ABC’s The Rookie this Sunday aired Half 1 of a backdoor spinoff pilot, about Simone Clark aka the oldest FBI trainee (performed by Claws‘ Niecy Nash). What’s your knee-jerk response to this potential offshoot?
Half 1 of the planted spinoff pilot, titled “Simone,” opened with Nolan and Chen investigating suspicious exercise at an influence station in Griffith Park. Surveying the premises, Nolan noticed a bomb, and so they each darted outdoors simply because the system went growth. Within the aftermath, the FBI arrived on the scene — within the type of Agent Matthew Garza (performed by Ozark‘s Felix Solis) and Agent Casey Fox (‘Til Dying‘s Kat Foster) — however agreed with Sergeant Grey to share the case.
Although a pair had noticed a white male with darkish hair, a Russian accent and a facial scar outdoors the facility station, a second lead comes through prints discovered on the bomb casing, resulting in Ezekiel Freemont (a younger Black man). When it’s (randomly) realized that an FBI trainee was Zeke’s highschool steering counselor, Garza asks for this Simone Clark to be flown out from Quantico.
Simone is making a Quantico coach hurl together with her aggressive however excellent driving abilities when a chopper arrives to fetch her. Arriving in L.A., she conspicuously enters an all-hands FBI/LAPD assembly, the place she merely can not maintain her tongue when the skilled profiler describes an “indignant” Zeke Fremont totally unfamiliar to the lad she knew. Invited by Garza to say her peace, she remembers Zeke as a sufferer of a violent residence, who had sensory overload points and actually was fairly empathetic. Trainee Clark means that Zeke might be holed up someplace darkish and quiet proper now, however her POV is dismissed by Garza, who insists that the child she as soon as knew not exists however is now a part of a terrorist cell.
Because the assembly convenes, Clark provides her additional assist to Garza, however he politely declines and tells her to return to Quantico (through coach, not “personal jet”). She runs into Nolan afterward, and he provides her his appreciation for her perception in addition to the chance to experience out the remainder of his shift with him, and search for Zeke. Alongside the best way, they examine notes on their respective statuses as “oldest rookie/trainee” — her coaching obtained postponed some 18 years by her being pregnant with twins — and John assures her that what they might lack in a capability to run with out getting winded, they make up for in life expertise.
Nolan and Clark discover Zeke, as anticipated, within the tunnel closest to his condo. They carry him into the cop store, the place Agent Foster laughs on the suggestion that the trainee, no matter her connection to the POI, be allowed to guide the interrogation. As a substitute, Garza nudges her again to Quantico. Once more.
Moments later, although, the feds holler for Clark, since Zeke will solely discuss to her. She and Zeke then reconnect within the interrogation room, the place he finally explains that, strapped for money, he had began promoting his engineering abilities on the darkish net. There, he met a “analysis scientist” who requested him to construct a complete of six (!) bomb detonators, 5 of that are GPS-activated.
Afterward, Simone tells John that she desires to get Zeke correct authorized steering, and we see her attain out to her estranged father, Christopher “Cutty” Clark (Banshee’s Frankie Faison). Having been falsely imprisoned prior to now, Cutty has an enormous bone to choose together with his daughter, seeing as he’s all about “Defund the Police” and she or he selected a profession in legislation enforcement.
Nolan in the meantime suggests to Gray & Co. that the seemingly random bombing of the lone energy station was designed to close down (and thus make susceptible) one thing on that energy grid — say, the Nationwide Guard Armory?? And positive sufficient, we see the scarred man pull as much as the armory’s entrance gate, the place we study that he has the husband of the guard on obligation held captive. He’s thus allowed inside, per their settlement….
Shortly after, firefighter/Nationwide Guard reservist/capoeira teacher Bailey leads a workforce into the armory, the place they discover a number of guards KO’d, and see the suspect fleeing of their Humvee. A automobile chase ensues, throughout which Chen at Bradford’s urging rigorously makes use of a maneuver to crash the Humvee — solely they then understand the driving force was the blackmailed safety guard. Whereas the precise terrorist quietly slipped away with a lot of C4 explosives.
All of the whereas this hour, Lopez and Harper had been working a seemingly unrelated (although you had to suspect in any other case) case involving a house invasion, the place the considerably addled sufferer claimed that an alien (as in E.T.) had damaged in to steal his analysis on L.A. site visitors patterns. However when Harper runs prints discovered on the scene, they got here again as categorised, originating with the Air Drive base at “Space 51.” They carry their sufferer in for additional questioning, and FBI trainee Clark overhears them. Simon pulls Angela and Nyla apart to notice the person is having a medical delusion, and neither of their approaches will get via to him. With their blessing, Clark units out to “appeal and disarm” the person, and he finally shares that the “shapeshifter” took on the type of… a white man in his 30s, with a facial scar.
Having performed a key function in placing the items collectively, Clark is accepted by Garza onto the duty power, and so they head out to the suspect’s final identified. There, they discover the guard’s lifeless husband, however nobody else — simply the wall the place he had his assault plan taped up. Chen does a rubbing to search out the identify “ENERVO,” and that leads Bradford, Nolan and Foster to surmise that their suspect sees his plan as a “warfare” of kinds. And a typical first strike in warfare is to take out the roads, ergo his theft of that one man’s L.A. site visitors analysis.
We then see the scarred man privately survey a number of barrels of explosive behind a rental truck, earlier than introducing himself as “Professor Meadows” to 5 volunteers, to whom he offers a primary fee and strict directions about the place they’re to drive different rented vehicles….
