Day of Death

**"Day of Death"** is the eleventh episode of the second season on *The Rookie*. This is the thirty-first episode of the series overall.

## Summary

Officer Nolan and the entire team are in a desperate search to rescue Officer Chen after her abduction and must attempt to get Rosalind to help them in their search. Meanwhile, after Officer Lopez discovers Wesley unconscious from a dangerous cocktail of alcohol and pills, she is forced to keep him close by.

## Plot

Lucy Chen wakes up to find Caleb Wright tattooing her day of death onto her abdomen. Jackson West then tells the other officers about Chen's disappearance after failing to find her at the apartment that they have together. Tim Bradford, West, and Nick Armstrong also discover that the video Bradford had viewed of Caleb earlier had been deleted, along with the rest of his social media pages.

Chen loses consciousness again and then wakes up to find herself tied to a chair in a house. Caleb enters the room and tells Chen that his intended victim was Armstrong, but that he had abducted her instead, seeing a crime of opportunity. Caleb then gets angry at Chen when she correctly profiles him, and tells her that he "was going to enjoy" killing her.

Wade Grey instructs John Nolan and Nyla Harper to go to Shaw Memorial Hospital to interview Nora Valdez, Wright's previous victim. Valdez does not remember much about her ordeal, but helps them nevertheless after being informed that Chen had been abducted as well.

Nolan and Harper return to the station, and the other officers are briefed about the situation. Bradford calls Angela Lopez, informing her of the situation, and she and Wesley Evers arrive at the station to help in the search. Evers helps West field calls from the tip lines they had set up in an attempt to locate Chen, but Bradford believes the tip lines are "useless", and he confides in Lopez that he feels responsible for Chen's abduction.

Later, Chen breaks free of her restraints and attempts to escape, but Caleb catches up to her. The two struggle briefly, until he kicks her in the head and drags her away by her leg. He then leads her to her gravesite, bounding her wrists with zip ties. He also pokes her repeatedly with a knife and mocks her. They reach the gravesite, and Caleb tells her that given the setbacks, he was going to have to bury her alive, unlike the first two victims.

When Chen protests, Caleb threatens her with a gun, forcing her to get in the barrel. He then further humiliates her by taking her picture and showing her the camera on the bottom of the barrel's lid. He then locks the barrel's lid into place and then kicks the barrel into the pre-dug hole. He buries Chen alive and leaves.

Nolan and Harper return to the prison to confront Rosalind Dyer about Chen's abduction. Nolan tries to convince Dyer to give up Caleb's location, but Dyer tells him that Caleb's kills are her kills as well. The team later finds out that Caleb had sneaked into the prison on multiple occasions, and had given contraband items to Rosalind so that they could communicate with one another.

Nolan later returns to speak with Dyer, and Dyer reveals that killing Chen was never the endgame. Nolan then asks her what is, but Rosalind corrects him saying "Not what, but who". From that, the LAPD team deduces that Armstrong is her ultimate target.

Caleb is then seen confronting Armstrong at the graveyard where Armstrong's wife is buried. Nolan's attempts to contact Armstrong through his cell phone are unsuccessful, and Caleb shows Armstrong the video feed of Chen. He also tells Armstrong that he must come with him to save Chen. Caleb takes Armstrong's gun and leaves the photo of Chen on the ground next to Armstrong's phone with the caption "Now I Have 2 Cops". The photo is later found by Lopez and Sergeant Grey.

Inside the barrel, Chen struggles to stay awake as she is quickly losing oxygen. She frees herself of her restraints once again, but cannot escape. She begins coughing and is disheartened that she cannot break free of the barrel. Chen then begins to sing silently to preserve her oxygen, but then passes out in the barrel.

Caleb takes Armstrong to the house. There is a barrel in the house and Armstrong runs towards it, believing Chen is inside. He finds the barrel empty and realizes he has been tricked, but it is too late, as Caleb points his gun at him and reveals Chen is buried inside of a different barrel. He then tells Armstrong that Rosalind felt bad that he had missed his wife's death and was giving him Chen's death to watch instead. Caleb then proposes that they will watch Chen's death together and then he will suffocate Armstrong as well.

Once they return to the station, Bradford, West, Lopez, Grey, and Evers dig through Caleb's credit card statements and discover that Caleb has been living in Rosalind's uncle's former house. From this, they correctly deduce that the house is where Chen and Armstrong are being held captive. Bradford, West, Lopez, and Grey board a helicopter to go to the house, leaving Evers behind at the station.

Later, Nolan and Harper arrive at the house after the others inform them of where it is. Nolan breaches the house and Harper fatally shoots Caleb through the window. Armstrong is distraught, as Caleb is the only one who knows where Chen is buried. They try in vain to revive Caleb, but he dies of his injuries before he can tell them anything.

Bradford, West, Lopez, and Grey finally arrive at the house, and they join Nolan, Harper, and Armstrong as they search the property for Chen. However, they are having no success in the search until Bradford finally locates where Chen is buried after spotting her ring on the ground. The others then rush over to help Bradford dig up the site. Bradford eventually removes the lid and they find Chen unconscious, but she is revived after Bradford performs CPR on her.

Chen is then taken to the hospital, where she recovers from her ordeal. Later, Nolan returns to the prison and reveals to Dyer that they had recovered Caleb's notes from the house, meaning that they now know everything about her crimes, and that she no longer has any secrets. As Nolan prepares to leave, Dyer reveals that she has one last secret about Armstrong, but Nolan does not believe her. Nolan then shuts the door, locks it, and leaves.

## Cast

### Main

* Nathan Fillion as John Nolan
* Mekia Cox as Nyla Harper
* Alyssa Diaz as Angela Lopez
* Richard T. Jones as Wade Grey
* Titus Makin as Jackson West
* Melissa O'Neil as Lucy Chen
* Eric Winter as Tim Bradford

### Guest starring

* Harold Perrineau as Nick Armstrong
* Shawn Ashmore as Wesley Evers
* Michael Cassidy as Caleb Wright
* Annie Wersching as Rosalind Dyer
* Julian Acosta as Sgt. Antonio Hernandez
* Natalia Del Riego as Nora Valdez
* Bart Johnson as Jerry Havel
* Darri Ingolfsson as Benjamin Lassie
* Rick Chambers as News Reporter
* Ali Larter as Dr. Grace Sawyer

## Trivia

* "Dream A Little Dream Of Me" was written by Fabian Andrea, Wilbur Schwandt, and Gus Kahn in 1931. (Wikipedia)
* MUPS stands for Missing and Unidentified Persons Section, a division of the Calfiornia Department of Justice. NaMUS stands for National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, which is connected with the U. S. DOJ.
* The address of Chen and West's apartment was revealed to be 2150 Raphio Street. It was seen on the whiteboard in the station's briefing room when Lucy's abduction was being discussed by the other officers.
* The Las Torres Bar, where Caleb had abducted Chen, was located at 955 Girasol Avenue.
* West tells Evers that his last caller believed that Chen was kidnapped to be the new host body for Hugh Hefner. Hugh Hefner was the founder and editor in chief of Playboy magazines who passed away in 2017.
* This episode takes place on December 9, 2019, one day after the events of the previous episode.
* The knife that Nolan was using to try to get a bullet out of Caleb was a Spyderco Delica 4.

## Quotes

* WRIGHT: You know what it is? Tell me.
CHEN: My day of death.
* BRADFORD: What's your tolerance level for cranks and asshats wasting your time?
EVERS: I'm a public defender.
* WRIGHT: Any last words?
CHEN: Yeah. You're gonna be dead long before I am.