The Rookie this week aired Part 2 of its planted pilot for a spinoff starring Niecy Nash as Simone “The Oldest FBI Trainee” Clark. Now that you know more about Simone and her would-be colleagues, is that a show you’ll want to watch if ABC orders it to series this month?
Part 2, titled “Enervo” (as in the code name for a CIA black op that the Russian bomber, Trevor Gurin, had once been recruited for), picked up with the dispersing of the five rented box trucks containing GPS-triggered C4 explosives (and that were conveniently labeled with “state names” for easy tracking). Grey and Garzo took the sky in an FBI chopper, while Nolan & Co. did their best to scramble around town and fine the trucks. (Riding with Simone, John suggested she use her “life experience” to deduce where the other bombs might be heading; after all, it’s not like they have that L.A. traffic researcher whose data was stolen by Gurin to consult…?)
One truck did explode, collapsing an overpass on the 110, killing 17 people and injuring dozens (though this all happened off-screen), but the other four were all tracked down and stopped, even if Nolan did need to gingerly-ish crash into the last one. But Gurin himself was in the wind.
Grey and Garza swung by the local CIA office, suspecting as they did that the bomber had been a Company man and/or on their own radar, due to his fingerprints coming up classified, but CIA director Adrian Pasdar played dumb. But after Garza and Grey left, we realized that Pasdar and his team had their own, secret interest in hunting down Gurin….
Following a drive during which we learned that Agent Fox is gay and Simone herself is bi, Fox tasked Clark with rifling through screens and screens of tipline calls possibly about the Russian, but “people person” Simone instead sneaked off to talk to locked-up Zeke, her former student, asking if he remembered anything else about the bomber. This led to Zeke sketching a Russian candy bar that the guy munched on, and that in turn — thanks to some Russian musicians that Simone’s dad Cutty sometimes jams with — led Simone to a store. Not waiting for Nolan to catch up, Simone approached and tried to chat up Gurin by herself, but that led to a brief brawl, where the Russian walloped the unarmed trainee hard, and then ran off.
Bradford reached out to a onetime hook-up who is with the CIA, but as soon as they mentioned “Enervo” she feared the worst — and rightly so, since Pasdar’s armed minions pulled up in SUVs to haul her away. Nolan had deftly slipped his cell into her jacket, though, so they were able to track her and later ambush the CIA convoy and reclaim Bradford’s pal. Back at the LAPD, the agent explained the Enervo op, which was designed to destabilize countries without firing a single bullet — but now Gurin was using it against them.
That night, Nolan and Clark located Gurin at an aquarium, where he insisted on sharing his story. (Something about losing his wife/family, because of the CIA…? The sound on my screener was muddy/inaudible.) They then went to take him away, when Pasdar’s goons showed up and a brief firefight broke out. Nolan’s backup showed up, though, and hauled the shady CIA peeps away.
Back at the cop shop, Garza hit trainee Clark with the usual You Are Unconventional! And Break Rules! speech… but said that if she graduated from the academy, maybe they will work together again in L.A. Nolan offered to Clark her a lift to the airport, but her dad Cutty insisted on doing the honors instead — after he shook the hand of the law enforcement officer who saved his daughter’s life (and vice versa).
TVLine readers gave Part 1 of the planted spinoff an average grade of “B” — what say you this week? And also vote below on whether The Trainee (or whatever it ends up being titled, if ordered to series) is a show you’d plan to watch next TV season.
Want scoop on the actual The Rookie, or for any other show? Email [email protected] and your question may be answered via Matt’s Inside Line.
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