S1 E3; The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Poor Nolan is always getting called on the carpet for screwing up. This week he let a guy steal stolen money right in front of him. They track him down and discover that he was a poor guy that was down on his luck, playing his guitar for tips. His desperation made him steal the money when the opportunity presented itself, but he regreted it and only used enough to buy some food and turn his water back on. He offered them the money and said he'd pay the rest back, but of course Nolan and Bishop had no choice but to arrest him. It became heartbreaking when the guy's young son cried and kept screaming for his Dad. Of course it was hard on Nolan but it especially affected Bishop. It made me think that the same thing must have happened to her as a child. Later Captain Andersen asked if Nolan bailed the guy out. Bishop was forced to confess that she did much to Nolan's surprise. Their next call, Bishop forgot to lock her car door and a guy got in the cruiser and starting talking over the police radio. Sgt Grey immediately starting laying into Nolan for leaving his door unlocked and Nolan was going to take the fall, but Bishop spoke up and admitted to leaving the door unlocked. I think they are developing mutual respect for each other. He's not as soft as he seems and she's not as tough as she seems. 

Later Nolan has a gun put to his head. It amazes me how he's able to talk endlessly when he's in danger! In this case it may have saved his life since his talking allowed Bishop to tase the suspect before she could shoot him.

Bradford was back to work. There's never a dull moment with Chen and him. He's still very hung up on his drug addicted wife and it is affecting his job. He's obviously not totally healed from the shooting but he still picks a fight with a biker gang endangering both himself and Lucy. Lucy confronts him and tries to help with his wife who, surprisingly, used to be a cop. 

There were a couple of themes running throughout the episode. The 1st was the fact that 1 out of 3 rookies doesn't make it. If one of our 3 rookies doesn't make it then they will need a plan B. Nolan says being a cop is plan D for him behind astronaut, law school, construction - beauty school will be next. Jackson has no plan B and everyone is riding him about the need to have one, but he says that is all he ever wanted to be, then Capt Andersen says she never had a plan B and it worked for her. Jackson feels justified that he doesn't need a backup plan. All 3 rookies are determined to make it.

The 2nd theme was that Bishop kept telling Nolan that people aren't inherently good and quit expecting them to be. They kept running into people that were doing the wrong things (like you would expect police to) and it seemed to kind of prove her point. I think Nolan will continue to look for the good at least for a while.