Chenford is (almost) back together. After a season of post-breakup heartache, casual hookups and truth serum-induced confessions, The Rookie‘s fan favorite couple took a giant step to reconciliation in the finale, which only physical exhaustion prevented from completion.
Lucy (Melissa O’Neil) and Tim (Eric Winter) faced one last obstacle after she became his peer by passing the Sergeant exam — working on opposite schedules as she was assigned the night shift. Both needed some encouragement from friends but finally got together. Tim cooked Lucy breakfast after her shift and poured his heart out in a speech asking her to move in with him to no response as Lucy had quickly dozed off. As Tim said to himself while covering Lucy with a blanket, “To be continued.”
John Nolan’s (Nathan Fillion) had his hands full chasing one of those who got away, as Oscar (Matthew Glave), who had escaped from prison alongside Bailey’s (Jenna Dewan) ex Jason in last season’s closer with shady lawyer Monica’s (Bridget Regan) help, came back into the picture. Convinced that Oscar is taking out his former crew members from a Vegas diamond heist years ago, Nolan and Nyla (Mekia Cox), his partner on the case, set a stakeout at a motel hoping to catch Oscar as he makes contact with the last remaining cohort, suspected to have hidden the loot, who was just released from prison.
However, Oscar spotted Nolan and abducted him after killing his former mate and somehow ripped off the man’s arm with his bare hands for the treasure map tattooed on it (as opposed to, as Nolan suggested later, just taking a photo of the tattoo with his phone). With Nolan in his trunk, Oscar headed to the desert in search of the buried treasure.
For some reason, Nolan helped Oscar get back on the path to the diamonds after he took a detour despite being told bluntly by the convict that he would kill him once Nolan dug up the stones. Meanwhile, with the assist of a teen boy staying at the motel and his drone, Nyla tracked Oscar down with not a minute to spare as Nolan had just retrieved the diamonds.
In the shooting, Oscar managed to escape with a getaway helicopter while Nolan walked away with his life — and a bag of diamonds.
That was not the only blast from the past in the episode. In the final minutes, Nolan and Wesley (Shawn Ashmore) were summoned by Rookie: Feds‘ Special Agent Matt Garza (Felix Solis) to inform them of a recent security breach at a local NSA facility that resulted in someone leveraging the U.S. government with sensitive information in order to get immunity.
That someone was none other than Monica, who, in the Speed homage episode 11 earlier this season, hired a woman to stage a bus hijacking for the sole purpose of obtaining a government employee’s security badge.
In a miscellaneous sub-plotline, a man was caught stealing cash from a bank for the treatment of an ill Bulgarian woman. Turns out he was catfished by his own wife who felt entitled to all of the couple’s money and didn’t want to share it in a divorce.
In an interview with Deadline, The Rookie creator, executive producer and showrunner Alexi Hawley discusses Tim and Lucy’s season arc and what is next for the (nearly) reunited couple. He also addresses the big finale cliffhanger, Monica’s return, her end game, Oscar’s latest escape, Seth’s fate and the possibility of adding more rookies next season.
Additionally, hhe looks back at Season 7 and its memorable movie send-ups and talks about The Rookie’s surprise ratings resurgence and newfound popularity among pre-teens, teens and young adults. For the 2024-25 season, The Rookie finished as No.3 among all broadcast series in multi-platform adults 18-49 ratings.
Tim & Lucy
DEADLINE: One of the main overarching storylines of Season 7 was Tim and Lucy finding a way back to each other. There was the post-gala hook-up, the kiss during the wildfire and the whole April’s Fool’s re-coupling, which I couldn’t understand how that made sense that they could have sex that day.
HAWLEY: I can explain it — or not, depending whether you care. I think ultimately the breakup was heartbreaking, both for the fans, but also for Lucy and for Tim. We tried to establish that he did it to punish himself, and unfortunately, it really punished her, but it felt like such an emotional bombshell that it just didn’t feel right to have a few episodes of mea culpas and then put them back together.
I felt like he had issues that he had to deal with based on the whole lifetime of stuff. and it also had her reassess a little bit her priorities and wanting to make sure that her career was important to her, and that she wasn’t sacrificing things and all that.
And so it did feel like it warranted a season-long story of them doing the work that needed to be done, and seeing if there was a way back to each other. I do think that life is full of hookups or exes getting back together and then regretting it or whatever. So that was, I think, what the attempt was there, that that after-gala hook-up, which, they both obviously still longed for each other, and then the April Fool’s thing just felt like a bit of a selfish act, which to me, felt human. Obviously, people have different opinions on it. Does that answer your question?
