Summary
“The Switch” served up predictable nonsense that does not make the audience care at all, making it the worst episode to date.
This recap of The Rookie Season 1, Episode 4, “Switch”, contains spoilers. You can check out our thoughts on the previous episode by clicking these words.
Welcome to another nonsensical, popcorn-pleasing episode of The Rookie draped in sugar and salt for good measure, and after a weeks break, nothing has really changed. In fact, the whacky world that this police force resides in got a whole lot weirder. Episode 4, “The Switch”, makes you continue to wonder what is the point of this try-hard series.
As the title suggests, the rookies switch around with their Training Officers because Sergeant Wade Grey (Richard T. Jones) decides that would be a fun activity to partake in. They are all tasked to get as much information from their Training Officers as possible. Apparently, it makes the whole damn thing competitive, dismissing the obvious fact that the safety of patrolling and training these rookies is way more important. “The Switch” serves desperate storytelling to a comical degree.
I am trying to muster a single event in this episode that is worth caring about. If you divert back a few episodes, Jackson West (Titus Makin Jr.) is scared of using his weapon in combat, and his new training officer Tim Bradford (Eric Winter) sniffs his anxiety and threatens to get him thrown off the rookie team. By the end of “The Switch”, he suddenly overcomes gun combat, after speaking with someone with similar anxieties.
As usual, The Rookie ends with the main event. After a series of Grand Theft Auto type skirmishing, the Training Officers and the rookies have to take down a significant criminal activity. Post the predictable event, Sergeant Wade Grey asks each rookie to detail the information they found out about their Training Officers, and each one decided to say nothing – how fucking noble.
I guess the most important scene was John Nolan (Nathan Fillion) and Lucy (Melissa O’Neil) breaking up due to the fear of the entire force finding out about their relationship due to Talia Bishop (Afton Williamson) having too much of a vested interest in their private life. Talia’s nosey nose should mind her goddam business.
The popcorn doesn’t taste too good in “The Switch”, leaving shards stuck between your teeth.
