Police procedural show The Rookie has found a dedicated fandom among TV audiences with its strong, relatable characters. At a time when films and TV shows of all kinds are so easily accessed, it managed to stand out among a host of other police shows through humane characters and a good awareness of the conventions of the genre. In that vein, its many great characters are filled with clever and interesting flairs that add to the show’s appeal, but often go unmentioned. A similar feature is found in its villains. In a show with multiple memorable antagonists, one of The Rookie’s best villains is terrifying enough to stand above most TV villains of recent time.
Elijah Stone (Brandon Jay McLaren) first appears in the opening episode of Season 4, as a street-level gang leader seemingly destined to fall within an episode or two. Having received a very brief introduction in the midst of one of the most high-stakes episodes in the entire series, he doesn’t seem like the most dangerous antagonist at first. But his ferocious intellect soon makes him a force to be reckoned with. Aided by McLaren’s chilling, subdued performance, Elijah leaves his own mark on the show — a quiet predator who deals in mastermind schemes, subverting many typical villain tropes along the way to become a tenacious adversary for the Mid-Wilshire police department.
Elijah Stone’s Introduction on ‘The Rookie’ Cleverly Hoodwinks Us
The tendency of Elijah’s character to subvert typical TV villain tropes begins with his very introduction. His very first look in the show almost feels like it was deliberately designed to trick the audience. Season 3 of The Rookieended with a massive cliffhanger — Detective Angela Lopez (Alyssa Diaz) is kidnapped from her own wedding by the drug lord Sandra De La Cruz (Camille Guaty), and the Season 4 opener deals fully with the kidnapping.
As the team desperately looks for any way to find Lopez, now in an entirely different country altogether, Elijah Stone marks his first appearance on the show as little more than a convenient plot joint, offering information on Lopez’s whereabouts to her fiancé, defense attorney Wesley Evers (Shawn Ashmore). Of course, this help comes with a caveat — in exchange for the one-time aid, Evers has to act as Elijah’s dirty lawyer for the foreseeable future. This set-up for a future conflict quickly disappears from attention in the face of bigger threats. There are simply too many exciting things happening in the episode for the audience to mull over a potential future villain. There’s the complex and layered character of De La Cruz, and the perverse way in which she copes with her son’s death by kidnapping Lopez, hoping to steal her unborn child. At the same time, the team back home is working with a literal black ops team to organize a cross-border rescue mission.