The Rookie Season 8 Episode 14 Dishes Out a Pinch of Celina Growth & a Heap of Dash

Critic’s Rating: 4 / 5.0

4

If there’s one thing The Rookie loves, it’s going on side quests.

Most of The Rookie Season 8 Episode 14 was Nolan pulled into another case because of Dash, and they sprinkled in a bit of Celina passionately pursuing Missing Persons cases.

And some of that worked out well enough.

The first few moments of the hour really delivered that classic The Rookie humor.

Bradford’s level of excitement about his fancy new truck with all the tech was fun.

And him being on hold in the passenger seat while Nolan and Lucy were kicking ass after two shirtless guys were squaring up in the middle of the street was hilarious.

The bloody face slide was particularly amusing. Nolan has really been putting belt to ass this season, and I have to give him his kudos for that. And Lucy has been in more than a few brawls, too.

Tiny little badass Lucy always holds her own.

Those were the types of things that felt like a typical The Rookie episode as far as upping the ante on the fun.

Then Dash called with this bizarre case because he found his teacher was dead, and dove into some high school craziness that brought out the absolute best in Lucy.

Her monologue as she broke down all the hot gossip she ascertained from all of the teens was perfectly executed. It can’t possibly be her first time knowing exactly how to get all the tea spilled from a bunch of teenagers.

The case itself mostly felt like something they needed to give us our allotted amount of Angela and Harper screen time. While I eat up every single second of my favorite cop ladies, it would’ve been nice if they had more to do.

The Rookie this season feels like they don’t exactly know what to do with most of its characters.

Unless it’s connected to Glasser, Nyla hasn’t had much to do. And they really haven’t given Angela anything to work with, especially since the DA storyline didn’t actually go anywhere and largely happened offscreen.

Once again, Miles was M.I.A., and Grey has been in this weird place of them trying to make him fit into the storyline consistently, even if they don’t have the best explanation for his presence.

We sailed past the murder investigation that would’ve centered Harper and Lopez more, and dove right into everything with Dash.

When it comes to showrunner Hawley’s children playing roles in the series, I admittedly enjoy Dash more than Rodge.

I didn’t mind Dash for the rest of this hour, and his connection with Nolan is endearing. It’s clear that Nolan sees a bit of himself in Dash, and he’s taken such a liking to the kid and wants to look out for him.

Dash got a raw deal from his parents, especially his father, Gus, who proved to be a loser after this.

There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with Dash’s connection with Nolan. It’s genuinely heartwarming and a great way for Nolan to explore another layer with someone, without him only being stuck with Bailey.

It’s just bizarre how they randomly insert Dash into plots. The kid probably has the worst luck ever. And I’ve lost track of how many times he’s just … sitting at the police station this season.

It was surprising that Nolan didn’t come up with some excuse for why Dash couldn’t go with his father when it was clear he didn’t want anything to do with the man, and Nolan was put off.

Gus sucked. He didn’t retain any of the information about Dash finding his teacher dead or whatever traumas he went through. Gus was too busy thinking about his next hustle and the people he owed money to.

Ironically, they really hit home how Nolan is a father figure — the dad who stepped up — by simply highlighting that he listens to Dash.

Nolan pieced together that Dash would take the criminals on the cusp of killing his father to Reese’s house. And from there, it was entertaining enough.

Dash succeeded in impressing Reese. They hilariously found out that they really don’t want to look through your parents’ nightstand drawer, and with no thanks to Gus, everyone survived, and the bad guys got arrested.

Gus did express some acknowledgment that he’s a horrible dad and guilty, but not enough for it to matter or for me to really care. And I’m glad Nolan basically told him to leave Dash alone for his own benefit.

And this sneak Dash-centric has a happy ending.

Meanwhile, Celina finally got bits of a great storyline, and I’ve been wondering what’s next in her career. We haven’t really had space to follow her next steps now that she isn’t a rookie anymore.

Celina going into Missing Persons makes sense, and her determination to prove the prickly guy she was assigned to wrong was admirable.

Circling things back around to her personal experience with her sister going missing was nice. It’s just too bad that it’s not something the series leaned into enough, gave enough breathing room, or really built up to well enough.

Celina actually successfully roping Smitty into helping her search for someone (who ultimately wasn’t missing) was such a shock. He really does have a soft spot for her if he’s actually willing to do work for a change.

But the real drama and thrills came from her looking into the disappearance of a woman, Apple. Bless her heart, her spidey senses weren’t going off enough when it came to Apple’s roommate.

The girl was hesitant to let Celina in, kept slipping up by saying how much Apple bothered her and was a hassle, and kept using the past tense as if she already knew Apple was dead.

Then Celina made the cardinal mistake of turning back on this woman, who was already suspicious.

When she found that tooth under the bed, it confirmed what was plain as day: The roommate killed Apple.

And she was just psychotic enough to try killing Celina, too. Blinding her and then coming at her with a hammer was insane. Did you see how she was swinging that thing? Goodness!

Celina made a dumb move by going there by herself without alerting anyone. It’s terrifying to think of what could have happened if she hadn’t successfully subdued that Amazonian woman with a hammer coming at her.

But she is tenacious and relentless, and I hope we see more of her doing Missing Persons cases.

Fleeting Thoughts:

• A Bailey-less episode. Finally.
• Tiger Bear sounds so stupid. I just wanted to slap Gus repeatedly. Also, how old was Gus supposed to be? Why didn’t it seem like he was old enough to have a son Dash’s age?
• So, Vivian is just … going to be the DA unimpeded, and that’s it?
• Everyone quitting speaks volumes about Vivian. I’m still trying to figure out the point of this whole thing for Wes.
• Bradford is just so much better when he gets to be in the field.
• Why do we know more about Dash than Miles?

Over to you, The Rookie Fanatics! Were you a fan of this episode? Do you wish we had more Celina content?

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