[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for The Rookie Season 7 Episode 15 “A Deadly Secret.”]
The Rookie has fun with its latest documentary-style episode — and it’s one that brings a key revelation for exes Tim (Eric Winter) and Lucy (Melissa O’Neil) as well as may have just set up a storyline for Season 8.
The LAPD investigates when Nolan’s (Nathan Fillion) son’s ex, Abigail (Madeline Coghlan), goes missing, and it leads them to the abandoned ward of Westview. There, Tim and Lucy encounter a kind of truth serum that leads to a few confessions, including his most embarrassing memory and the fact that she’s already forgiven him for their breakup — and apparently a conversation about potential baby names. When news of the chemicals that poisoned the ward reaches serial killer Glasser (Seth Gabel) in prison, he even starts pondering a new defense.
Below, showrunner Alexi Hawley (who guest stars as the documentary’s interviewer) talks about that key moment for Chenford and what’s ahead — and the storyline that could come back in Season 8.
We have Tim and Lucy, with the truth serum revealing that she’s forgiven him already, and they apparently discussed baby names. Does this take them one step closer to getting back together?
Alexi Hawley: I mean, look, I think throughout the season up until this point, we have been heading in that direction. That’s obviously a really fun detail. I do think her moment of realizing that she has now fully forgiven him is sort of the most important moment that happens there, because along the way, even though they’ve ended up in bed together a few times, even though it’s felt like it’s returned to normal, I think underneath it all, he still really broke her heart and it has taken this long for her to finally forgive him. And I just thought to have that realization have happened when they’re both under the influence of sodium pentothal and make it more of a discovery for her as well was super fun.
What’s next for them?
I think a lot of it does focus on the sergeant’s exam because that in a lot of ways is sort of the final obstacle to wherever this is going to go. And so yeah, I would say that’s the focus is a lot gets hung on that, and then what follows.
So Glasser talks about having a defense now with the presence of drugs. Is that something we’re actually going to see play out, the potential of that working, this season?
Not this season. I think potentially going into Season 8. I mean, he’s such a great actor and such a great character, and we have not really ever taken anything to trial before on our show because we’re really a patrol show. But early days, we are talking about sort of like, is there more we can do? Is the sort of repercussions of that potential defense that we introduced in a sort of absurdist episode a bit, would it actually work? And so I do think we very much might see him again down the road.
Talk about making a guest appearance again. There was that exchange with Zuzu, which, creepy.
Yes, yes. I started doing, at the time, the off-camera interviewer for these true crime documentaries, really, because I love being on set and I don’t get to be there a lot, so I thought it’d be fun to interact with the cast that way, but also because I know them and I know the show sort of uniquely well, and I really wanted the ability to sort of improv with them or riff on stuff with them. And so last season, I think, we ended up with a storyline that put me on camera. I do think that it is now fun to sort of have me there more as a comment on what’s going on with Chenford or whatever. But yeah, for me, it’s just fun to be on set with the cast.
The Rookie, Tuesdays, 9/8c, ABC
This story originally appeared on TV Insider
