The stakes are larger in January 24’s episode of The Rookie, “Sabotage,” now that Officer Jackson West (Titus Makin Jr.) is working along with Sergeant Wade Gray (Richard T. Jones), and fellow Officers Lucy Chen (Melissa O’Neil) and Tim Bradford (Erica Winter) to take down Officer Doug Stanton (Brandon Routh), presented to viewers as a racist white cop personified.
One of many first interactions Stanton has with a civilian this episode is him stopping a law-abiding Hispanic man:
Stanton: Catch the sport final night time?
West: Yeah. It was brutal. Cannot imagine they had been capable of come again on us.
Stanton: Uh-huh. Yeah, I believed. That is why I received 200 bucks. Something look misplaced to you?
West: Uh, I do not —
Stanton: Dispatch, 7-adam-07, present us at a pedestrian cease, Waring and Seward.
Chen: Seward and Waring. Let’s go.
Bradford: Chill out. We will not be too apparent. Doug realizes we’re shadowing him, Jackson’s screwed. We’ll get shut, wait to see if it escalates.
Stanton: Hey, bud. Stay round right here?
Armand: No, sir. Simply got here from a buddy’s.
Stanton: Ah. The place you off to now?
Armand: Bus cease.
Stanton: Bus cease’s that method. Received any I.D.?
Armand: Sure , sir.
Stanton: Dispatch, 7-adam-07. Clear for a celebration. Final of Gusta, first of Armand. Dob, 7-26-1990. Have you ever in your method in a second. Except she comes again with dangerous information. You bought any excellent warrants?
Armand: I’ve by no means been arrested, sir.
Dispatch: 7-adam-07, Gusta comes again clear and legitimate.
Stanton: There you go.
West: Bus cease’s that method, sir.
Armand: Thanks, officers.
West: After all.
Stanton: See [sighs] That is the sort of citizen I like. Is aware of his place, respects authority. You recognize, we would not have half the issues we’ve if extra of them behaved like that one.
The scenario doesn’t escalate; it’s merely a scene for writers to indicate to viewers that Stanton is a racist. Naturally, for drama’s sake, the episode will get worse.
Stanton later pulls over a black lady for working a cease signal; the scene begins with Stanton and West strolling as much as her automobile. It results in her arrest when she reveals she has her ex-husband’s weapons in her trunk:
Stanton: You recognize you ran that cease signal again there? License, registration, proof of insurance coverage.
Erika: They’re in my bag. Is it okay if I attain in and seize them?
Stanton: Slowly. Why’re you so nervous?
Erika: No purpose.
Stanton: Erika. Something unlawful within the automobile or in your particular person?
Erika: No, sir.
Stanton: Nice. You will not thoughts if we search the automobile, then?
Uh, we needn’t search the automobile.
Stanton: Such as you stated, nothing unlawful in right here, so you do not thoughts if we conduct a search, proper?
Erika: Uh, yeah. Yeah, I suppose so. However…there are weapons within the trunk.
Stanton: Fingers the place I can see them. Step out of the automobile.
Erika: They’re my ex-husband’s. I used to be on my strategy to the police station to show them in.
Stanton: Head to the sidewalk.
Erika: Look, we’re finalizing our divorce, and he isn’t pleased with the way it’s going, and he is been threatening to kill me.
West: Did you get a restraining order?
Erika: Sure. But it surely does not cease him from driving by the home on daily basis.
Stanton: You do not reside along with your husband?
Erika: Ex-husband. And no.
Stanton: So how’d you get the weapons?
Erika: I used my outdated key.
Stanton: Erika, you are below arrest.
Erika: What?
Stanton: Housebreaking, possession of stolen property…
Erika: Wh– .
Stanton: ..illegally transporting firearms.
Erika: Why? No. I-I advised you I used to be going to show them in to the police.
Stanton: You’ll be able to inform all that to the decide.
West: Okay, can I speak to you for a second, sir?
Stanton: Sit down on the curb.
West: Look, do we actually must take her in? Let’s simply e-book the weapons and write it up for DA evaluation. C’mon, man. What do you say?
Stanton: Initially, by no means communicate to me like that once more. “C’mon, man”? I am your superior officer, not one in all your homeboys.
West: Sure, sir.
Stanton: And secondly, that lady simply admitted to 3 felonies. She says she’s turning within the weapons, however who’s to say she wasn’t on her strategy to blast her ex-husband’s brains out? She’s getting into. Fill out her reserving sheet. I am going to name in a tow.
West: Come on.
Erika: Oh, please. Please, you do not have to do that, okay? Look, assist me. Look, I am unable to go to jail.
West: I am sorry. I am sorry.
Stanton is made to look merciless and heartless. It’s later revealed that the girl’s story “checked out.” What if it didn’t, although? Our major characters might want Stanton gone, however he is also a veteran of the job who is aware of a factor or two.
When Jackson is later retelling the story to fellow rookie Officer Lucy Chen, she apologizes for a way her being on a name meant she couldn’t assist, and factors out that what Stanton did was “terrible however lawful.” Jackson laments, “She wanted safety from her ex. However as a substitute of serving to… seems that she wanted safety from the cops, too.”
A later scene units up the chance Stanton goes to assault a suspect. Stanton and West are responding to a tip, a drug deal they see in progress. The suspect takes off with a backpack stuffed with proof, which he disposes of in a storm drain, in plain sight. As soon as the officers meet up with the suspect, Stanton realizes that he’s misplaced his physique digital camera. The suspect mouths off, making “your mama” feedback, main Stanton to inform him, “You and me are gonna have a lesson in respect.”
West is tasked with preserving the proof whereas Stanton brings within the suspect. Whereas on his personal, West tries to name Sergeant Gray, leaving a voicemail saying, “I feel Doug’s about to beat the crap out of a suspect, and he misplaced his physique cam, so there will not be a file!” earlier than dashing after Stanton. After the business break, nonetheless, we study that the suspect is okay, Stanton discovered his physique digital camera, and he’s upset that West left the proof.
The episode’s final moments are of Gray reflecting on the information that Stanton has written West up. In keeping with Stanton, West “disobeyed a direct order, leaving essential proof unattended. Now that drug vendor’s lawyer can get the costs dropped as a result of Jackson broke the chain of custody.” Then he ominously intones, “I imply, it is a rattling disgrace. The child has such nice potential. Be such a waste to have him wash out of this system.”
One other plotline this season follows newly promoted Detective Angela Lopez (Alyssa Diaz), who’s pregnant. It’s not till the fourth episode that her fiancé, Wesley (Shawn Ashmore), admits he’s predisposed to Fragile X syndrome.
When Lopez is trying up the syndrome on her desktop, there may be an open window of a proof of a third-trimester abortion. 
Although Lopez doesn’t point out abortion to anybody she’s confided in about her fears, it’s at the very least on her thoughts. Wesley defined that the syndrome may cause “psychological disabilities” and “seizures.” Different bodily signs embody a protracted head, versatile fingers, and huge ears, to call just a few. All are hardly causes to justify a third-trimester abortion, which entails inducing a deadly coronary heart assault in utero and delivering the aborted stillborn.
Viewers will get to see what occurs subsequent when The Rookie returns on February 14.
