THE ROOKIE’s Nathan Fillion and Alexi Hawley on the Stakes of Lucy’s Kidnapping

“I find our show easy to watch,” THE ROOKIE star Nathan Fillion admits. “It’s got lighthearted moments and it’s got intense moments. But there is a balance of it.”

Things are especially intense when the ABC series returns on Sunday, February 23, as Lucy (Melissa O’Neil) fights for her life in the aftermath of her abduction. “These are police officers and there is an inherent amount of danger with that job. And sometimes we dip into the intensity of that danger and the cliffhanger was one of those times.”

THE ROOKIE hasn’t been shy about killing off characters before—Captain Andersen (Mercedes Mason) tragically lost her life in season 1—which series creator Alexi Hawley acknowledges has allowed for them to play into the drama of what might happen here.

“The one thing we really try and do with the show is ground it in reality,” Hawley says. “What that allows us to do is do everything tonally, because if everything is played real, than it can be funny and then it can be tragic in the same scene. The reality of police work is dangerous. What happened last year with Captain Andersen was horrifying, tragic, emotional, and we were really mean about it—she saved the day, everybody was like ‘Whew, that’s over,’ and then she got shot and died. But what that allows us to do is let the audience know that there are real stakes in the show.”

“I’m not going to tell you what happens with Lucy’s character, but the audience knows—and even with Tim in jeopardy at the end of season 1— people can die on the show,” Hawley continues. “We live in the unexpected, which is what patrol work is: you never know when you get out of the car what the case is going be. Is it going to be funny, a thriller, a horror movie or action? The more we can make people feel like I’m never going to know what happens in the next scene, they’re going to watch. They’re not going to turn this off at 10:30, go to sleep, and watch tomorrow; people turn us on at 10 o’clock and they don’t turn us off, which is hard to do in this landscape.”

THE ROOKIE, Sundays, 10/9c, ABC

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