Simone Clark got her win!
With The Rookie Season 4 Episode 20, we got closure for the two-part event with the terrorist attack plot wrapped in a nice little bow, and the tease of an unorthodox special unit of the FBI.
By doing that, they’ve at least attempted to make a nearly 50-year-old FBI rookie despite a pretty fixed age limit on special agents, something within the realm of plausibility. With Niecy Nash-Betts playing Simone, they’re not expecting us to worry ourselves with the fine details, and by now, we don’t much.
The agency pissing matches continued, and this time, the CIA got thrown into the mix too when they had to confront them about Ilya’s connection to the agency.
And the terrorist portion of the attack lost some of its ground after they stopped four out of the five truck bombs, but the action and character development didn’t.
Nolan: You wanna ride with me?
Simone: I thought you’d never ask.
By the end of the hour, it’s still hard to say what Ilya’s larger plan was and the significance of setting multiple bombs to get back at the station manager for his actions.
Wouldn’t it have been much easier to expose him, murder his family, and kill him too?
The hour didn’t lose the momentum of The Rookie, but it shifted its focus and tone a bit, making it much stronger as the new characters settled into their roles more.
They reminded us many times about Simone’s experience as a guidance counselor. In hindsight, it’s likely their way of selling us on her unique experience and personality converging into a skillset that makes her invaluable enough to ignore that without military or linguistic skills, she technially shouldn’t be there.
But they did a better job during this installment of capturing how Simone is a people person, and that’s what separates her way of doing things from the FBI’s traditional slate of agents.
Simone is the “I know a guy” girl, and she has a knack for getting people to open up, even the most hardened, guarded ones like Casey Fox.
She can relate to people on their level, and her social skills are above the fray and prove beneficial when she can get around some of the tight holds of a slow-moving bureaucratic system and loads of red tape.
Without Simone, it likely would’ve taken additional days and maybe weeks to find Ilya, and the longer that time would’ve extended, the less likely it would be possible.
But Simone comes up with leads in unexpected and underrated ways. Combing through scores of data has its merits, but Simone’s skill is in how she communicates with people, and it’s more hand’s on.
No one else would’ve gotten any of that information from Zeke about Russian candy bars, and it sure as hell would’ve been as easy as talking to her father, who has some knowledge of things because of his chess buddies.
It was a stretch that she happened to show up at the deli when Ilyad was there. We needn’t get into her suggestion that delectable pierogies were there or her utterly foolish attempt at stopping a CIA-trained Russian terrorist by her lonesome, but Simone got her collar.
And she managed more than if she would’ve been sitting at the desk.
Smitty: Hey, Sarge, it’s Smitty, we got truck two. Truck Utah. Driver in custody.
Grey: Schmitty! I take back every negative thing I ever said about you.
Schmitty: You said negative things about me?
Much of the hour seemed to show why it’s infinitely better when law enforcement can go out into the field and be on the frontlines of saving people.
The Rookie doesn’t make being a federal agent all that appealing when you have people like Casey who are caught up in the red tape, and everything is about going through a million channels before they get anywhere.
If anything, with Simone’s natural chemistry with Nolan and the others, her history and connection to James, and her hands-on approach to matters, she’d fit into The Rookie gang seamlessly.
If the spinoff doesn’t come to fruition, it’d be nice if she could join into the fray somehow.
But through Casey and some confirmation with Garza, there’s some foundation for a potential spinoff to have more excitement and fun if they go off books and unorthodox with a special FBI unit.
You can even see how the hour sets up its A-team for the occasion. We got to know Garza better during this installment with him paired with Grey. And once he stopped unfathomably sidelining Simone and focused on the investigation, he was more entertaining to watch.
He also made a stronger case for how he could be a leader for a team of crimefighting misfits. Despite Casey’s penchant for following rules and protocols, she appears to be Garza’s right hand.
And one often needs a level-headed person to balance things out a bit. Simone would find her place on a team like that as she’s not cut out for hiding behind a desk, and Garza has come around to appreciate her unique skills and effect on others.
You almost died. No one walks away from that unchanged.
Casey
Simone’s attachment to Zeke was a compelling aspect of the two-part event, and they made it clear that the kid is brilliant. Can’t you imagine the FBI striking some form of deal with him to work for them? He’s an engineer and hacker, and he’s a fantastic artist, too. It could be the second chance that Simone assured him he would get.
It would also be interesting if Bradford’s army buddy and ex-spook Kate came into play. Every group needs its resident badass!
