TV

“Rookie Blue” recap (5.8): Act As If

Previously on Rookie Blue, Oliver got promoted to Staff Sergeant and Gail tried to apologize to Holly for walking out and then ignoring her calls when she was mad instead of talking things out but Holly said she already moved on and said, “Goodnight, Gail”, which somehow sounded like the saddest two words in the history of ever.

We begin with Andy and Sam on a date, and I have a confession: The first 32 times McSwarek happened, I wasn’t into it. Sam was grumpy and rude and too stand-offish for my precious Andy, and I wanted better for her. But Sam has grown in a way I never thought he would and this scene proves it. Andy is trying her best to be angry and Sam is just smiling and sassing her. He’s not scolding her, he’s not belittling her, he’s just letting her work herself up, and kissing her when she decides she’s going to smile until she feels like smiling. It’s a new mantra she’s trying, “Act as if.” Also attempting change is Diaz, who is at an AA meeting, where he calls himself Dave. He blames the stress of his job and the loss of custody if his not-son on his feeling lost. He also says he’s not an addict, which proves he’s not really on the right path just yet. The first step really is admitting you have a problem, not agreeing to go to a meeting because your roommate forced you to. After the meeting, Diaz says he had a great time, but Dov can tell he’s not taking this as seriously as he should.

At 15 Division, Nick, who has been hanging out and being nice in the background lately, but who I miss a little, asks Steve BroPeck if he can be part of a raid they’re planning. BroPeck tells him not only can he be part of it, but he can lead it! I hope this means Nick is going to get to do some fun stuff coming up, because he could use a little love in the storyline department.

Nick’s joy is interrupted by Nash getting an email saying her baby daddy wants to get their son Leo five nights a week, and if she tries to fight it, he’s going to try to get sole custody. They want that kid on Orphan Black full time.

Oliver starts his work day off with a meeting from the commissioner, who tells him where to put his team, and forces him to pull the raid, saying they need all hands on deck in Swansea, though Oliver disagrees. The commissioner leaves without even giving him a good reason to give BroPeck for calling off the raid, and Oliver declares war against Wednesday.

Oliver calls everyone to a meeting and tells them about their Swansea assignment, and Andy strolls in late and makes a snide remark about hipsters, causing Gail to look at her almost like she’s kind of amused. Oliver tells her that she can be mouthy or late, not both. And while he’s on the subject, they all need to show him more respect. He’s been their friend, but now he’s their boss, and he can’t be both. Not as long as he wears the white shirt. I’m really starting to hate that white shirt.

Gail and Andy are paired up today, and in the squad car, Andy makes a joke about Oliver, which makes Gail laugh, the most magical sound of them all. Andy looks at Gail like she’s lost her mind and Gail says that Andy said something bad about someone else, meaning they finally have something in common. Gail throws in a snide remark about how they share Nick before asking Andy if she lost her Supernice Sash and feigns sadness for her because it was surely Andy’s favorite sash! Andy tries to shut her up but is also laughing and my oh my how far these two have come.

A call comes in and Andy grumps about it, so Gail tells her to just ignore it. Gail then watches with a mischievous twinkle in her eye as Andy fights against her attempt at No More Miss Nice McNally and finally caves and picks up the call. Diaz and Dov get to a call where there’s an abandoned car outside a house with the door open. They go in to find the place trashed and call out to see if anyone’s still there. They hear some banging and yelling and find a man trapped in his music studio, saying someone locked him in. He says he lives here with his wife and stepson, that he and his wife were going on vacation and he just came back for his passport. They find the stepson upstairs with a bag over his head, tied to a chair. After some gentle questioning, he reveals that he hates his stepdad, skipped school, and that he had locked the doors behind him because his mom is super paranoid like that. He claims he was attacked from behind and didn’t see anything.

The stepdad gives a list of the things that appear to be missing and says he’s a musician, so Gail warns him not to quote song lyrics at him or she will shoot him.

Back at 15, Oliver is still cursing Wednesdays and politics and this stupid shirt, so New Sam gives Oliver his own advice: Be the cop you are, not the cop you think you’re supposed to be. Oliver tells Swarek he’s on Andy’s side, and Swarek says he knows, and that Andy will figure it out sooner or later.

Struck with this good mood, Oliver finds a way to make the raid happen after all. Probably mostly so Nick had something to do today.

At the robbery house, Gail, Andy, and Dov try to work out what happened. What they know: The person who robbed them probably had a key, knew the music studio door jammed so it couldn’t be opened from the inside, and a window was broken from the inside. When they try to figure out why someone with a key would also break a window, they decide it was probably a staged inside job. Andy thinks the husband hired someone to do it, but Gail suspects the mother because of how many times she apologized to her son. Gail thinks the mother didn’t expect the son to be there. Andy and Gail bet on the case like the super-professional cops they are.

Chloe earns her keep this episode by figuring out that the husband and wife’s financials were in dire need of money. Their bills are all unpaid…except their house insurance. They bring the husband in for questioning and find out that he had no idea they were broke.

