S1 E15; Manhunt

I'm anxious to see Sarah Shahi. I've enjoyed her in many other roles on other shows.

I'm sure looking forward to seeing Sean in the show! I never would have recognized him though. If I know Nathan, we'll see a few more familiar faces guesting on the show, provided it gets renewed. That's just fine with me!

Review - Spoilers

This might be the best episode of the season! It was written by Robert Bella. It starts off with our rookies filming an ad to recruit more LAPD officers. Their acting was wooden and they kept stumbling over easy lines, but they felt pretty good about the result, that is until they were informed at their morning meeting that they were punked! Pretty funny! 

Sarah Shahi stars as Jessica Russo a former FBI agent hired to teach some of her methods to the LAPD. Turns out, Nolan's natural ability to empathize with people makes him a natural as a negotiator. 

When a prison transport crashes, it's all hands on deck. Nolan has a tough time, first finding a guard who is slowly dying because his leg has been ripped off, then getting attacked by one of the escaped convicts. Later at a checkpoint, he realizes that the driver's child is in the trunk with one of the escaped convicts. In each case, acting on his own, he is able to make good decisions to successfully resolve the situation. 

Russo seems impressed with Nolan and has him and Bishop go after one of the convicts that may have money hidden somewhere. Bishop thinks they should check his aunt's house since someone called in a wellness check for her. The convict (Sean Maher) has a rifle duct taped to her with a string attached to the trigger. Russo shows up but doesn't take control. Instead she gives Nolan some advice and he takes command of the situation in a decisive way. It's great to see how far Nolan has come. He's demonstrated that he can think on his feet and that his instincts are good. He's definitely gaining confidence.

Jackson had to process one of the convicts that knew his dad. The guy told him his dad planted evidence to get him sent away for life back in the 90s. Jackson of course was skeptical, but the guy said to read his file and he'd see. Jackson worships his dad so this information is tough to accept. If he really doesn't believe it's possible he won't bother reading the file. I think he's starting to wonder if maybe his dad wasn't the perfect supercop like he always thought he was, and I think he will be compelled to read the file.

The sergeant's test is in 2 months and Bradford said he wanted to take it. I'm not sure if any of the rookies are eligible, but it seems pretty early for that. All the TOs have expressed interest in making detective. The next test is in 2 years so it'll be interesting to see who actually takes the test and how they do on it.

Nolan runs into Russo leaving the station and asks her to sign her book for him. I was dying to find out what she wrote. Turns out she gave him her phone number! Nolan called her immediately even though she was only 50 feet away from him and said, "Too soon?" She smiled. I like them together and would like to see if it leads anywhere. Will Lucy be hurt? Hide and watch!

The writers like playing with Nathan's former TV shows. Nolan said, "I've never met someone who's written a book before." In another episode he said he didn't know how to use the expresso machine. The bad guy with the aunt was named Caleb and of course Nathan played an evil Caleb in Buffy. Did you catch any that I didn't?

I'm with Nathanfan, I'm not sure I would have recognized Sean Maher if I hadn't known it was him.

Lastly, I'm glad I wasn't playing Aunt Sally!

So are they going to have a cop dating an author?