you about the new horrifying way they have come up with to traumatise their characters. I just read that and I was like, ‘aww… he’s just like us.’
It is mentioned in O’Neil’s interview a point I had not accounted for, Tim calls her Officer Chen, and I caught it in the similar way in which she calls him Bradford in Episode 806: “Burn 4 Love” but I hadn’t thought about it. Having read her interpretation and slept on it, I think I agree. Both instances are a matter of snapping the other person back to reality. It makes sense.
Even when discussing the show as fans, I think we tend to interchange between their surnames and first names often depending on the circumstance in which we are discussing them. Not just with this show, but with other shows that discuss characters both on a first and surname basis. In a professional setting they are their surnames and in a personal setting they are their first names… with what tends to be some exceptions just for ease.
They get injured at work, professional names, but also more importantly consider that at work them has to be on it and calm at all times. Lucy can break down on the couch, Officer/Sergeant Chen has to keep her shit together at all times.
More importantly the use of Officer rather than Sergeant does indicate to some sort of inference of Tim not trying to snap a supervisor out of it but just an officer under his command… because he is still in her chain of command, goddamnit. He is, sort of, her boss and especially in this moment he emphasises that role because this entire situation has to be indisputable. There can be no errors, no showing of favourites. She killed a man. Every moment has to be by the book.
I don’t want to say too much without literally just rephrasing O’Neil’s answer, the point is I agree with what she said and I think’s it’s an interesting topic of discussion.
Further to that point O’Neil suggests that Tim is overcompensating on the professional ‘gotta be by the book side’ because, you know, it’s his girlfriend, which is not something I had considered because I was too busy watching him gently lead her out of that tunnel and steal worried looks at her blank expression but, yeah, that totally tracks for Tim. That’s probably right. He is nothing if not a man of rules, regulation and honour.
And, as stated, this ones complicated. For layers of reasons. For instance, Martin wasn’t outwardly malicious or in full control of his faculties, this case could be so much worse for Lucy if it’s not handled right. Also, that’s his girlfriend and the last thing they need on top of this is accusations of favouritism.
I’m not going to talk about too much more from the interview because a lot of it I’ve already given my two cence on in the above section and you can just go read the article and get her performers perspective on it yourself, but I would like to point out the quote: “I’ve played characters who have taken people’s lives rather frivolously, and she is not that person. She is the complete other end of the spectrum.”
Having watched Dark Matter recently, somewhat obsessively so. That show is very good and there is a post written on it and scheduled to come out after all these posts on The Rookie, because I am capable of talking about other stuff. All I could think reading this, however, was ‘Yeah, Two kills a shit ton of people.’
I adore Two, she’s fine, she’s great, she’s f**king deadly and O’Neil does a damn good job portraying the complexities of that character. This week I rewatched some Season 1 episodes, which coincidentally included Episode 105 in which Two gets attacked by a zombie, and in Episode 104 Two kills a shit ton of people for the first time and it initially scares her, but then she moves on fairly fast.
Two is scared not because she’s taken lives but because she didn’t know she could do so so effectively and Five saw it. In the same season Two will go on to space Enis Esmer!
That approach to murder is vastly different to what the compassionate to a fault Lucy is about to go through. Who knows if this is what O’Neil was talking about, boy, is that where my head went.
Finally, to close off this discussion she talks about Chen’s integrity as something she stands on. Now, pretty much the entire main cast value their integrity as good cops and all the like. It is interesting to read about the person portraying it discuss it.
I considered Chen’s kindness and compassion, and how much being a person like her, with that much empathy, would struggle with the weight of this burden. She is a person who will take accountability for her actions, as O’Neil discusses, it is part of maintaining her integrity as a person to do so, on her part. Her kindness is a part of that face she presents. In some ways this act, as necessary as one can view it, contradicts a lot of what she has held herself to over the years. She believes in honesty, goodness and second chances. Getting people help Martin can now not get…
The simplest way I can put it, as was somewhat discussed in the above section, is this is really going to suck for Chen. Not to repeat myself but, it is a heavy burden complicated by the details and her character.
She needs a hug.
Lucy stares right at you. She stares right at you and now you’re in it with her too.
I watched that sequence so many times in the last 48 hours, and I regret that I didn’t quite catch that she was looking straight at us, until I read it, and then saw it captured and then watched it again and, holy crap, she is staring into your soul.
Yet she looks soulless, as you are pulled into the pain with her and then immediately cut to the back of her head, which feels further like it’s pulling you into it… and then we stay here till she breaks. She starts crying, and if the episode did it’s job we are also crying with her, and we’re just left there.
Okay, So, Everyone Else
As stated this episode is about more than just Lucy Chen, as most of their episodes are. They are really good at that little thing called balancing.
So, Wopez. I love a slowburn with my whole heart so we have discussed Chenford extensively and therefor my sheer love for Wopez as well has been buried. Actually, my love for most of the other relationships has been buried but, ya know, they’ve come up a little bit.
