Who Is the “Officer Down” in the Season 4 Premiere of ‘The Rookie’? (SPOILERS)
Updated Sept. 27 2021, 8:42 a.m. ET
Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers for The Rookie Season 4 premiere.
The show's Sunday, Sept. 26 debut teased a major cast member's death, and The Rookie’s Season 4 premiere followed through on that tragic portent.
Ominous trailers aside, the name of the premiere episode is titled "Life and Death," which speaks to the fate of two of the show's leads. Of course, there's the way that the previous season left off.
In the Season 3 cliffhanger, drug lord Sandra “La Fiera” De La Cruz (Camille Guaty) abducted LAPD officer Angela Lopez (Alyssa Diaz) on the day of Angela’s wedding to public defender Wesley Evers (Shawn Ashmore).
ABC’s press release about the Season 4 premiere teased what happens next: “Officer [John] Nolan [Nathan Fillion] and the entire team race against the clock to locate Lopez after she is kidnapped on her wedding day, not only to save her life but her unborn child’s.”
It’s an “all-hands-on-deck mobilization" effort at the start of Season 4.
The Season 4 promo showed Wesley telling Angela’s police colleagues that La Fiera is holding her at a compound in Guatemala and that he’s planning to rescue her. And John, Wade (Richard T. Jones), Tim (Eric Winter), Lucy (Melissa O’Neil), and Nyla (Mekia Cox) vow to go with him.
“We move heaven and earth to protect our own,” Wade said in the teaser.
The Rookie showrunner Alexi Hawley told TV Insider to expect an “all-hands-on-deck mobilization” in the rescue effort. “This is a very personal attack on someone they care deeply about,” he added. “They will risk everything to get their friend back.”
And that's exactly what happened in the season's debut episode.
Who dies in 'The Rookie' Season 4?
In the episode, we see that both Officers Angela Lopez and Jackson West are taken and brought into separate cars, something that their team members see on surveillance cameras. Jackson fights his kidnapper and is shot in the back during the struggle. His body is put into the trunk of the vehicle.
There was still hope that Jackson was able to survive his injuries, however, Sergeant Wade Grey confirms Jackson's fate as Nolan and the rest of the crew manage to rescue Angela and save both her and her unborn child.
Wade, with the help of Lucy, does manage to catch up to Jackson's murderer, a man by the name of Armando. After subduing the killer, expresses that he wishes to deal out the same fate he delivered to the now fallen officer. However, he opts for the high road and arrests the man instead.
As for Angela, she escapes and kills La Fiera. At the end of the episode, it's three months later into the future, Angela has already given birth, and she's still mourning the loss of Jackson.
