THE ROOKIE Post-Mortem: Alexi Hawley on the Serialized Arc, Chenford’s Guilt, and the New Rookie

[Warning: This post contains spoilers for THE ROOKIE season premiere.]

THE ROOKIE started off season 5 with a twist: serial killer Rosalind (Annie Wersching) escaped and is on the lam—but not before brutally attacking Lucy’s (Melissa O’Neil) boyfriend, Chris (Kanoa Goo).

Unfortunately for Lucy, it came in the wake of her own work stress. After going undercover with Tim (Eric Winter) in Vegas as a couple, the long-simmering tension between the duo was on the verge of erupting. Rather than immediately slip back into their real lives, the duo agreed to still count it as being undercover when they got back to her place. Only Chris’ mutilated (but still alive) body put a damper on what might have been.

So what comes next? THE ROOKIE showrunner Alexi Hawley offers a few teases…

Rosalind is out there, and the cops don’t seem to have a real idea of where she’s at. How will the show be approaching the search to track her down?
It felt like a real opportunity to play out an arc, which is something that we haven’t really done. We’ve done it occasionally, but this is sort of new ground for us, which is what I love.

I feel like every season, we’re staying fresh by finding new aspects of the show and whether it’s new characters that we introduce or even just new jobs that people get or whatever. Starting the season off with this dynamic escape and the worst monster we’ve ever had under our bed is now out there—and then just letting her be out there, not knowing what’s going to happen, and playing that in the first part of the season just seemed like too good of an opportunity. So, yeah, she’s going to be out and we’re going to be worried about her. We’re not going to touch it every episode, but it’ll definitely come to a head and come in through some unexpected ways, which I think is fun.

Tim and Lucy almost took a step forward in their relationship, even if it was cushioned with their undercover gig. How does that knowledge impact them going forward?
Well, it’s complicated, which is what we do, right? It felt like the physicality—and Lucy tries to deny it, obviously—of them just engaging in an intimate act as it is, she’s hiding behind that idea, but we all know that there’s a there there.

But by the end of the episode, with everything they’ve been through, there is that moment of…Tim makes the joke of what happens undercover stays undercover. I think in that moment, there’s a little bit of a sense of a window, of possibility. Andm of course, we wouldn’t be us if we didn’t throw a giant obstacle in their way, with the horrific thing that Rosalind did, what she did to punish Lucy for basically bailing on trial; that’s why she did it, and Lucy knows that’s why she did it.

So, she’s gonna come out of this episode feeling incredibly guilty that Chris was targeted because of her. You’ll have to tune in whether he lives or dies, but that will be the after effect. It’s just this feeling of, “This is my fault”…it’ll be hard to come back together with Tim immediately after that.

Is there any guilt given they both have significant others and they really only didn’t take that step because of the tragedy?
It’s a bit of a wake up call. I do think that at heart they’re both morally responsible people; he’s got a girlfriend and she’s got a boyfriend. Tim uses that [excuse] to Lopez early in the first episode: “It’s not real, because I had this,” and she’s like, “That’s not what I asked.” But I do think that it’s gonna be a splash of cold water on both of them, because, yeah, they almost did something that I think they would morally feel bad about afterwards.

Nolan got a golden ticket to do, essentially, whatever he wanted to do. What was the discussion in the writers’ room about having him continue down the path of becoming a training officer?
We had planned for the first few seasons…I mean, he came in saying he wanted to be a detective, because everybody thinks that’s the sexiest job, unless you’re into SWAT and that kind of thing. That was his path.

And then we had to take a hard look at our at policing, and being a police show, after George Floyd. We feel very firmly as a show that, yes, you have to put pressure on police to change from the outside, but police won’t change unless the “good apples,” so to speak decide there can’t be good apples if there are bad apples. That basically police have to take responsibility for changing from the inside.

Which is why Nolan ended up running for union rep [last season], because the police unions are a problem. And also why he’s determined to stay on the training officer course, because he’s seen what bad training officers are. There’s just a never-ending cycle of bias and all that. That was what Jackson’s training officer in season 3 was. [For] Nolan, that’s had an impact on him. It is, sadly, a noble idea that he wants to give back and he wants to train cops to be better.

And a new rookie is coming in the form of Celina (Lisseth Chavez). What is she like?
The fun of it, which I’ve been saying since the beginning, is that the way the show stays THE ROOKIE is not just with new rookies coming in, but [now] Nolan becomes the oldest rookie training officer. In success, with season whatever, Nolan could become the oldest rookie detective. The new job, and the nuances of that, keeps it fresh.

And it also keeps it real. It’s hard enough to be a police officer: everything’s moving at 100 miles an hour. Now, you still have to do that, but now you’re responsible for somebody else at the same time; that is just a very different thing. And we’ll get to see Nolan become a rookie again, basically. We created a character…we purposely tried to create a character that would be a challenge for Nolan, not necessarily an expected way, but in a fun way; to sort of keep him on his heels, a little bit. It’s exciting. It’s fun.

Is she a specific challenge to him, or will it be a challenging relationship with everyone?
No, she’s not a challenge to everyone. It’s just the way she operates and the way she sees the world—[it] is just a little bit unique to our show, which is great. I’ve always said that we’re a character show masquerading as a cop show. And so that’s the first goal: how do we create a dynamic character who is a way to amplify Nolan and also stand on her own? She’s not designed to be a negative impact in the station. She’s more designed to just be a bit of a wildcard for Nolan.

THE ROOKIE, Sundays, 10/9c, ABC

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