DEADLINE: Yeah, it was a joke but I still don’t know how that falls into April Fool’s if they want to have sex for one day…
HAWLRE: We leaned into that, because he’s like, I don’t understand. She’s like, do you want to talk about this, or do you want to take off your pants.
DEADLINE: I am with Tim on that one. When there is a big breakup like that, new people are typically introduced for a love triangle or rectangular before the exes go back to each other. You didn’t do that. Why? Did you consider it?
HAWLEY: In the writers room, we are obviously very conscious of what has come before and where we are. I worked on Castle for several seasons, and it always felt like the attempts to introduce a love triangle, or even somebody else that either one of them is dating never felt good on the show, the fans didn’t like it and it was not successful.
And ultimately for us, I think it was that the issue wasn’t about they broke up because somebody wanted something else. It was he ruined it. And then, ultimately, didn’t feel like there was a need for to introduce something else into that dynamic.
We did, we brought Rachel back, and I think the audience was immediately going to assume that she was going to be that love triangle. But for us again, that wasn’t the point of that story, even though we were conscious of what the audience would think we were going to do there.
DEADLINE: That was a blip, I forgot about that.
HAWLEY: Yes, I feel you.
DEADLINE: We will talk about The Rookie’s fun movie genre homages in a bit but the finale played like a classic rom-com for Tim and Lucy. There was the best friend on each side trying to encourage their charge to tell the other how they feel. And then Tim’s speech and Lucy falling asleep, we’ve seen it in so many movies. Talk about how you came up with that.
HAWLEY:I think at the end of the day, it made me laugh in the writers room when we talked about it. We’re all chasing stories that have been told before. They clearly turned a corner in the last several episodes of the season, we knew that they were heading back to each other.
It felt like, given the storytelling of her working nights and him working days and all that just lent itself to that resolution — knowing, obviously, that it’s not like she’s gonna say no. So, it just felt like a fun way to deal with that. I know the internet thinks my definition of fun is not their favorite thing.
DEADLINE: Lucy and Tim’s last scene ended with “to be continued,” so what can you tell us about what comes next? Them working opposite shifts is not working very well. Is this something you will be continuing, creating more obstacles for them?
HAWLEY: It’s still early days, we just started the room last week for Season 8, but probably not. I do feel like ultimately, the Season 7 journey of their repairing their relationship is almost at an end, and so I don’t want to just introduce obstacles to introduce obstacles..So, no, probably not. I think, we’re heading for a good place in Season 8.
DEADLINE: Okay, both working days because we don’t care about those lazy night shift cops Lucy was put in charge of.
HAWLEY: I know which was the point. And also, honestly, we don’t do a lot of night shoots on Rookie. We try not to for various reasons, some which are, the impact it has on the crew and the cast. And also…
DEADLINE: On the budget?
HAWLEY: Not as much on the budget. The turnaround times now, the wins that the unions got, especially IATSE during the last negotiations and the strike, the turnaround makes it hard to get back to a 7AM start, and so it snowballs. But I also feel like we’re a daytime action patrol show for the most part.
DEADLINE: So Lucy back on day shift, and her and Tim move in together. Have I figured out next season?
HAWLEY: I’m not going to say yes, I’m not going to say no, but we’re both smiling. So…
Oscar, Monica & Felix
DEADLINE: This year’s finale seems a bit like a repeat of last year’s, which also involved Oscar escaping, Monica stirring trouble, and Felix making a visit. Was this intentional, something that you’re looking to do every season now?
HAWLEY: No, it wasn’t necessarily intentional. We ended last season with the escape, Monica and all that kind of stuff. Coming into Season 7 — as great as characters as they are, and we love having them — I also felt like we wanted to tell some newer stories, and that Jason, Bailey’s ex-husband, was meant to be more of the focus, and the effects that she didn’t even realize that she had suffered from that abusive relationship; that to me was the story to tell that felt fresh.
We did introduce Monica in Episode 11 as being out there, we wanted to keep that alive. But it just felt, ultimately, that we have plenty of story to tell, and driving towards them in the finale felt like the right thing to do.
DEADLINE: What is Monica’s end game? Knowing her, immunity seems a little small for her. Can you tease what kind of trouble she’s going to stir this time?
HAWLEY: Again, it’s early days. But I think Monica is always a bit of a gadfly. I think the immunity deal was her 11-and-a-half hour, pulling it out of the fire, so to speak, and getting leverage on the government.
But I think what we’ll find in Season 8 is that there’s other story to tell with her. There is other facets to that immunity deal, which could play out in Season 8, and then also, what does the next chapter look like for her and us?