The point is Wopez also have a minor arc in this episode and we get some super cute interactions between the two of them. I adore Wopez so much.
You see the worry on Angela’s face when she’s on the phone to Wesley, and then later this man threatens a lawyer for disrespecting her. Everyone put respect on the Wopez name because I adore these two.
My favourite thing about their developed dynamic is Wesley has gotten to a point of ‘My wife is a cop and she’ll kill you.’ and 1) I genuinely believe she would and 2) That is so much better than the Wes who thought he could handle Elijah all alone. Which brings me to my point of, when Wesley is saying this man will end up in a bed for disrespecting Angela is he actually saying ‘I would fully let me wife beat you up, and she’d win’ because in my head that’s what the point of his phrasing was. She can’t say that, she’d be investigated, but he sure can and he knows damn well Angela could and would. He is nothing if not a man who supports his wife’s assertiveness and deadly capabilities.
Bailey is in so much trouble, right? Like, look, she’s definitely accidentally stuck her head into something we want nothing to do with and it is going to go very poorly, but probably give Bailey all that action she’s been missing and likely craving.
I still hold my belief that she’ll get bored and return to the action packed life of fire-fighting. Did you see how bored she looked in her tiny, windowless office? Bailey physically cannot sit still, that’s been her entire thing for like four seasons! This desk job will not last!
Luna and Wade only got one scene this episode but, my gods, if it didn’t hurt. Fix them. I don’t have any thoughts on them beyond that, I just want them back.
The zombie stuff went on for what felt like a long time but I also felt they really leaned into the genre and seemed to be both enjoying it and doing a really good job creatively just bringing it all together. It is, effectively, super damn creepy. It’s not, obviously, actual zombies, it’s drugs again… so, yay! Not rabies!
The zombies have been discussed fairly frequently across the whole post for obvious Chen related reasons so I won’t say too much more. That said, Harper, Nolan and Penn handling the zombies was a not uninteresting aspect of the episode, and in some ways it does go on for so long it does lull you into an almost false sense of security and you start thinking ‘Maybe we were all wrong?’ and then, of course, they arrive and it goes very wrong, very fast.
I am also quite liking seeing Dash again, to be honest, which was unexpected, and he was part of the whole zombie apocalypse at Westview. He wasn’t even unhelpful either, which was nice, but should’ve been expected from ‘Drone Kid’.
I am not not a fan of Penn and Harper. I love Detective Harper, I had missed TO Harper. She’s kind of iconic and while we can’t say for sure how well it’s going with Penn right now, it’s only been a few episodes, I am intrigued by their temporary partnership.
The great thing about this show is that almost any and all characters could be paired up together and the dynamics would still be highly entertaining. So, even with a mix up, it’s still very good. Besides, by nature of their cast and with the rookie’s evolution and everything we are fairly used to seeing different pairs from episode to episode. Ya know, it was consistent for the first few seasons but, after Lopez made detective and then we got our first round of FTO graduates, shop mix-up’s became fairly frequent, and I don’t think I have ever been disappointed by a pairing… which I do believe says a lot about their writing.
I do have some thoughts about how despite the fairly obvious pairings, like the romantic entanglements and such, some relationships being clearly stronger than others, no one relationship between a set of characters ever feels like it’s being under-utilised or is nonexistent. If we don’t see it, we hear about them interacting across the board quite frequently, so no one character ever feels like an outsider to the rest of the cast or like two characters don’t have any relationship at all. There’s obviously some we see less than others and some we see a lot more, but they otherwise feel collective and tied together and I appreciate that a lot.
A thought to finish it off: tasers! You see they only have the tasers on their belts when they’re going to use them. So, when several of them are wearing their tasers at the start of the episode we know they’re going to come up, and with several of them, a lot more than usual.
This is an episode that focuses quite heavily on the use of non-lethal force for the majority of it’s run time, in which someone dies.
Finally, the promo! I mention it exclusively because if anyone can bring a lighter note to the harrowing aftermath of this episode it’s Randy! I was pleasantly surprised to see him back, and, honestly, even more so pleasantly surprised at the fact I was excited about it. Hadn’t realised I’d become so endeared to him, but I cannot wait to see him again next week, alongside all the soft Tim and Lucy scenes and the weight I assume we will see Lucy carry. Just like this week, I expect next Monday’s episode to be very good.
To Conclude
See! I’m at nearly 35 minutes of read time with 6,000 words! And this was just going to be half a post. This is why you got it this week and not next week when it would be presumably twice as long. This does, however, mean a post I wrote on Season’s 1-7, basically a month ago at this point has been delayed even further but that’s okay. That’s on me for not being on top of it. Besides, it’s a very general overview and this is far more entertaining and also relevant.
So! Usual thanks, if you made it to the end of this post thank you so much for reading. I don’t know how many of you are out there, if you are out there, but feel free to leave a comment or send me a DM on socials! They are always open and if you want to talk about this show so do I!
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.