Green Light

Green Light
Season	1
Episode	16
Air date	March 19, 2019
Written by	Brynn Malone
Directed by	Valerie Weiss
Episode Order
← Previous	Manhunt
Next →	The Shake Up
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	Transcript

"Green Light" is the sixteenth episode of the first season on The Rookie. This is the sixteenth episode of the series overall.

Summary

Officer Nolan arrests a woman for assault and finds out the hard way that she's connected to a powerful gang member. As a result, the gang is given carte blanche to kill Nolan, while Sergeant Grey goes head to head with the gang leader to call off his crew. Meanwhile, Officer Chen and Officer Bradford pull over Mario Lopez, who tries to talk his way out of a traffic violation.

Cast

Main 

• Nathan Fillion as John Nolan
• Alyssa Diaz as Angela Lopez
• Richard T. Jones as Wade Grey
• Titus Makin as Jackson West
• Mercedes Mason as Zoe Andersen
• Melissa O'Neil as Lucy Chen
• Afton Williamson as Talia Bishop
• Eric Winter as Tim Bradford

Guest starring

• Mario Lopez as Himself
• Shawn Ashmore as Wesley Evers
• Grant Harvey as Cole Midas
• Andy Mackenzie as Leonard "King" Midas
• Lyndon Talley-Smith as Astrid Heisserer
• Alicia Coppola as Det. Murphy
• Romeo Brown as D'Andre Riggs

Co-starring

• Wesley Kimmel as Jake
• Lainey Lipson as Cassie
• Gavin Lee as Valet
• Robert A. Johnson as Manager
• Adam William Zastrow as Moxon
• Dean Neistat as Gunnar
• Owen Szabo as Tate

Trivia

• This episode is tied with "Under Siege" for the highest rated episode of the series according to the Internet Movie Database.
• Zoe Andersen is killed during a shootout with Cole Midas and his men when he deliberately has her thrown into a swimming pool while she is handcuffed to a chair; later Nolan is the one sent to arrest her killer once he is cornered by the LAPD.
• VARDA-alarm is an acronym which stands for Voice-Activated Radio-Dispatched Alarm. It is a type of burglar alarm that, when activated or "tripped", broadcasts the type of the alarm and the transmitter location over the local police radio frequency using a pre-recorded audio message. It bypasses "911 Dispatch system" and sends a red alert to all police within the vicinity.
• The music heard when Andersen and Nolan enter the house is from Gabriel Fauré's Requiem, Opus 48, movement IV: "Pie Jesu".
• During an Instagram Live with Melissa O'Neil and Eric Winter, O'Neil stated that she was not present for recording the scene where the other officers witness the captain's death and salute for her, due to having to travel to China for a family emergency. She recorded her parts from a green screen separately and was superimposed into the episode.

Quotes

• Bishop: Officer Nolan, are you familiar with the Crack Almanac? Nolan: Is it available on Kindle?
• Andersen: If you have to change your behavior because of these reversals, we have a problem. My officers do things the right way every day. Is that understood?
• Bradford: Write him up. Reckless driving. Giving false information to a police officer. Disobedience to traffic signs. Unlawful act with a green air sticker. Driving with an obstructed view. Unnecessary use of horn. Failure to exercise caution when passing animals.
• Murphy: Hey, you know what? If I were you, I'd ask for another T.O. Chen: Yeah? Well, you're not me. Ma'am.
• Bradford: How's a rookie get greenlit before me? I gotta step up my game.
• Andersen: I think we tell criminals what to do, not the other way around.
• Nolan: Riding with the captain. And I thought being greenlit was scary.
• Chen: I still don't see how confiscating 20 gallons of lube is gonna get the gang to back off Nolan.
• Andersen: But two bars? Oh, for crying out loud. And a badge that says "Captain"? You've just crossed a line that anybody with half a brain would run screaming from. A line that even your father might whack you for crossing. Understood? So, let me tell you how this is gonna go.
• Grey: There'll be time for grief later. We have a job to finish. Midas gave up his son. We know where he's headed. Look, I know what's in your hearts. What you want to do more than anything. I'd be lying if I said I didn't want it, too. Word is you kill a cop, you never see the inside of a cell. But that's that's not what Captain Andersen would want. Killing this loser won't honor her memory. Doing our jobs will. And we owe it to her to do it the right way. Agreed? All right, let's go.
• Chen: Please don't tell me to "use it" - the grief or the anger - to make myself a better cop. I can't handle that right now.
• Bradford: Grief is grief. It's a hole that can't be filled, but over time, it'll shrink enough so that you won't fall in every time you take a step.
• Lopez: Okay, I gotta go, maybe shoot a guy. Call you later.
• Grey: Nolan, go arrest that man.
• Nolan: Yes, you will. Because the woman you killed taught us it's not our job to punish you. Just to see to it that you are.