[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for The Rookie Season 7 Episode 8 “Wildfire.”]
A wildfire sets the stage for major moments in the latest episode of The Rookie (which was filmed before the recent rash of wildfires in California, as is noted at the top of the episode).
The ABC drama brings back Glasser (Seth Gabel), the serial killer Nyla (Mekia Cox) is keeping an eye on since they haven’t had enough to arrest him just yet. It puts Tim (Eric Winter) and Lucy (Melissa O’Neil) in grave danger to allow for an important confession … or two. Seth (Patrick Keleher) lies again, but this time it has nearly fatal consequences. And it all leads up to a shocking ending that leaves a loved one bleeding out.
Below, we break down the major moments from this episode.
Nyla vs. Glasser 2.o
Nyla mixes business with pleasure: hiking with Lucy and Celina (Lisseth Chavez) and keeping an eye on Glasser. Grey (Richard T. Jones) did have to cut his surveillance in half, but Nyla’s been picking up the slack. She knows he’ll slip up. And so when a wildfire breaks out, she immediately thinks Glasser’s responsible.
After getting legal advice from Wesley (Shawn Ashmore), Nyla takes advantage of his family evacuating to search any place a person could hide. He follows her inside and taunts her, wondering if it’s hard to keep her real self hidden from her family, if she shows the killer inside her to them. Does she relive the moments she ended the lives she did in the line of duty? When he follows her out and calls her by her first name, she corrects him: Detective Harper.
Disney/Mike Taing
Nyla has Nolan (Nathan Fillion) and Miles (Deric Augustine) follow his family to the nearby shelter, but they’re distracted by an altercation and Glasser slips out, telling his wife he’s checking on his warehouse. His wife continues to defend him until his son lies to the officers, just like his dad had told him to, and they show her footage of him in another car with his next victim. That’s when she realizes what her husband has done and directs them to a house in her mother’s name.
Once there, Miles finds the intended victim cuffed to the shower and with needles in his torso; he gets him out to their cars. Glasser knocks out Angela (Alyssa Diaz), and then Nolan fights him off. Nyla and Angela burst in just as Glasser’s grabbed a sword and arrest him. Back at the station, Nyla stares him down in holding and turns down Grey’s offer to get an interrogation room ready. She’s done with the day and taking all her vacation days. He’s happy to hear it.
Hope for Chenford?
Tim and Lucy, after taking care of looters at his house (while his nephews remained oblivious, preoccupied with video games), are on their way to help Nyla, Angela, Nolan, and Miles with Glasser when they end up surrounded by the wildfire (more on the why of that shortly). With the closest ground rescue 30 minutes out, they have to make use of the fire shelter. They get under it just in time, and while huddled together, he says he wants to tell her something. She stops him, knowing he’s going to say something heartfelt because he thinks they’re going to die and she doesn’t want to cry now. She knows he’s going to say he’s still in love with her … and she’s right.
“Of course I still love you. Do you?” he asks. “It doesn’t matter,” she says, and he knows that means yes. They survive and hug each other after.
Then, at the hospital recovering, both admit they thought they were going to die. Experiences like that crystallize your priorities, she remarks. His already were, he says. She’s decided she needs to move forward in her career and is thinking about taking the sergeant exam. He points out that if she passes, he’s no longer her supervisor and also offers to help her study.
Seth’s major mistake
We had a feeling from the moment that Grey put Seth in charge of the phones to stay in constant contact with the city, state, and federal agencies that he would mess up — and he does in a major way. He takes an update about the fire changing directions, gets distracted by Grey complimenting him on how he dealt with the deputy mayor, and then doesn’t tell anyone about the fire changing directions. And so Tim and Lucy drive right into its path.
Upon realizing that, Seth rips the page off the notepad and pockets it. To make matters worse, he goes to check on Tim and Lucy in the hospital near the end of the episode and tells them that the National Weather Service didn’t update them and he yelled at them about it. As he sees it, someone has to get fired over this. (YES.) Tim says he’ll follow up to make sure they do, but Seth insists it’s not necessary, that he handled it. The way Tim and Lucy look at him and each other, though, makes us think they know what happened … and something tells us that Seth’s days as a cop are numbered.
A shocking cliffhanger
James (Arjay Smith) organizes the shelter to help those evacuating due to the wildfire, and a woman who hasn’t been at the center lately comes by to volunteer. When a guy harasses her, James, Nolan, and Miles intervene. After, while trying to keep James from getting involved, she kisses him. He pulls away, stressing, “I absolutely love my wife.” (Nolan sees the kiss, but not the aftermath, and goes around trying to get advice on how to handle it.) She’s apologetic and walks away, but then she reveals she did see who was responsible for a gang shooting … only for the man from earlier to show up and shoot both her and James!
What did you think of this episode? Let us know in the comments section below.
The Rookie, Tuesdays, 9/8c, ABC