Because she’s not getting her law license back, so what? That’s stuff we’re investigating in the room in the coming weeks, what is the fallout? Again, [Bridget]’s a huge resource for us in the show, in the same way that Matthew Glave, who plays Oscar, is and Felix, who plays Garza, is, we love having these actors who are so good around and available to us.
DEADLINE: Speaking of Bridget Regan, did you know that she was also being used on 9-1-1? She’s become ABC’s villain of the spring; she just killed Bobby.
HAWLEY: I actually did not know that until you just said that so, no, I was not aware of that. But what are you going to do about that? She’s been part of our family, and you can’t begrudge her the work, and obviously she’s really good at that character. We were lucky enough to work with Annie Wersching before she tragically passed away; she is another actress who was so good at a specific tone and specific characters. It’s hard to find villains who don’t chew the scenery and don’t feel arch, who you believe and who are intimidating and scary and all that kind of stuff, but still feel grounded.
DEADLINE: Oscar escaped again. Will he be this white whale? Will he remain on Nolan’s board and continue to be big part of his life, or will be he just parachute in at some point in the future?
HAWLEY: We’ll definitely see him again. We can only get so many bites the apple of him getting away, so I think we’ll see some resolution in some shape or form next year. But look, we love Matthew, he’s a perfect example, we have many of them. You write a role and you hire an actor, and it was never meant to be more than that.
He was a prisoner, escaped from a prison, bus crash, and then he just popped on screen, and you’re like, oh, I want to see that guy again. Honestly, it’s the joy of network television, and doing as many episodes as we get to do. You really can develop characters and bring characters along; you just can’t do on streaming where you only have six or eight or ten episodes.
DEADLINE: You mentioned Felix as Garza. With the finale’s cliffhanger, it seems like the worlds of Rookie and Rookie: Feds are converging again. Do you think you will incorporate the Feds team more next season and bring back other characters, maybe Niecy Nash’s Simone?
HAWLRE: We saw Britt, we’ve seen several of the characters this season. Part of my conversation with ABC after Feds was tragically canceled was basically saying, I love these characters, I would love to still see them. It’s not like we’re not going to have FBI agents in our show, so rather than having to reinvent the wheel, can’t we just embrace… And, to their credit, they said yes.
I think we took a season in between, bringing them back. There is shorthand with those characters; they exist in our world, they have relationships. Felix and Richard [T. Jones], the Garza-Grey relationship is special, and it’s just nice to see them again. And then in terms of Niecy, she is a very busy woman. I would doubt that we’d be able to get her back on the show, just given how much she’s working but obviously, I would love to work with her again. Never say never.
Misc finale questions
DEADLINE: Why would Nolan help Oscar with reading the map when they went astray so that they find the treasure faster and Nolan gets killed sooner? That was surprising to me.
HAWLEY: Okay, that’s fair I guess. I think he was trying to string it along, looking for his opportunity, but, yeah, I don’t know that I have a satisfying answer for you on that one.
DEADLINE: Second one, will the mom of that teenage boy file a lawsuit against the LAPD because the boy was definitely not kept out of danger in that firefight?
HAWLEY: No, I feel you. I feel you. So yes, to be continued.
DEADLINE And another miscellaneous note. Thanks for giving a shoutout to my homeland, I’m from Bulgaria, and for not dragging it into the catfishing conspiracy. Was the country picked randomly or was there a reason for that?
HAWLEY: It wasn’t necessarily picked for a reason. I think Eastern Europe was the conversation, and Bulgaria as being a name that we might not hear as much made it feel a little exotic. And again, I keep praising actors, but it’s another moment where that actor came in, and that moment of the AI, seven fingers and three fingers, and he’s like, “birth defect;” that was a funny moment.
New rookies & justice for Seth
DEADLINE: You’ve talked about keeping the show fresh by cycling rookies in and out. Will we see new rookies introduced next season with Celina graduating and Seth getting injured?
HAWLEY: I don’t know is the honest answer. Miles is still a rookie, and so I think that will be for most of — if not all — of Season 8, I’m not sure yet, it’s still early days. I think it’s super important to show that we keep that alive, obviously, but the honest answer is, I’m not quite sure yet.
DEADLINE: I’d like to get some justice for Seth. Yes, he was a vilified character but I’m not sure he deserved what happened to him with the leg wound after he did the right thing and saved Nolan’s life. Did you want him to be punished? And since he’s potentially getting desk duty due to the injury, will he be coming back and continue to be part of the Rookie universe?
HAWLEY: I think Seth’s journey for us was A: about a pathological liar. I really do believe that as a character, Seth saw himself as a victim all the time, which is probably his story, but I do think he showed up in the academy wanting to be a different person and not to be a liar anymore.
