S3 E2; In Justice

* * *  SPOILERS AHEAD  * * *

With Lopez starting her detective duties, West gets a new TO. Brandon Routh makes his debut as Doug Stanton. He seems like a cool guy and tells Jackson since he won't be a rookie much longer they will just be partners. When a black family reports a robbery, Stanton immediately starts talking to the son like he suspects he is a gang member. West is really concerned and asks to interview them by himself. He realizes that Stanton is going to be a problem.

Tim is determined to give Lucy a hard time to make sure she is ready for police work without him. Of course Lucy is up to his challenges. When Lucy finds that her car was stolen by a homeless teenage girl, she decides to help her especially when she finds out the girl is a good student and just needs a break. Tim calls it adopting a puppy.

In spite of Nolan's rough time with the whole Armstrong situation, he's still as good-natured and boy scoutish as ever. He & Harper are assigned to a community policing center and Nolan tries to be super helpful. They meet a man, James, who is suspicious of their intentions and no matter how hard Nolan tries, this guy points out how his efforts are futile and in some cases dangerous to the community. Harper tells Nolan to quit deciding what they need and just ask them what they need. Nolan starts tutoring for the neighborhood kids and gets Jackson and Lucy to help out. They start breaking the ice and making some friends. Nolan kind of bonds with a former contractor, Hugo, who later calls him up to say in code that he's at a meth lab. He and Harper race to the location with SWAT. Hugo is shackled and forced to work on the lab. It's dangerous with the fumes, but Nolan is able to get him out in time.

Harper has a friendly chat with James. They talk about their kids. James makes the point that it could make a difference if Harper actually lived in the neighborhood that she polices. She points out that it could be dangerous for her or her family. She puts in a good word for Nolan saying that he was instrumental in saving Hugo and was volunteering for tutoring long after his shift was over. James then brought his kids in for tutoring and seemed willing to give Nolan a chance.

Lopez' first day as a detective was far from smooth. She was nervous and nauseous and cranky. She showed up wearing a skimpy leather coat and had her handcuffs and mace exposed. Her boss called her out for not having her equipment concealed and told her newbies had to get coffee and later pick up lunch. When she returned, her equipment was under her coat but it was too short to cover her gun, but that wasn't mentioned. Her 1st case was to investigate a break-in at a mortuary. Of course the smell was nauseating but she discovered nothing was stolen but apparently someone had been cremated. Her boss is really mad that she called in CSU when chances of finding any DNA or anything useful on cremated remains are nil. Angela is determined to figure it out and finally realizes it has to be a former employee. He's not the smartest and has been cremating bodies for the mob. After getting fired, he was afraid to turn down the next request to get rid of a body so he broke in to do it. Angela's boss was impressed. I agree she should keep her pregnancy secret as long as possible.