I thought maybe Bailey was going to get shot right outside the front door. The Texas rookie is a dick.

Okay so the LAPD spends $0.5 million on each Rookie... which is why they shouldn't bet on them. Because they're so valuable. But hey at any other moment. If you're late for shift twice they'll boot you without hesitation like they aren't invested in keeping you in the program. Lucy warning her rookie was HILARIOUS because it completely neutered Tim. He literally has no other tricks in his pocket. When the rookies go into the house I knew it was going to be rated bad because they went against orders. For a moment I even assumed they might boot a rookie just to show how serious they take the rules. They've done that before. Only... what's this? HAHAHAHAHAHHAAHahahahaaa I mean in one sentence Sgt Grey says he doesn't care about online talk. In the VERY NEXT sentence he says we need the good press. Pick. A. Lane. Either these rookies did good and you've already spent the money so it's all good or you don't care about what people are saying, and rules are rules. You can't do both. It's funny because the metaphor of a clean slate like the metaphor of pulling yourself up by your bootstaps has kinda gotten completely lost in translation. The whole point of the bootstraps metaphor was that you CAN'T pull yourself up by your bootstraps. What's what bootstraps are. The thing you can't use to hoist yourself in the air. It was a sarcastic metaphor that people use sincerely now. Even the idea of someone saying they did it kinda suggests they did the impossible but people say it like it's prescriptive. Now the whole point of a clean slate metaphor was that even if you erase what was on the slate it's never clean. It'll never be clean like a clean slate. Maybe if he had used the metaphor properly rather than switching to "You're on the edge" it wouldn't have sounded so stupid. I mean still stupid but less so. >Best thing to do is to step back and let nature take it's course AKA let someone die. Yay cops. Oh it's cool because he's a criminal. So cops can just do whatever when you're a criminal. At this point it's just a matter of defining who is a criminal and who isn't. Once we know that, then we know who is a second class citizen subject to be let killed while cops sit back and eat some popcorn because it's too hard to do anything even though they're all experts in every field. Yes Nolan rejects this but the show doesn't. The show presents this idea like it's perfectly fine. 100% normal. The fact that Nolan rejects it is meant to elevate Nolan show him as worthy of the trust of that women they threatened. Even the most honest cop of all time will delay treatment to get information from an innocent gunshot victim. Which of course leads to the gunshot victim being "hurt" to "almost dead". Because not only did he delay to get information. He also prioritized hunting someone in a dead end over signalling for help. Christ almighty I can't take what they're doing to Wesley. It's like you introduce a character talking about equality and one brush with mugger and now he's talking Bell Curve nonsense. And whenever anyone brings up equality, he starts talking Bell Curve like he didn't grow up believing in equality. Someone in the writing room really wants to name check these social issues but it's a police procedural and at the end of the day the cops are going to be right. And if the cops are going to be right at the end of the day, then they might as well be right at mid day. Heck why not right at the start of the day as well, and that's how we get the police procedural. Honestly this is the most intelligent Smitty has ever been. He's basically the same but he just woke up at 4am so it makes sense now. Overall it's shaping up to be a fine episode. There's a lot of balls bouncing in the air. We got a handful of plates spinning and they all get tapped and more. Copaganda aside there's a little bit of something for everyone here and that's not even counting the dream team sleepover. **ACAB** Ok so in the ACAB corner I think I'll highlight all the ways the show tries to make cops look better than they are. This is not normally a reflection on the show or it's quality. Today we learn cops are the perfect B&E experts because they're all so professionally trained in.... how to break in to high security systems? The police don't get into secure places because they're better than cat burglers at breaking in. They get in because they have LEGAL AUTHORITY. This idea that cops are just more skilled than criminals is just silly. Cops have more man power and more legal power and resources. That's why they use CIs because they're not good at doing criminal stuff. If someone was killed in a house with the security system that Nolan has they don't just break in using their extreme cop skills. They call the security company and use a warrant to compel the company to let them in. Oh they are NOT going to bully this woman who is completely unrelated to this case by threatening this woman's son who isn't guilty of ANYTHING? Oh good grief we've already talked about this. De factor threatening someone who hasn't done anything wrong isn't something "The most honest man I know" does. Either the law is flexible or it's not. But pushing a selectively flexible law is insanity. That's how we get two tiered system.

I always liked Rachel and Tim. Just saying. They had a much better, happier and healthier relationship than Lucy and Tim. I also love the new rookie rapport lol

A fun and entertaining episode with plenty of enjoyable moments. It was great to see the rookies getting pushed hard again — classic Rookie energy. The “order refusal” aspect was a clear no-go, especially when lives are at stake, and the episode handled that theme well. Overall, a very solid and enjoyable entry.