The Rookie Season 3 Updates: On January 3, 2021, the series “The Rookie” will premiere the third season on ABC. In addition to the dissolution of the cliffhanger from season two, the last days of the protagonists as “rookies” will also be on the agenda, while the series also wants to address the issue of police misconduct. Brandon Routh plays a black sheep.
The Rookie Season 3 and the impact of the pandemic
The third season of “The Rookie” was created under the hygiene conditions due to COVID-19. Therefore, the creators decided to take a little bit of the pace out of the series. While the protagonists around “rookie” John Nolan ( Nathan Fillion ) only have to “sit down” for 30 days in their one-year probationary period, the series will show this period very closely and probably spend ten episodes on it – as showrunner Alexi Hawley told us in an interview TVLine performed.
One of the reasons for this is that with this narrative style one tries to forego the previously usual group scenes during the morning roll call (the distribution of tasks among all patrol officers).
One of the consequences is that the typical change in rookie age groups and the associated rituals can only be picked up late in the season.
Senioritis
One focus of the first half of the season is on the fact that most of the rookies already see the finish line in front of their eyes and are essential of the opinion that they only have to do their time until they can finally go to work independently and without supervision. In the style of American students in the last year (the senior year), the resulting impatience is called senioritis: Most of the time, you have graduated safely in the last few weeks of school and already have university places, but you still have to go to class and are accordingly annoyed.
But surprises await Lucy ( Melissa O’Neil ) and Jackson ( Titus Makin Jr. ). Lucy’s trainer Tim ( Eric Winter ) has decided – as it is in his nature – to put his protégé through their paces again and to confront them with the toughest challenges before he releases them into independent service life. And Jackson receives a new instructor shortly before the end of training – his instructor Lopez ( Alyssa Diaz ) receives a promotion to detective.
Black Lives Matter
After another deadly police violence in the course of 2020, the slogan Black Lives Matter with all its facets has moved into the limelight, and many police series want to address the rift between the police on the one hand and blacks and Latinos on the other.
This is where Jackson’s new instructor comes in, Officer Doug Stanton, played by Brandon Routh. Jackson quickly realizes that Stanton has idiosyncratic beliefs about police work and how to deal with People of Color when you come into contact with them. A difficult situation for the young police officer, as he has his own convictions and experiences on the one hand and is still a rookie on the other hand – during a probationary period, where he can be dismissed without notice if the first “misconduct” occurs.
In addition, the series also wants to use the fact that the protagonists are out and about in patrol cars all day to pick up on the Black Lives Matter theme – much other police series (the classic crime novels) are about crime and investigation, less about that Everyday life in The Rookie Season 3.
The cliffhanger (SPOILER) of The Rookie Season 3
At the end of the second season, Nolan and his instructor Nyla Harper ( Mekia Cox ) had investigated the suspicion that Detective Nick Armstrong ( Harold Perrineau Jr. ) was corrupt and worked for the criminal Serj Darien. Although the two had managed to collect numerous clues outside of the official channels, the investigations ultimately led to disaster.
During a confrontation, Nolan was surprised by his adversary that he had placed evidence that Nolan appeared to be the corrupt police officer. And in an exchange of fire, Armstong was shot by Nolan – another piece of evidence that looked bad on Nolan, who was eventually arrested. We will explore the further plot in The Rookie Season 3.
Since the second season was shortened due to Corona, this story must now be completed in the third season. Even in the best-case scenario – that he can prove Armstrong’s guilt -, Nolan has to reckon with sanctions: He had just gone off official channels and in the rookie time he could easily be fired for it.
