The Rookie Season 8 Episode 9 Recap: Nyla Returns as T.O. While Grey Faces a Heartbreaking Truth

This week’s episode of The Rookie was incredibly entertaining. I appreciated the laughs that helped ease the pain of the drama that was unfolding. Never in my years did I think we’d see the start of the downfall of one of my favorite couples, alas, here we are. 

T.O. Nyla Has Returned

As reprimand for her actions, Nyla is not only back in uniform, but she’s tasked with training MIles, who just got back to work. I thought it was funny that Tim and Nolan, John Nolan, of all people, tried to give Nyla advice on how to train Miles. If looks could kill, both Tim and John would be goners. 

Nyla has a way of teaching rookies that always made me appreciate her. She comes off as being tough, but she’s always made her rookies stronger in the end. Like the way she helped Lucy learn how to fight in a way that a man couldn’t teach her. Or like how she knew when to cut Aaron a break while he was being ostracized by nearly everyone who knew about his trial. 

Miles is a good cop, but as I’ve mentioned before, he seems to enjoy going rogue as a way to prove that he’s a good cop. After his last offense that caused him to be suspended, it’s obvious in this episode he’s being a bit more cautious with his approach. Nyla,knowing that this could be a possibility with him and a potentially dangerous one, decides to change roles for the day: she would be the rookie and Miles would be her T.O. While calls were coming in, Miles seemed to want to take just about everything. Confused as to why they weren’t jumping on the calls, Nyla pointed out why not all calls require their involvement. Rushing to jump on a call isn’t the best instinct to have; she told him to think about the location of the calls and what is happening and to think of the best way to execute. Basically, slow down and assess the situation before racing to the action. 

The Game Changer Crossover

I thoroughly enjoyed this part of the episode. I swear, I’ve never seen a group of people who made a dangerous situation into comedic gold. The scene where they had to look at a line up to see whether or not they could ID a potential suspect was so unserious. 

This lovely group of people did reconnect Nolan with an old acquaintance, Dash. He helped Nolan when he was after Oscar a few months back. This time around, he managed to be there when a text was accidentally sent to him, proving that the robbery was staged, yet again, helping Nolan out on a case. It turns out the robbery was planned, however, when a casting breakdown called for people who could pass as robbers, Sam didn’t think actual robbers would show up, but the moment he said it out loud, he realized his mistake. 

Honestly – this was a great distraction for what we all saw coming. 

Luna and Wade 

Normally it’s the woman who gets cheated on, but this time we’re seeing it the other way around. Can I call what Luna did cheating? Yes. 

When Grey noticed that Luna seemed to be a little too close to one of her colleagues, Grey’s mind starts to wander a bit. It isn’t until he’s back in Luna’s car (which he was taking in to get fixed being the amazing husband that he is) he finds a dehydrated rose and a pair of men’s sunglasses. Playing it cool, he brings the sunglasses in showing them to Luna’s colleague, Oliver, who claimed them as his. That’s the confirmation Grey needed. So what was going on between Luna and Oliver?

Grey confronted Luna about it and that’s when she confessed: nothing happened between them, but she is attracted to him and has feelings for him that she doesn’t plan on acting on. Luna, excuse me? If this meant nothing, she would’ve told Grey nothing was happening between them and left it there. For her to say that she’s attracted to him and she’s feeling something for him, but doesn’t plan on acting on it and expects Grey to accept this answer was very ambitious of her. The hesitation when Grey told her to tell him that whatever she was feeling about him is over was all the proof needed. No, she didn’t physically cheat on him, but emotionally? Yeah, Luna cheated. Grey didn’t deserve this at all. I don’t know how they’re going to come back from this. 

The Bradford Chen Group Chats

I like that Lucy is doing her best to get Tim to communicate more, especially with his mother. Tim’s relationship with his mother has been strained long enough and in knowing this, Lucy tried every chance she got to get him to give her a call. As annoyed as I wanted to be with Lucy in this episode, I like that she tried in her Lucy way of showing Tim that she is there for him. She could tell he wants a relationship with his mother, but is struggling with how to even begin. By the end of the day, Tim finally called his mother and they had a long talk and I couldn’t help but notice how happy this talk made Tim. I’m sure he isn’t used to someone caring about him as much as Lucy does and it’s a beautiful thing to see. I hope we continue to see this dynamic between them. 

What’d you think of this week’s episode of The Rookie? Share your thoughts!

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