The Rookie Fans Were Flat-Out Unimpressed With Season 5 Episode 15
Being a rookie in a police department is probably a bit on the rough side, but then again, being one of the oldest rookies ever probably comes with an entirely different set of issues to deal with. Of course, John Nolan (Nathan Fillion) is able to handle this profession with the actor's characteristic charisma and smooth talking, which sees him earn plenty of friends and respect in his precinct. Currently deep into Season 5, "The Rookie" is raising the stakes in Nolan's professional and personal life.
Episode 15, titled "The Con," is a dense episode with multiple plots. The first involves two rival gangs being pitted against each other, and both of these gangs are receiving outside help from people with hidden agendas. Unfortunately, these gangs are incredibly brutal and deviously cunning, which makes dealing with them like "pulling the pin on two grenades," as it is described in this most recent episode. The second plot involves the death of Nolan's mother, which also comes with plenty of additional baggage and includes impostors and angry locals. Both of these plots see "The Rookie" straddle multiple locations and stories, and it seems that may have been too much for fans of the show.
The Rookie fans felt like this episode was all over the place
Discussing the episode on Reddit, many fans of "The Rookie" either felt like this particular episode was filler, disjointed, or just plain bad. u/TheBlackSwarm wasn't all too keen on "The Con," and wrote, "This episode was a mess and all over the place jumping around from Guatemala to Pennsylvania is this The Rookie or FBI International? Could care less about the Angela/ Elijah/ Wesley/ Feds plot line I just want it to end already. Nolan and Bailey taking out random goons in Pennsylvania was even more strange. I thought Nolan would actually grieve his mom like a real human being I guess I was wrong."
Many others also felt the same way, with u/Sudden-Yard-4052 saying that this has been the weakest episode of "The Rookie" thus far and lamented that John's dating life tends to bring the show down. They then rhetorically asked if John could simply process his mother's death and added that they generally hate promotions on the show for messing with the dynamics. u/green_and_mossy stated that they thought the episode was weird and how many moments didn't really make sense in the grand scope of the plot. u/captain_aharb, u/Kwilly462, and u/bpirnceh were all underwhelmed by the episode, and u/GeneSpecialist4988 enumerated their reasons for believing that "The Con" felt like a filler episode by saying that the Elijah Stone (Brandon Jay McLaren) plot has gone on for too long, Nolan not reacting like a normal person to his mother's death, and too many departments working together make the show seem bloated. These comments highlight a general consensus among many fans that "The Con" isn't one of the better episodes, and hope this episode is merely a one-off occurrence in a generally well-received Season 5.