2x10 The Dark Side

As always, the less grounded The Rookie is, the farther it gets from its strengths. The more it puts John Nolan in the heroic, always-there-with-the-breakthrough-insight role, the more generic it gets. So far in the run, even the episodes that have suffered the most from those leanings have still contained enough of the show's strengths – its performances, its character work, its charm – that it's managed to be mostly likable, entertaining and impressive. Sadly, this episode went so hard for its utterly generic serial killer potboilery, generously seasoned with John Nolan as the po-faced hero, that I was hard pressed to find even an ounce of its best ingredients. What's worst: the central conflict of this week's story isn't tied to one of the show's regular characters, instead leaving that crucial role to a recurring character we've only barely gotten to know. Instead of filling me with fear on the behalf of a beloved character, the final scene just left me exasperated at the completely unearned emotional manipulation the show was trying to pull by putting her in that position. If I didn't know better, I'd thought this episode had been written by someone only passingly familiar with the show. Instead, it was a collaborative effort between three staffers who all have, more or less, been with the show since the beginning. It's baffling.