Critic’s Rating: 3.7 / 5.0
3.7
Nyla Harper is everything.
If we’re looking at The Rookie Season 7 Episode 9 as a Nyla Harper-centric, Mekia Cox blew it out of the water.
The Rookie is all the better for having this talent and for providing her with content showcasing her range and all she can do.
The Hour Tests Nyla and Nolan’s Friendship
It’s been a great season for Harper, albeit challenging on many fronts. But as a fan-favorite character, it’s been lovely that she has a healthy dose of content this season, and it’s diversified as well.
The hour tries to serve as an ode to her. After putting her through the absolute wringer, she emerges from it as a vulnerable woman who collapses into the arms of her mentee and friend after hearing about how incredible, remarkable, and heroic she is.
We don’t give flowers to the living as much as we should. As humans, we take each other for granted, not recognizing the importance of those bonds and those who matter most to us until something horrific happens that puts things into perspective.
It’s the only reason that as infuriating as I found Nolan for the entirety of the hour, my heart warmed at the genuine friendship between him and Harper. They’ve come a long way in their partnership.
While their dynamic is not as popular and coveted as Harper and Lopez’s, it has been special and one of Harper’s most treasured ones on the series, too.
Sometimes, it’s easy to forget that, which is why, to some degree, I understand why The Rookie tested it during this hour and why it was important to showcase how they could overcome and prevail in the end.
Nolan tearfully told Harper that she was his hero and how much he cares about her and how much she matters to him, and Harper, in turn, tearfully fell into his arms for a comforting embrace after one of the most challenging days of her life, was a genuinely moving scene.
The Rookie Squanders Real Tension Between Harper and Nolan
All that said, The Rookie is easier on Nolan than what storylines and things warrant.
Again, it goes back to The Rookie having a Nolan Problem, and they don’t always know how to navigate or handle it.
Anger is exhausting, and holding onto grudges and things can be as well. But I’m a flawed human and a petty bitch sometimes, so it frustrated me that Nolan was at the center of Harper’s entire world, crashing down around her with this kiss fiasco and discovering the photo with Leonard and James at her house.
There were so many moments in this where Nolan’s actions were frustrating, not so much because he may or may not have been following protocol or trying to behave as objectively as possible but because of how selective he is about all of that.
Nolan barely saw enough of that kiss during The Rookie Season 7 Episode 8 to spark this convoluted motive plot that led to Harper serving as a suspect in the shooting of Kylie and her own husband.
He didn’t even tell Harper about it when he had time to do so, or at least give her a heads-up about anything. The first time he told anyone about the kiss was when he shared it with Wesley, as it related to the investigation and sparked this huge thing that cast doubts on James, a colleague and friend.
The mess that erupted from this was beyond frustrating to watch, but it was made more difficult when we still have to carry around all the things Nolan hides, underplays, and sets aside, whether it’s the things he does or Bailey.
Nolan’s Recent Issues, Particularly with Bailey, Disrupted the Effectiveness of His Conflict with Harper
One could sympathize with Nolan’s position more and better if it didn’t directly follow his and his wife’s mishaps and subsequent cover-ups. He selectively plays things by the books or casts aspersions when Nyla and James don’t perform well at this hour.
So, as much as I genuinely could appreciate the final Nyla/Nolan scene, the sentiment between these two friends, and The Rookie preserving this relationship, it also frustrates me.
There would be more tension between the two, realistically, and The Rookie sacrifices a realistic portrayal of messy human emotions to uphold its Golden Boy.
When that happens, it tarnishes some of the great things that an hour like this has going for it.
Another downside of the hour was that it wasn’t solely devoted to Harper and this whole situation with James. It should’ve been the primary storyline.
Nyla’s Centric Should’ve Actually Centered Her More
It should’ve been the ONLY storyline for this hour. Oddly enough, James felt like the male version of a series hurting a character’s spouse to bolster their storyline.
Despite the opening where James has multiple gunshot wounds and the tension is high, it quickly dissipates, and we’re never actually given the space and time to fear that James could possibly die.
At no point after the opening do I fear Nyla could lose her husband because they barely gave us updates on his condition, and when they did, it was the type of content that happened offscreen, told to Harper, who spilled it to viewers through exposition-heavy moments where the focus was more on attacking her on all sides about her husband.
Harper learning about the kiss or Vivian confronting her about James’ connection to Leonard, it all felt like a terrible game of telephone where the wrong people showed up to drop bombshells on Harper during one of the worst times.
Vivian Vilifying Harper Sucked
Vivian was particularly vile in the name of rooting out corruption and maintaining a certain image for the LAPD. She undermined her position and standing by violating protocol, trampling on Harper’s rights to be a jerk, and riling her up to test her.
It was a bit bizarre to have everyone suddenly acting as if James, a community leader and activist, being in contact with some extremist who had a history with the law was a huge shock.
At least Wesley sets Harper at ease in another standout moment that crystallizes the genuine camaraderie and sisterhood/brotherhood between the two couples.
James is his best friend. He knew James wouldn’t cheat on Harper and understood why that picture wasn’t too surprising.
Lopez wasn’t having any of that either. For the sole factor that if James ever did anything to hurt Nyla, Lopez would have likely murdered him herself, not hired someone else to do it.
Fortunately, this other drama didn’t keep them from pursuing the actual shooter and nabbing Connor. He was a piece of crap, too, after what he did to that older woman.
But then, so was her maid for trying to take her belongings.
I know The Rookie tries to balance many storylines at once, some humorous and others serious, but this is a prime example of an hour that could’ve benefited from resolving this one case and focusing on Harper.
Bailey Derailed Another Plot with Shoehorned Appearance
They had to wrap up the arson situation, which had slipped my mind, and ironically, Nolan was doing double duty.
And worse yet, they had that entire situation with Celina, Bailey, and the kids who robbed a meth place and stuck the money up their butts.
That entire storyline felt horribly out of place for this hour. It’s one of many reasons viewers often struggle with Bailey and her presence on the show.
For some inexplicable reason, a firefighter, veteran, and paramedic was dehydrated and passed out at the hospital, and that’s how the hour opted to shoehorn her into all of this.
If they ever found more organic ways of shoving her into episodes of plots, it would help tremendously.
But this isn’t even a case of me being a Bailey hater this time. She genuinely didn’t need to be in this episode at all. Her presence was irritating.
The hour should’ve focused exclusively on Harper so they could capitalize off their own shocking cliffhanger. Still, sadly, the story lost momentum, and they further bogged the episode down with other plots that could’ve gone elsewhere.
But Mekia Cox? Absolutely made up for the hour’s shortcomings.
Over to you, Rookie Fanatics.
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