Swarek tells him they think it’s an inside job and the husband says it wasn’t his wife because whoever broke in stole some pot he had hidden in his studio. He gives up the names of everyone who would have known about the weed, and Andy thinks this means she wins the bet, so Gail forks over $20. In Detective-ville, BroPeck tells Nash that he saw her baby daddy Dex at the gambling ring they’re about to bust and that he’s about to take Dex off her hands once and for all. The guy might be fighting her for custody, but he’s still her son’s father, so she warns him about the raid. Dex swears he was just gambling to cover his legal fees and promises not to tell the other gangsters about the raid. Because he’s proven so trustworthy thus far.

In his squad car, Dov tries to reschedule a meeting he missed while he was taking Diaz to AA, and finds Diaz’s phone that he left in the car. When he picks it up, he looks at it as if it’s a death threat from A or something.

Andy and Gail interrogate the wife, and prove to be the perfect example of Good Cop/Bad Cop, though actually it’s more like Nice Cop/Snarky Cop. Andy tries to sweet talk information out of her, while Gail gives her attitude about her looming bankruptcy and her poorly timed vacation plans. The wife is super defensive about everything, but when they mention the studio, she tells them that there’s a motion-sensored camera in there that she set up because she thought her husband might be cheating on her, since she didn’t know the pot side business he was running was the cause of all the strangers going in and out of her house.

Dov, still at the robbery house, watches the nanny cam and sees him go straight for the lockbox. Gail tells him to bring the camera back so the husband and wife can try to ID the intruder, but before he can, the son walks by and starts at the sight on the screen. Dov asks if he knows the guy, but the son says he was just weirded out by seeing the intruder on the screen is all. Likely story.

Dov calls Diaz out on the text from his dealer that he saw and Diaz blows up at him, being defensive and telling Dov to step off. After all, he’s not Dov’s junkie brother. Before Dov can react to that low blow, they hear a gunshot from another room in the house. They go into the studio to find the son, bleeding on the floor but still breathing. He confesses that the whole thing was his fault, that he and his friend planned it, and that everything went wrong, just like everything always goes wrong, and even his attempt at suicide went wrong. Dov tries to calm him down and keep him conscious while Diaz tries to open the jammed door. Then things go from bad to worse when they smell gas; the bullet had hit a gas pipe in the wall.

Faced with imminent death, Diaz apologizes for everything he said and passes out. Dov kicks open the door, shakes Diaz awake, and drags the boy to safety, being more useful in this five minute than he has in five seasons.

BroPeck’s raid ends up being a bust, unsurprisingly, and Nash confesses that she may or may not have tipped off Dex. Peck is less than pleased with this, because all he wanted was to get this asshat out of the way. She eventually figures out, because she used her detective skills to notice the VERY OBVIOUS timestamps on the photos, that Steve was tailing Dex long before he planned this raid, but Steve isn’t even sorry. He set out to prove her baby daddy was a nogoodnik, and he succeeded. When everyone is safe and sound back in the precinct, Dov looks up at Oliver’s office, trying to decide what to do. Diaz comes over and promises he’ll get everything together, but Dov says he learned the hard way with his brother that keeping secrets isn’t being a good friend. Diaz, realizing it’s tell or be told on, says he’ll confess to Oliver himself, even though he’s sure it means he’ll be stripped of his badge on the spot. Before he goes, Diaz accuses him of not being a good friend.

Chloe finds Dov standing looking like he’s not sure if he made the right decision and tries to get him to talk to her, but he ignores her, like he’s been ignoring her for weeks now. She’s being kind and patient and trying to be supportive, but he keeps brushing her off and pushing her away. And I don’t like it, not one bit.

In the locker room, Andy tries to give Gail her money back because technically no one won that bet. Gail tells her to keep it and Andy says that normally she would have insisted, but Mean Andy is going to keep it. When she realizes Gail isn’t laughing with her, she looks over, and Gail is peering into her soul with her piercing blue eyes. Andy asks her what’s wrong, she thought Gail liked Mean Andy. Gail admits that she did, that it was really working with this “bitter, petty thing” she’s dealing with at the moment, but that Andy is just plain bad at it. She tells her to cut it out and that Oliver loves her. Oliver loves all of them. Andy goes to Oliver’s office and asks if he’s OK, and he blames Wednesday for all his problems. (I’ve found Tuesdays to be the ones with the vendetta, personally.) Andy admits that she’s trying to be over the anger she’s feeling, but she’s not. But she’s trying. Oliver tells her that he’s on her side and always will be. Andy starts to leave and Oliver tells her that seeing her has been the best part of his day so far and she says she believes it because she’s amazing, but tears fill her eyes and she doesn’t sound like she believes it at all. Her voice catches in her throat and she said, “Act as if.” What did you think of “Exit Strategy”?

Lesbian Apparel and Accessories Gay All Day sweatshirt -- AE exclusive

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Back to top button