The Rookie Season 8 Episode 3 Review: Seth’s Redemption & Lucy Faces Her Darkest Trauma
- Val
- 59 minutes ago
- 7 min read
These episodes just keep getting better. Last night’s all new episode of The Rookie gave us an unexpected reunion and a callback to a storyline from an earlier season.
Seth and Miles Reunite
We knew Miles and Seth would be reuniting because of the sneak peek that dropped before the episode aired, so this came as no surprise. However, there were a few things I was not expecting.
For starters, Seth was still going on an apology tour. I can appreciate this because everyone he’s ever lied to deserved an apology from him. I don’t think he understands what it means to really apologize though. Even when he tried to win back the trust of his former fellow officers, he continued to play the victim card as if his actions were not on him.
For a short moment when we were reintroduced to Seth, I felt bad for him. In his own misconstrued way, he tried his best and was left to his own vices. When Miles paid him a visit to make amends, Seth’s place was a mess. Dishes piled up, trash left everywhere – and Miles tries to help him out but he refuses the help. Miles was trying his best to relate to Seth by bringing up his football injury, but they’re not comparable. As Seth says, “you can still run”, and, yeah, he’s right. Seth was shot in the leg and doctors had no choice but to amputate; this is something Miles couldn’t possibly understand. At this moment, Miles decides that he’s going to hear Seth out and this is where I stopped feeling bad for him.
Still with the “woe is me” attitude, Seth doesn’t understand why simply coming clean wasn’t enough for everyone. It’s not that hard a concept and Miles calls him out on it. Like he said “you don’t get to set the bar on how people react when you finally tell the truth” and Seth still wasn’t getting it. Kudos to Miles for trying to make amends, but respectfully, Seth needed to earn it. It took some time, but I think he’s finally getting there folks. Seth is starting to understand that what he did was wrong and he has some major character work to do. He stopped by Miles’ place and admits he doesn't know how to do better but wants to. There you go, Seth! The first step is admitting you’re the problem.
I want to see growth from him and let’s just hope this is the beginning to a better Seth.
Lucy Takes Her Time Settling In
Tim is visibly frustrated with the boxes all over the place and rightfully so. This is a big step for them, and it’s clear Tim is ready for their routine to be in sync, and that can’t happen when Lucy is barely unpacked.
Can we talk about the growth though? They’re communicating! This scene could’ve easily ended with one or both of them brushing off the situation and letting it consume them until they’re arguing about it; turning something so simple into something bigger than it needs to be. Tim clearly states that “it won’t feel like you’ve fully moved in until the boxes are gone” which is valid. We can admit that that’s a valid reason for wanting the boxes to go away, right? Lucy’s feeling is valid too; if they take their time it’ll be more efficient. Tim agrees and we celebrate their ability to compromise.
The work day was long and when it came time to tackle the unpacking, Lucy wanted to come home to peace and agreed that the boxes needed to get out of there. Funny enough though, she tasked Tim with this responsibility while she “supervised”. There they go, compromising again. This new era of Tim and Lucy is quickly becoming my favorite version of them.
John Stumbles Upon a Missing Piece to a Cold Case
This case was so gut-wrenching. The fact that they were able to catch a break in a cold case was because John brought someone in who was caught trespassing. There was a triple homicide from a few years prior; a husband and wife were killed and their daughter seemingly killed as well (her body was never found). The only thing they had was a finger print that didn’t match anyone in the system. Once Ezra Kane was fingerprinted, missing parts of this case started to come together.
John, being the officer who arrested him, is put in charge of questioning him. I’d normally protest this (it should’ve been the detectives) , but John has this way of using his empathy in a manipulative manner that basically causes suspects to tell on themselves. Smart on Nyla and Angela to have John take lead on this one.
Ezra was found with a bunch of stolen credit cards, and when they were checked for any recent charges, one of them came back to a recent motel charge. Lucy and Celina go to check it out and find it’s not vacant; Samantha Poston, the daughter that was assumed to be murdered along with her family, is alive and has been held captive all this time – I got chills.
The fact that Ezra sat there and was telling this story as if he wasn’t the one at fault for killing Samantha’s family and holding her captive this entire time that gave me goosebumps. That shift in his personality was instant, and there was no doubt that he was a psychopath. Once he realized he was caught, his entire demeanor changed. He even let it be known that he took another girl hostage.
While Celina is filling Lucy in, Samantha overhears her telling Lucy that Ezra wants to talk to her and that he would only let the other girl who he is keeping hostage near “The Red Place” free if he talks to her. This triggers something in Samantha and she loses it. This scene was beyond heartbreaking; you can just tell how much Ezra put her through to make her want to harm herself the way that she did.
This never happens thankfully; they managed to find the missing girl without further traumatizing Samantha.
The case is finally closed and to think this wouldn’t have happened if John hadn’t brought Ezra in for something as seemingly minor as trespassing.
Callback to Day of Death
We’ve gotten callbacks to the episode “Day of Death” (season two, episode eleven) before, but finally Lucy is talking about it more than she has in years. There have been plenty of missed opportunities for the audience to understand just how much getting kidnapped and held captive has affected her, but now we get a glimpse. And yes, I do mean a glimpse, because even though she’s talking about it, I feel like there could’ve been more. It’s a start though.
When she and Celina are headed to the motel, Celina brings up the fact that they’ve never really talked about what happened to Lucy. Evening pointing out the case with her sister, which to me would’ve been the perfect opportunity to bring up some sort of emotion out of Lucy, wasn’t enough to have her bring it up. Lucy tells Celina that she has no interest in revisiting that particular trauma. I could be reaching here, but this sounded to me like Lucy didn’t do the work needed to come to terms with what she went through.
I’m going to continue my reach here by saying that as Lucy is talking with Samantha and gathering information, the way that she’s talking with her is as if she’s talking to the past version of herself who was a kidnapped victim. She’s saying things that she needed to hear back then and with this she even became protective of her. When Celina asked to speak with Lucy and told her what Ezra’s demands were, that protectiveness was prominent to her. “No, forget that [...] he just wants to keep traumatizing her” she could be overheard saying to Celina. When Samantha locks herself in the room, Celina is confused at what is happening but Lucy quickly picks up that “The Red Room” was most likely a trigger for Samantha. Let’s go back to Lucy’s case –I’m instantly reminded of Lucy getting triggered twice: first when Rosalind sings the song she sang in the barrel (season three, episode one) and the second when she hears Rosalind has escaped custody (season five, episode one).
Lucy obviously did not take the route Samantha attempted when she tries to hurt herself, but this sparked something in Lucy for sure but it starts the conversation we’ve desperately been craving. Lucy opens up to Samantha about what happened to her. Again, this conversation feels as though Lucy is talking to the past version of herself and it felt like that start of healing for the both of them.
I am okay with being alone in thinking this, but Lucy has more healing to do. I wish we got more of her talking about what she went through when she was home with Tim. We all saw how he was when she was kidnapped– it would’ve been great to have him bring it up again to check in and see where she’s at with what happened today, even if it was to offer a “I’m here if you ever want to talk about it.”
I could talk about this episode for hours, but I want to hear from you. Share your thoughts on “The Red Place” below!
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