And I do think that he just panicked when he was getting in trouble. And ultimately it was a weakness of character, that whenever he was pushed, he couldn’t come clean, he just had to lie more.
So it did feel like if we wanted to find a turn, a redemption journey for him, that there did need to be some repercussions of his actions, and I did feel like we needed something shocking to happen. But I also think that ultimately, in the LAPD, if he can end up passing the physical tests to get back into the force with a prosthetic, then he can be a cop again.
For us, it was really about creating this character who really just f*cks up stuff, but yet trying to… We always want them to be human beings. We always want to see behind the their eyes that there is grief and remorse. And if that is applicable, and then challenge ourselves to see if we can turn them around.
Movie Spoofs & bodycam footage
DEADLINE: One of the things that stood out this season were the movie homages: there was the Speed episode, which hit season high ratings, The Purge. Is it something that you’re going to try to do on a regular basis since fans are clearly responding to it?
HAWLEY: We understand the homages when they happen. I do feel like tonally, I like to do everything, and as a show, we do kind of everything — we obviously do funny, we do action, we try and do horror where we can.
There’s an episode this season where Lucy and Celina went to investigate a missing girl and ended up in that house, which was very much an homage to The Silence of the Lambs, the Jame Gumb basement sequence.
So we’re very conscious of the stories and the movies or TV shows that we’re bumping up against. We don’t necessarily go down the road of like, what’s the movie we’re doing this week? The bus episode in particular, we call them “pod car episodes,” they are one or two.
During the pandemic when we were trying to figure out how — or if — we can even make television, part of my process was, how do I invent a few episodes where the actors are the safest, unmasked. We shoot our driving stuff with a stunt driver on the roof and actors actually behind the wheel, which allows us to really drive around the city and do all that stuff without process trailers or rear projection.
Ultimately, it meant that there was one or two actors in a car unmasked with no other crew around them. And so I’m like, Okay, we’re going to do an episode in Season 3 where we only tell stories from body cams and dash cams and security cams, and that’s sort of how the pod car episodes started.
So we’re always looking for episodes that are mobile in a way that warrants that kind of storytelling. And obviously Speed is one of them. So that’s how that process came around, looking for the best way to tell a story in which we can put all our characters in these cars and having them moving target, so to speak. And I feel like that was one of our most successful pod car episodes, it really did lend itself to the storytelling.
DEADLINE: Also Speed is an iconic LA movie, so that made made perfect sense for a LA show like The Rookie. There was also the documentary episode, which freaked me out a bit, I don’t do scary.
HAWLEY: That’s another one that I came up with as a way, if you have these static interviews with the characters, which take up a huge portion of it, and it’s just Nathan on screen, or it’s just two of them. It’s another one where we’re like, okay, at the time of the pandemic, that was the safest thing for the actors. But it allows us, every season, to do something a little unconventional, a little fun.
DEADLINE: I love the body-cam footage idea. We didn’t seen it much in the second half of the season. Are you phasing it out?
HAWLEY: No, not at all. It depends on the storytelling, Obviously you need the actors to be in uniform and have it on. Sometimes editorially, it doesn’t, like in the sequence I was talking about, the Silence of the Lambs scene. They were both in plain clothes, they weren’t wearing the body cam. That would have been a great body cam moment, but we didn’t have it.
So, no, it’s nothing conscious. It’s just the way the storytelling fell. Same thing in the finale, obviously, Nolan and Harper out there in the desert, they’re not wearing body cams. So it just didn’t work out that way.
Ratings success
DEADLINE: During a previous interview you talked about CNN’s Jake Tapper reaching out during the pandemic to tell you what big fans of The Rookie he and his 12-year son were. That is not an isolated incident. Before the pandemic, Nathan Fillion kept joking. “I’m probably a really big deal to your mom.” Then things turned around, and now the show keeps getting discovered by young people, it’s thing on TikTok, How did you manage to make broadcast hip again?
HAWLEY: I appreciate the way you formatted that. I think it’s a combination of things. I do think that the show is fun to watch, even though there are stakes. In a day and age where it feels like anxiety and awfulness is around us all the time, it feels a little bit like an escape. I do think that we lend ourselves to the clip generation, which is what TikTok and all those things are. We have teasers, we have little moments. Anytime they get out of their car, something funny can happen.
We do have a lot of moments that have managed to go viral. “Daddy Cop” was a big one of those. yeah, all I hear these days is like, my 13-year-old loves to show, it’s my 11-year old’s favorite show. I feel super lucky that we’ve gotten to place now, because shows don’t get more popular as they grow older. And yet, starting in Season 5, our ratings really started to go up and and have continued to and I’m super grateful about that.
