The rookies have to establish their first CI. Nolan struggles with his attempt to turn a drug addict into a CI as she almost bungles their first job together before overdosing. Nolan barely manages to save her life. Armstrong ends up helping him by providing him a list of possible candidates so a disaster like this can't happen again. Meanwhile, Nolan's son Henry is in town and he brought his girlfriend. Armstrong subtly steers Nolan into being suspicious and runs a background check on her without his knowledge before offering him the information.
Chen's parents are arguing and her mother decides to move in with Chen and West. Chen is less than happy and wishes she would simply move back in with her father. Chen and Bradford meanwhile deal with a troubled teen selling her stepmother's purses to pawn shops. The stepmother is utterly unsympathetic and happily sells her daughter to the police, only to be hoist by her own petard when said daughter points out her mother is a habitual drug user.
Lopez and West attempt to recruit an FBI informant to the LAPD but have to deal with the fact he's a Smug Snake.
- Asshole Victim:
- Abigail's boyfriend who shared porn of her.
- Daisy for being a smug elitist snob who abuses her stepdaughter.
- Divorce Is Temporary: Mrs. Chen reconciles with her husband when Lucy points out how expensive divorce is. It is implied they have these kind of fights all the time.
- Hoist by Her Own Petard:
- Daisy tries to have her daughter arrested for threatening her and selling her expensive purses. Olivia proceeds to tell the LAPD about her drug stash.
- Fallow ends up implicating himself in extortion and loses his cushy deal with the FBI.
- Internal Reveal: West tells Chen that he always knew about her and Nolan.
- Justified Criminal: Abigail torched her boyfriends' car after he shared explicit videos of her to the public.
- Smug Snake: Two in the episode with Daisy and Fallow.
- Wicked Stepmother: One of the cases involve a rebellious young woman who hates her stepmother for screwing her dad while her mother was dying of cancer. It doesn't help that despite the mother only being dead for a year, meaning the step mother can't have been married to the dad any longer than that, the stepmother keeps referring to herself as the young womans mother.
