Life and Death

**"Life and Death"** is the first episode of the fourth season of *The Rookie*. This is the fifty-fifth episode of the series overall.

## Summary

Officer Nolan and the entire team race against the clock to locate Lopez after she is kidnapped on her wedding day, to save not only her life but that of her unborn child. Meanwhile, the team is also devasted after learning of the tragic death of one of their own during the abduction.

## Plot

In the first few scenes of the episode, the LAPD team discovers that Angela Lopez has been abducted from the wedding venue moments before the ceremony, and that Jackson West has been killed during the abduction. They track Lopez and her assailants to a warehouse where they find an empty SUV and evidence that an airplane was used in the escape.

Mourning for West, the team assembles at the Mid-Wilshire Station to discuss their next possible moves. Sergeant Wade Grey and Wesley Evers have been talking to DEA Agent Taggart, who can't guarantee that the Feds will act even if evidence of Lopez' location is found. The LAPD coroner finds DNA under West's nails, providing a lead to his killer.

Evers takes matters into his own hands and calls in a favor from a criminal, Elijah Stone, who agrees to track down Lopez in exchange for Evers' future services as a dirty lawyer. Acting on information found by Stone, Evers calls Lopez' colleagues to his home to fill them in and announces that he's going to Guatemala to get Lopez back.

John Nolan, Nyla Harper, and Tim Bradford answer Grey's objections to their participation in Lopez's rescue by mentioning the black ops crew they encountered in "Casualties", hoping they can use them in their search. Grey grudgingly supports their efforts and decides that he and Lucy Chen will pursue West's killer in Los Angeles while the others travel to Guatemala to find Lopez. Meanwhile, he formally recognizes Nolan as a P2, promoting him out of the FTO program.

Sandra de La Cruz ("La Fiera") takes Lopez back to her compound in Guatemala, where Lopez will be held until her baby is born and La Fiera will take it away from her. La Fiera's security chief, Abril Rodas, and a doctor, Dr. Morales, will be in constant attendance on Lopez until then, after which La Fiera will most likely kill Lopez and raise the baby as her own.

Bradford, Harper, and Nolan land in Guatemala in a borrowed black ops helicopter, while Wesley takes a conventional flight to arrive at the same time. Wesley gets into the compound under the guise of wanting to negotiate with La Fiera and tells Lopez that he's part of a plan to rescue her. Nolan visits an architectural firm, pretending to be looking at sites for a client, and manages to steal the plans for La Fiera's compound. Unfortunately, he and his teammates conclude that the fortress can't be penetrated with their current strategy and they go to "Plan B", which Harper and Chen do not approve of.

Plan B consists of Wesley using an injection to induce Angela's labor and getting La Fiera to take her to the hospital, where the others plan to meet Angela and get her away from La Fiera's gang. After Grey and Chen track down West's killer and arrest him in an apartment building in Los Angeles, Chen also assists in this plan by hacking into a street camera to assist Bradford and Harper. What the L.A. team doesn't see coming is the fact that Wesley was separated from Angela and sent to "the orchard" to be killed. Bradford and Harper take on the hospital mission while Nolan follows the thugs holding Wesley.

When Angela arrives at the hospital, Bradford and Harper launch an offensive against her captors and manage to subdue most of them, giving Angela a different injection to stop her labor, and race to meet the helicopter which has landed outside the hospital. La Fiera is the last of those in pursuit; she catches up to them just as they're about to board the helicopter and fires at Angela in desperation, hitting her in the leg. Angela turns and fires on La Fiera twice, killing her, and then turns to get into the transport.

Meanwhile, Nolan follows Wesley and his two "escorts" to an orange orchard, where they prepare to shoot Wesley and dispose of his body. Nolan ambushes them, Wesley distracts them, and they manage to knock both of them unconscious and run to catch the helicopter, which has made an unplanned stop outside the orchard.

The next scene we see is Angela and Wesley and their baby arriving home from the hospital in L.A., greeted by a party given by their LAPD friends. The final scene of the episode shows Angela with the baby in a body wrap at the grave of Jackson West, telling him the latest news and how much she'll miss him. Her final words are to the baby: "Come on, Jackson. Let's go home and see Daddy."

## Cast

### Main

* Nathan Fillion as John Nolan
* Shawn Ashmore as Wesley Evers
* Mekia Cox as Nyla Harper
* Alyssa Diaz as Angela Lopez
* Richard T. Jones as Wade Grey
* Melissa O'Neil as Lucy Chen
* Eric Winter as Tim Bradford

### Guest starring

* Camille Guaty as Sandra de La Cruz
* Kamar de los Reyes as Ryan Caradine
* Kyle Secor as DEA Special Agent Sam Taggart
* Gigi Zumbado as Abril Rodas
* Brandon Jay McLaren as Elijah Stone
* Onahoua Rodriguez as Juana Solaris
* Elena Campbell-Martinez as Dr. Morales
* Joshua Malina as Max

### Co-starring

* Jose Velazquez as Armando De Leon
* Tiago Roberts as Bastian
* Chuck Ashworth as SWAT Sergeant

## Trivia

* This is the final appearance of Jackson West in the series. He is shot in the back and killed by a gang member. Later, Sergeant Grey arrests his killer and Lopez names her newborn son after him.
* The brief clip of West being shot was performed by a stunt double, as Titus Makin was not available.
* This is also the final appearance of La Fiera, as she is shot and killed by Lopez during their escape. Her death is later confirmed by Lopez in "Breakdown".
* This episode marks the final time in the series in which officer John Nolan works as a rookie, as he is promoted during this episode.
* The "black ops" organization Nolan refers to was featured in "Casualties"; the leader of the op in that episode was named Max but is *not* the same Max who appears in this episode.

## Quotes

\*In the helicopter:
BRADFORD: We need to make another stop.
MAX: No other stops! I told you that!
*BRADFORD, LOPEZ, and HARPER all draw their weapons and aim them at MAX.*
MAX (into headset): Okay, we're gonna make another stop.