'Rookie Blue' Recap: "Perfect Family"

Rookie Blue, like most case-of-the-week dramas come to think of it, sure likes to have its cases relate to the character's personal lives. This episode was no different — in fact it was one of the most obvious tie-ins yet. The theme of the case, as the episode's name suggests, is "the perfect family." Just as Andy is struggling to understand what Marlo's situation means for her and Sam, she and the officers get a case of a family that's not as together as it seems.

Andy and the family aren't the only ones who are a bit messed up. Nick and Ward are still trying to figure out whether or not they want to flirt, Chris is figuring out if getting lucky with a hot chick is worth risking his job, and Dov and Marlo are struggling to understand who made the evidence room go boom.

Read on for the full recap of the wacky, inner personal conflict-filled episode:

The case

In another semi-dropped plot situation, the episode does not resume the hunt for the rapist that attacked Andy. As Sam reminds her and us when we first see both him and Andy, Sex Crimes is on the case. So are we going to see that get resolved or what?

Instead, the case of the day is about a missing 16-year-old girl named Hayley.

After talking to Hayley's parents — it's quickly clear her father, Lloyd, is very domineering (so much you want to reach through the screen and hit him) — the police learn that she was last seen at 7:30 the night before, when she went to a gas station near their house for milk. She has no cell phone, per Lloyd's rules, and no friends, according to her brother Jeremy.

The feeble mother, Ellen, describes what Hayley was wearing when she left the house. Apparently Lloyd is not a fan of the unicorn shirt she was wearing, as the mention of it infuriates him, which in turn terrifies Ellen. He thinks it's "inappropriate." Is this victim-blaming?

The police soon identify a suspect: 21-year-old Connor Frye, a gas station employee who closed up early the night Hayley went missing and didn't show up for work that morning. He has car thefts and B & Es on his record and on his expunged juvenile record it says he coerced an 11-year-old into sexual activities when he was 14. In addition, Gail finds photos of Hayley on Connor's Instagram that suggest she wasn't aware of being photographed.

Connor's mother tells Chloe and Duncan, at her home, that she doesn't know where Connor is. She pretty much admits her son's not so great. When Chloe asks (after Duncan freaks out about a spider) about a photo of Connor and his camper, she tells him it's a particular camp ground.

Nick and Ward find Connor there in his camper. As Nick arrests him, Connor claims he doesn't know who Hayley. When Sam and Traci talk to Connor at the station, he continues to claim he doesn't know Hayley but at one point he says if anything happens Hayley it wouldn't be his fault. Andy informs the parents that they haven't found Hayley but have the suspect in custody.

After Nick finds Hayley's shirt, burned in a fire pit near Connor's camper, Traci and Sam use scare tactics to get Connor to fess up. He eventually says he saved Hayley, because "she couldn't live like that anymore."After Sam gets physical with him and paints him a brutal picture of prison life, Connor agrees to take them to Hayley.

He, Sam, Traci and Andy trek through the woods near Connor's camper until they find Hayley. Hayley says that her parents are insane, she's not allowed to do anything. Parents! Hayley ignores Connor's subsequent plea to tell the police about "the other stuff," so he himself says that Hayley's father fed her dog poison and made her watch it die and that he made her sleep in their garage overnight once for asking to go to a movie with a guy. Then Hayley admits he forces her to stay up all night for homework and if she get's something wrong, he whips out his belt. Traci asks her if she's trying to say Lloyd abuses her, but Hayley doesn't want her father to go to jail, she just wants to be with Connor and not go back to her family.

At the station Sam and Andy tell the family they've found Hayley. Andy mentions the dog and Lloyd claims it ran away a few days ago. When Sam suggests Hayley might just be in a typical rebellious phase, Lloyd at one point says, "what will it take to break that spiteful will of hers." As Andy points out, "break" was probably not the best word choice in that situation.

Sam keeps Lloyd at the station for questioning, while Andy takes Ellen and Jeremy home. As the three of them get into a squad car, Jeremy, who'd wanted to stay with his dad says "he's gonna take her to the garage." Ellen shushes him and tells Andy discipline is Lloyd's domain. Ellen defends her submissive, laissez-faire behavior by claiming it actually takes strength to "submit to your husband in all things."

