The Rookie's Officer Celina Juarez has had a difficult time fitting in — both with the other characters and the audience. When she was introduced as John Nolan's rookie, viewers expected that Celina would make a certain amount of mistakes. However, the character felt so unrealistic that fans began to question whether she even belonged on the show.
However, "Daddy Cop" marked a step forward for Celina. Not only did she learn something from and fit in better with Sergeant Wade Grey, but the episode showed her behaving more realistically. If Lisseth Chavez's The Rookie character continues down this path, she may finally win over the show's devoted fans.
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How The Rookie's Celina Juarez Started Acting Like a Realistic Cop
Celina Juarez was initially a terrible police officer. Her messy debut episode included pulling someone over based on a bad aura. From there, her characterization only got worse. She solved a case based on a dream. She made death predictions for a notorious criminal. She was nearly killed after getting lost in the woods. All of these ridiculous stories meant Celina was harming The Rookie's credibility because she seemed incompetent.
"Daddy Cop" changed that when Grey decided that Celina was going to ride with him for the next two days. She forgot a key teaching point during the LAPD's morning meeting and he wanted to see what else she might have forgotten. In essence, it would be an evaluation of both Celina and Nolan's training techniques. Before Grey and Celina left, Nolan told her to take it easy on the spiritual side of things and focus on fact-based investigating. She took his advice — and did a much better job.
Grey helped her take her spiritual intuition and turn it into logical conclusions. She could feel that a situation was off, but she didn't know why. Celina and Grey talked it through until she could identify the crime that was in progress. Later, Grey allowed Celina to show her progress by putting her in charge of an active crime scene. It was a high-pressure situation, but she made the right decisions and risked her life to save a child. By the episode's end, The Rookie actually awarded Celina a medal for her efforts.
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Celina Juarez Is Starting To Fit In on The Rookie
When Celina was introduced, fans were warned that she was going to have an "unusual" approach to policing. However, they weren't ready for her spiritual crime-fighting. It simply didn't match with all the other characters on The Rookie. "Daddy Cop" showed that Celina can be a very effective cop if she can consistently use her intuition in a credible way. She wanted to make a difference and was willing to risk her own life to do so.
Celina clearly doesn't fit into the traditional police character mold. The way that she reads people and situations is different than viewers expected and they haven't been able to relate to her. But the plot of "Daddy Cop" gave them something to relate to — Celina's desire to help people no matter what. It also showed how her unique way of thinking can be an asset to the LAPD. She earned recognition from both Grey and the department. As long as she continues to learn from the more veteran officers like Grey and Nolan, she'll mesh better with them and the audience may finally warm to her.
The Rookie airs Tuesdays at 8:00 pm on ABC.
