As you know, The Rookie tries to give all its characters, especially the rookies, some unique traits to set them apart.
It attempts to find variety, from having the oldest rookie in the LAPD to a rookie who’s not a rookie in Season 7.
Not all of these traits land well; a good example is Celina Juarez. Celina first appeared in the fifth season, being assigned to Nolan as her training officer.
Throughout their time together, Nolan came to learn more about Celina and what motivated her to become a police officer.
He also discovered that Celina firmly believed in the supernatural, claiming to have intuitions that were hard to explain.
Celina and Her Bags of Senses and Feelings
Supernatural claims should always be taken with a grain of salt because there is almost always a natural explanation. Nolan tried to understand the situation by looking for a logical explanation, but that couldn’t save viewers from Celina’s affronts.
Her supernatural claims were annoying at best. Policing requires intentionality, and actions should be guided by good evidence or a justifiable belief.
A police officer claiming that they feel someone has done something wrong simply doesn’t cut it. Like anyone else, police officers can also fall victim to bias, and the consequences are catastrophic.
Celina was like a bomb waiting to explode. All it would have was one wrong “sense,” and she would have gotten someone killed, if not herself.
She appeared brash, careless, and cringey.
It was also a low blow that the writers settled for a Hispanic woman who believed in this. It can even come off as a racist stereotype. It would have been funny if the character was a hippie White woman in a 2000s sitcom.
All rookies show these qualities to some extent, but most are willing to learn and change, yet the writers never seemed to want to change anything about her.
This dragged on for several seasons, but in The Rookie Season 7, things may have changed.
The Celina We Deserved
The arrival of new rookies was an appropriate time for Celina to graduate. Plainclothes day arrived, and the entire affair was quite surprising.
Celina did an excellent job handling things herself, and never once did she use her “senses.”
This may be too early to call right, but Celina has changed between seasons, and it’s for the better.
All the lessons Nolan had tried to impact on her finally sunk, and she even learned some about herself.
On The Rookie Season 7 Episode 2, Celina and Nolan work on the case of a woman avenging the murder of her daughter.
The old Celina would have some feelings about the situations, but she approached them rationally, connecting with the grieving mother and ensuring a good outcome.
To some extent, Celina has not lost her touch. She has not lost the humanity most cops lose on the job. Being with Nolan exemplified the best parts of her personality.
Instead of screaming at the grieving woman to put down the weapon and keep her hands where Celina could see them, she thought ahead, sympathized with the woman’s plight, and connected with her on a human level.
It is rare to see cops do that.
This change in the character, if permanent, will undoubtedly make her better to watch.
Her constant overreliance on unexplainable phenomena will reduce the frustration viewers used to feel whenever she appeared in a scene.
If she continues on this trajectory, Celina is bound to become one of the best cops in Mid-Wilshire.
Her shift from crystals, auras, and horoscopes makes her a level-headed police officer who is not a hazard to the public whenever she goes to the streets.
Even cops who have committed the worst atrocities sometimes never intended to. They genuinely believe they have the best method to do the job, and sometimes, it’s not even good, let alone the best.
All it takes is a cop who thinks he can judge someone by their race because “that’s how that race behaves.” Or one who thinks he knows someone because they “grew around people like that.” Or even one who thinks they “have an unshakable feeling about someone.”
The Rookie is a better show with this version of Celina, and Los Angeles is less dangerous too.
What did you think?
Did I jump before the drum was struck, or did Celina noticeably change?
Chime in in the comments section and cast your vote in the poll below!
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