Back at the station, Sam casually talks to Lloyd. He says they have to investigate all abuse claims even if it's unfounded, then jokingly compares Child Services to in-laws. During their conversation, Lloyd says that the breakdown of the family structure leads to criminal behavior. Sam asks if that means kids should be locked up. Lloyd doesn't take the bait. Instead, he says you commit to raising a traditional family, and implies he wants to leave.

Elsewhere, Hayley tells Traci her father makes her wear dresses, so to stop everyone from teasing her, she lets "all the boys look up the dresses." Hayley then says the garage is haunted; once when she was little, she woke up and her father told her a surgeon had come and sewn up a demon inside her. Traci calls Sam and tells him it seems Lloyd psychologically abuses Hayley, but there's nothing they can charge him with. In a last ditch effort to get Lloyd to incriminate himself, Sam confesses he's going to be a father and asks Lloyd for tips. Lloyd says "one bad apple can spoil a bunch so if she runs, go get her and make sure she never runs again."

Back at Lloyd's home, where Andy, Ellen and Jeremy have been waiting, Traci arrives with Hayley and tells Ellen that they need to see the garage. Ellen admits she's never been in there. Inside, they find wall to wall hunting weapons and cages everywhere. When Hayley sees that the freezer has been emptied, she begs her mom to tell her father that she and Connor slept in separate rooms so he doesn't put her in the freezer. Andy convinces Ellen to let them bring the family to a hotel room to talk more before Lloyd returns. She reluctantly agrees.

At the hotel Andy, Traci and Gail learn more about the family — Ellen hasn't had a full night's sleep in 16 years because "Lloyd values a hard day's work," Lloyd dotes on Jeremy, according to Hayley. Then, as Andy is trying to convince Ellen to file an abuse claim, Ellen expresses fear about how Lloyd will react. Andy says she can go to a secure shelter, but Ellen reveals that Lloyd has told her if she ever left him, she'd be homeless and he'd end up with the kids. Traci tells her that's a lie to scare her into staying.

Meanwhile, Jeremy sneaks a phone call to his father, who then storms out of his house and demands Chloe and Duncan tell him where his family is. When they refuse he gets into his car and drives off.

Cut to Nick and Ward, posted up outside Connor's house to make sure he doesn't go try to see Hayley or confront Lloyd. Just as they're about to leave to provide backup at the hotel, a 911 dispatcher says someone inside the home is being attacked. They find Lloyd brutally beating up Connor, but Nick soon apprehends him.

A few scenes later, at the hotel, Ellen has changed her mind again and wants to go home, but Hayley tells her mom that her father will kill her if they go back. As Andy urges Ellen to do the right thing, Jeremy tells a panicked Hayley that she's ruining their family. She then starts seizing and Jeremy says, "she'll be better soon." The officers soon learn he gave Hayley what his dad gave the dog Zeke for "being mean" — pest poison. As Hayley is wheeled out in a stretcher, Jeremy tells Traci that Zeke was out of control so dad sent him to a better place, and Hayley's worse. Traci instructs him to tell a woman from Child Services everything.

This event finally convinces Ellen to agree to testify against Lloyd and do whatever it takes to protect her children.

The relationships

I. Chris

The episode opens with Chris and Gail pulling up to the station. His erratic behavior when Jarvis and his wife, Jamie, pull up behind them prompts Gail to realize the married woman Chris has been sleeping with is Jamie. He claims he tried to break it off but she "distracted him." Just then, Jarvis knocks on his window and says "I bet you keep her purring right." This startles Chris but Jarvis is referring to the truck. He asks Chris to look at a leak in his wife's car. Chris reluctantly agrees and as he does, with Jarvis already gone, Jamie flirts with Chris. Chris, annoyed, tells her what's wrong with the car and that getting fired isn't a turn on.

Later, Jarvis asks Chris to review floor plans to assess whether he can "appropriate" two feet of the currently vacant office next to him to make his own bigger. At the end of the episode, Chris tells Jarvis the construction he wants can't be done. When Chris asks about the budget meeting Jarvis had attended, Jarvis says they want him to make a 15 percent staff cut at the division. Jarvis claims he stood up for 15. This surprises Chris, and Jarvis says that things like the bottom line haven't mattered to him much lately because "let's just say happy wife, happy life."Chris interprets this as a sign to keep seeing Jamie since it's "saved everyone's job." Gail is unconvinced.

