- Title: Rookie Blue – Different, Not Better
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Tensions run high as 15 Division hits the streets searching for a masked ATM robber who has begun to turn violent, Andy (Missy Peregrym) goes out on patrol with Swarek‘s (Ben Bass) new girlfriend Cruz (Rachael Ancheril), and Epstein (Gregory Smith) is partnered with a stalkerish former late night hook-up (Priscilla Faia) who turns out to be a new rookie and Best‘s (Lyriq Bent) god daughter Chloe. Despite Chloe’s annoying tendencies (and inability to shut-up), Epstein is forced to admit the pair actually make a good pair as they are eventually responsible for hunting down their robber.
Andy and Cruz respond to an unrelated noise complaint involving a confrontation between a mentally unstable woman (Jane Sowerby) and an irate neighbor who throws her television out of the window. The pair arrest the neighbor but leave Wanda on her own only to be called back to the scene a couple of hours later with the neighbor stabbed and Wanda completely out of control in the building’s boiler room holding a young boy hostage. The situation doesn’t end well for anyone, but it does give Andy a better understanding of Cruz and what Swarek sees in her.
The episode’s other storyline involves Gail (Charlotte Sullivan) and Nick (Peter Mooney) stuck back at the station doing inventory for an upcoming auction. When a landlord drops off a urn left by one of his tenants Gail becomes attached to seeing “Ernie” home only to discover none of his relatives will claim him. The sentiment of this extra story is nice even if it feels a bit out of place. However, I’ll give the show credit for not having every single member of the cast involved in the same case. Here’s it’s basically every single member except these two, but at least that’s an improvement.
The addition of Chloe adds a new personality to the mix. How and where she and Epstein met is a little too cute for my tastes, but the two work well together on camera and I’ll be interested to see how Chloe does partnered up with various other cops in the precinct. I found it a bit odd that Andy gets off without even a stern word (Cruz is forced to kill a woman because of her partner’s questionable judgement earlier in the episode) while the weight of the whole situation hits Cruz. The final scene (which works the outcome of the show’s opening paint ball battle back into the episode) makes it seem, at least for now, that the show is leaving the Andy/Swarek romance behind, but I have doubts to how permanent the situation will turn out to be.
