I wonder, how could they have had Danny save himself at the beginning of this season? It'd have shown maturity if he'd done it on his own, but I'm not sure how they could have written it...could Danny have gone to the rookie himself and talked? I keep thinking he'd have gotten into more trouble for contacting her. *Is curious*
For one they could've had him be less impulsive than he was in the past and advocate for himself. What I mean is he could've told the IA guy at the scene that he would need to go through the proper channels to set up a meeting with him about what happened instead of having Lindsay step in and tell the IA guy what the procedure was and practically having to drag Danny away because he wanted to just shoot his mouth off without thinking like he has done in the past.
Danny still thinks that if he's just honest and tells the truth that things will work out and he of all people should know that often that's not the case. He's been bitten in the ass by trying to jump in and defend himself without thinking about the situation more than once. For someone who is a cop and scientist he's still quite naive.
He also could've had a real conversation with the rookie cop (her name escapes me right now) instead of having Lindsay confront her in what amounted, to me anyway, to little more than a turf war over "her man."
TPTB has tried to selll that Danny has matured simply because he married and had a child, but the show's canon tells a very different story, IMO.