II. Nick and Ward

Nick and Ward continue their mild flirtations. In the morning, he greets her as if they don't know each other, since that's what Ward implied she wanted, and when Ward points out they don't really know each other, Nick tells her it's her loss since he's a "person of wisdom." To prove it, he informs her the radio she's chosen is unlucky. He says it's a story for beers and they subsequently flirtatiously agree to keep it professional, which means no beers. Except then they get paired up for the day.

Later, when Nick and Ward drop Connor off, Nick says something to Connor about Hayley but subtly directs it at Ward: "maybe it's the right girl, wrong time scenario."

In their last scene together, Ward admits that she followed Nick's advice about the radio, and soon, easing up on her stand-offish act, says just because they can't go for beers doesn't mean she's not interested... in what he has to say. They part ways after a flirtatious goodbye.

III. Sam and Andy... and Marlo

In Andy and Sam's first interaction of the episode, Sam tries to offer Andy a coffee as he comments on her being early. But she's cold toward him. Just after walking away from him, she runs into Marlo. Andy struggles to mention the baby and tears well up in her eyes. Andy says "this is hard." Marlo, looking deeply apologetic, points out that she didn't plan on getting pregnant with a guy who dumped her. Andy asks why she didn't tell Sam sooner and Marlo says she was going to raise the baby alone. Marlo promises she's not trying to get between Andy and Sam. Andy can't respond, so she walks away.

Andy breaks down to Traci about not knowing what to do and how to feel. She's terrified. She doesn't know to handle Sam having a baby with someone else — or if she can handle it at all. Traci urges her to talk to Sam but Andy feels she has no part in his situation. She contemplates aloud that maybe the right thing would be to walk away so Sam can be with Marlo.

Later, when Traci and Andy are at the hotel with Hayley, Ellen and Jeremy, Andy thinks about the situation again. Traci tells her how much Steve has come to mean to Leo and how lucky she is to have him in her life and that he loves her and her child.

After Lloyd's been arrested for attacking Connor, Sam tells Oliver that for the first time in his life he thinks he's going to be a great dad. But he sadly mentions how badly he'd wanted it to be with Andy and now he has to do it with Marlo. Oliver tells him that the best thing he can do for his kid is to be happy himself.

In the last scene of the episode, Andy leaves the station for the night and gets into Sam's car. Sam say she deserves a perfect family and he wanted more than anything for them to have that and now they can't. Andy gives a tearful, sincere speech in which she admits how much she wanted it to be her, but that doesn't mean she folds. (Earlier she'd told Ellen that her family may not be what she wanted but it's what she has and she has a choice.) She says she doesn't know how to deal with the situation but knows she loves him so she promises to show up, figure it out and that there won't be a day where his child doesn't feel wanted or loved by her. Sam simply says okay with heavy gratitude and kisses her.

The Bomb

In Dov and Marlo's first scene together, Dov comforts Marlo, who thinks everyone's staring at her because they know about the baby, by pointing out his own embarrassing situation: his ex girlfriend made out with her ex husband who was still her husband before she was his girlfriend.

Marlo then directs his attention to a box full of criminals who were arrested on the day of the evidence room explosion and had evidence logged in. Their mission is to find who has a connection to the bomb itself, since Marlo's working theory is if someone wanted to get a bomb into the evidence room, they'd have it on them when they were arrested.

Later, after joking with Marlo about snacks (If there's a romance brewing between them, that's all kinds of WEIRD) , Dov explains that the bomb was made with industrial grade explosives and the only company that makes them is highly secure, so the bomber couldn't have stolen them. Marlo concludes that that means the suspect had to have purchased the illegal explosives from someone in the box. They realize they need to look at every angle of the lives of every person in the box.

A few scenes later an exasperated Dov tells Marlo that he has been on the dark web all day but couldn't find a single connection between anyone in the files and anyone that sells industrial explosives... until he dug up a man by the name of Chris Klem. He's an independent contractor with a license to sell explosives. His biggest client is the Metropolitan Police Department. Marlo realizes that's bad news and Dov says it gets worse because Klem disappeared three weeks ago. Their new mission is to find him. If there's a him left to find.