It was insane how everything unfolded with her and Enervo. Of course, she had every right to be annoyed with Bradford. It sounded like they were a thing back in the day, but she hadn’t heard from him since that precise moment when he needed her help.
As upset as she was at Bradford and Nolan for their antics, they likely did save her from some black bag kidnapping to a site and her death.
Indeed, she won’t have a job with the CIA again, but she has some serious skills, and she’d make a hell of an asset to the FBI if the time comes. You can envision her incorporated into the fold if Garza manages to put his special team together. Every unit needs a resident badass, right?
Initially, when Ilya broke into the station manager’s home and stole a hairbrush, it seemed like maybe he was connected to him in another way and wanted to expose him.
However, Ilya’s whole revenge plot was because of the program the station manager set up that recruited him, taught him how to destabilize governments, and then tossed him away, abandoning him when the Russian government got ahold of him.
But worse yet, the man broke his promise to Ilya that he would protect his wife and daughters, and they got killed. Ilaya wanted to take this man down as best as he could, and that plan consisted of using the very things the CIA taught him against America.
Go figure, Ilya was a monster of the CIA’s own making which often seems to be the case when the agency gets involved in these cases. And as customary, there was a neverending pissing contest with all agencies and forces involved.
He told his side of things at that aquarium, knowing they intended to kill him. But surprisingly, Simone and Nolan managed to keep him alive, and Casey could cart him away. They also busted up the unsanctioned Enervo goon squad and arrested some rogue CIA agents.
Via this case, both the LAPD and the FBI got to see how effective they are when they stop keeping things from each other and actually work together.
Simone’s easy way of communicating with the LAPD, from her flirtation with Nolan to how well she, along with Harper and Angela, shows that she’d be an excellent liaison.
Once again, some of the advice Casey seemed to give her didn’t fair well, but at least Casey felt like a more developed character.
Her conversation with Simone in the car was nice because we learned more about the two women’s personal lives. Casey seems to only have one-night stands with women rather than partake in a serious relationship because she feels the job always gets in the way.
And Simone shared that she had a boyfriend who didn’t like that she was bisexual and a girlfriend who, like her father, didn’t care for her FBI aspirations.
The effortless way they informed us that these two women are queer was just great writing. And I can’t be the only one already shipping them!
It feels like the potential for something there with Casey and Simone when they have these honest and open moments, and that’s a connection worth rooting for here for a plethora of reasons.
Simone: My last boyfriend broke up with me when he found out I sometimes have girlfriends. And my last girlfriend broke up with me when I joined the FBI so.
Casey: She was smart.
They seem to have more similarities than differences when they have time to talk, and there’s a fondness and affection there too. We saw another glimpse of that when Casey brought Simone new clothes after the accident.
Simone is a natural flirt with everyone, as we saw with how she carried on with Nolan, so maybe Casey will just be the person she gets to be flirty with when she inevitably works at the FBI, and maybe, we’ll get even more. Their interactions were much stronger and did wonders for Casey.
It’s in moments like that when you can’t help but think about how awesome it’ll be if this spinoff happens, and it seems likely given the positive response, that a middle-aged queer Black woman will be the main character of a primetime series. You don’t see that often, and it’s rad.
Cutty also came around to the idea of his daughter as an FBI agent, and their interactions were much better when he wasn’t so bitter and angry about her decision. He came across as much softer and more paternal, and it’s evident that he, like James and Wesley, is with the LAPD and can be an asset to Simone and her job.
Bradford: Thank you for meeting us.
Kate: I almost didn’t. I knew it wasn’t a coincidence that the first time I’m hearing from you in years is today.
Bradford: No. We think our suspect might be connected to the agency.
Kate: That’s above my pay grade. Go talk to a GS 14.
Bradford: My boss already did and he’s getting the run around.
Kate: And you expect me to stick my neck out for you because we hooked up once under the rocket red glare?
Overall, the hour was fun, action-packed, and it further developed these new characters, even though most of the other Rookie characters fell by the wayside.
Setting aside that we have to suspend some belief with some of the logistics, Niecey Nash-Betts has been fabulous as Simone, and the character is an endearing one.
It would be a shame if we don’t get more of her in some capacity. And by the second half of this two-parter, I can better grasp what this spinoff would look like, and I’m not hating it one bit.
Are you into this potential spinoff now, Rookie Fanatics? Let’s discuss it all below!
You can watch The Rookie online here via TV Fanatic.
Jasmine Blu is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.
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