Consequences

Consequences
Season	3
Episode	1
Air date	January 3, 2021
Written by	Alexi Hawley
Directed by	Bill Roe
Episode Order
← Previous	The Hunt
Next →	In Justice
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"Consequences" is the first episode of the third season of The Rookie. This is the forty-first episode of the series overall.

Summary

Near the end of his training, Officer Nolan now faces his biggest challenge as a police officer yet when he must come to terms with the choices he has made in pursuit of the truth.

Plot

As John Nolan finds the stash that Nick Armstrong left behind in his house, Wade Grey asks him to step out of his house but Nolan demands a warrant to enter first in order to buy time to hide the stash and also calls Wesley Evers to act as his defense attorney. As Wesley is getting dressed to contest the warrant, he knocks over a wastebasket and finds a positive pregnancy test. As Armstrong is brought to the hospital, he implicates Nyla Harper as an accomplice of Nolan, but has the tables turned when Harper explains Armstrong's corruption to Internal Affairs Commander Percy West and Angela Lopez is able to find Armstrong's go bag off of a tip acquired from Rosalind Dyer. Nolan attempts to clear his name by going undercover to catch Ruben Derian in order implicate Armstrong, but his cover is blown when Armstrong escapes from the hospital and makes a deal with Ruben after getting tipped off by Rosalind about the cops finding his go bag. The operation is stopped once Jackson West finds Armstrong’s bed empty, and Sergeant Grey orders all teams to move in on the vehicle they thought was transferring Nolan. It turns out that he had swapped vehicles in ‘the tunnel’.

Nolan arrives at the site where Ruben meets him, and it turns out he wasn’t there to plead with him as he thought. Armstrong appears and talks about how Nolan was ‘way too much of a Boy Scout’ to ever sell his soul. Ruben hands Armstrong a gun and lets him do the honours of killing Nolan. As Armstrong prepares to execute him, the gun he is given is revealed to be empty and he is shot dead by the gang members as part of a cover-up; Nolan is able to escape and place Ruben under arrest. In the aftermath, Nolan and Harper both receive letters of reprimand in their personnel files and Nolan will be held in the training program for an additional month and must pass a disciplinary exam with the reprimand also ruining any chance Nolan has of becoming Detective or even joining a specialized unit in the LAPD. Lopez receives a promotion to detective and opts to hold off on announcing her pregnancy out of fear that she'll be treated differently as a rookie detective.

Cast

Main

• Nathan Fillion as John Nolan
• Shawn Ashmore as Wesley Evers
• Mekia Cox as Nyla Harper
• Alyssa Diaz as Angela Lopez
• Richard T. Jones as Wade Grey
• Titus Makin as Jackson West
• Melissa O'Neil as Lucy Chen
• Eric Winter as Tim Bradford

Guest starring

• Harold Perrineau as Nick Armstrong
• Michael Beach as Commander Percy West
• Annie Wersching as Rosalind Dyer
• Armin Shimerman as Judge Paloma
• Hrach Titizian as Ruben Derian
• Brent Huff as Officer Smitty
• Kyle Davis as Henchman
• Jovana Lara as KZYO Newscaster

Co-starring

• Crystal Coney as Nurse Lisa
• Jan M. Janssen as Kitchen Cop
• Leslie A. Hughes as Bedroom Cop

Trivia

• Shawn Ashmore (Wesley Evers) is promoted to a series regular after being a recurring character in the first two seasons.
• Angela Lopez is promoted from Police Officer III to Detective at the end of this episode.
• Armin Shimerman, who plays the judge, has guest starred on Castle ("Final Frontier") and is probably best known for his role as Quark on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
• Jan M. Janssen, who is a uniformed officer in the background in most episodes of The Rookie, appears here listed as "Kitchen Cop". He was also a background artist in the precinct on Castle.
• After over 50 years of police procedural shows that feature Internal Affairs officers in episodes, we finally get to see things from their perspective. West is right, IAB is always shown as the enemy of all police and justice when the reality is much more complex than that.

Quotes

• "I don't suppose you washed this after the last guy." - Nolan, forced to wear a hood to meet with Ruben Derian
• "This office is the only investigative unit required by the California Constitution. Do you know why? Because police officers are infused with the power of the state, the power to take a life in pursuit of justice, power that is all too easily abused. And yet at every turn, cops like you look at us like the enemy-- the rat squad! How the hell do you expect me to root out problem cops when I'm sabotaged at every turn?!" - Percy West

Promotion

• The Rookie 3x01 Sneak Peek Clip 1 "Consequences" Season Premiere - SpoilerTV
• The Rookie 3x01 Sneak Peek Clip 2 "Consequences" Season Premiere - SpoilerTV