‘The Rookie’ Season 8 Finale Interview: Chenford Cliffhanger, S9 Plans

SPOILER ALERT: The story includes details about the Season 8 finale of ABC’s The Rookie.

Another Rookie season finale, another Chenford cliffhanger. But what a difference a year makes.

The Season 7 finale ended with Tim (Eric Winter) asking Lucy (Melissa O’Neil) to move in with him but he didn’t get an answer as she had dozed off. At the end of the Season 8 finale, Tim popped a different question, asking Lucy to marry him, and we didn’t have to wait until next season to find out her answer — she said yes.

But only seconds after the romantic sunset beach proposal, Tim and Lucy were abducted, with one of the perpetrators delivering a message to them, “Heath Everett says payback is a bitch.”

Everett is the super rich warlord who had had a grudge on Tim even since the latter refused a $10M bribe to let him go earlier in the season. In the finale, Everett escaped during a prisoner transfer in a spectacular fashion through an elaborate operation that involved a helicopter emerging from under a bridge and the prison escort van Everett was riding in being lifted in the air by a giant magnet.

Tim, Nolan and the rest of the squad tracked Everett down to a ship, and, in daring night operation, arrested him and took him back into custody.

In an interview with Deadline, The Rookie creator, executive producer and showrunner Alexi Hawley discusses the proposal and the comical situations involving the engagement that led to it. (By the time Tim was ready to propose, the entire Mid-Wilshire Station knew about his plan, most had weighed in on his ring choice and a couple were involved in a search operation after Tim briefly lost the jewelry piece. Angela found it.)

Hawley dissects the reasons for Tim and Lucy’s abduction and how it will play out in Season 9. He also teases the Season 9 return of serial killer Liam Glasser (Seth Gabel), fresh off losing custody of his kids and being slapped with a restraining order following damaging testimony by Nolan (Nathan Fillion) who had just saved Glasser’s life.

In the interview, Hawley reveals an intriguing plan to bring back some of the most memorable villains from The Rookie‘s early seasons while also adding new rookies in Season 9. He also discusses the prospects of a wedding next season, what’s up with the surprising alliance between Glasser’s scheming lawyer Malcolm (Sean Patrick Thomas) and straight arrow Wesley (Shawn Ashmore) as well as Monica’s (Bridget Regan) tragic end, which the criminal mastermind foresaw in her emotional goodbye to her ex-fiancé Wesley.

To find out what’s next for Grey and whether Richard T. Johnson (or other series regulars) are leaving The Rookie, you can read Part 2 of our interview with Hawley. In Part 3, he shares the latest on spinoff The Rookie: North.

With its Season 9 renewal last month, The Rookie, having had its most watched season on streaming, became ABC’s third longest-running prime drama series.

Tim & Lucy: Proposal, Abduction &… Rescue?

DEADLINE: A year ago we spoke about how Tim and Lucy deserved a little bit of happiness after you’d put them through the ringer last season, now you decided to throw that to the wind with the kidnapping. Why?

HAWLEY: They had some happiness, I think, this season there was plenty of happiness. They were cute, we did a bunch of romcom stuff with them, how fast they’re unpacking boxes and all that kind of stuff. At the end, it just felt super dramatic. I love the moment of the proposal, I feel like it’s really special. I was surprised how emotional I got just watching the directors cut of it, but then I wanted to do something dramatic.

DEADLINE: The Rookie wasn’t really in danger of cancellation but did you envision the finale ending with the proposal, without the abduction, in case the show was not renewed (or even if it was)?

HAWLEY: We always were planning to shoot the abduction. There was a very, very small part of the back of my brain that’s like, I can always just go out on the proposal, that version was available. I think as we got closer to editing it and finishing it up, it felt like I didn’t need to even put that together. But I’ve been burned before, let’s put it that way. So, yeah, I’m not gonna lie, there was a part of me that goes, that would be a satisfying ending if we had to go out that way.

DEADLINE: Are they both being abducted, or is Lucy just being immobilized?

HAWLEY: They’re both being taken.

DEADLINE: But why Lucy, what does she have to do with anything? Is she just collateral damage?

HAWLEY: Well, she’s obviously the person that Tim cares about most, and this is about punishing him for not accepting the bribe and ultimately turning on Everett, or betraying Everett in his own weird mind. I think it’s more about inflicting maximum punishment, so taking them both felt like that.

DEADLINE: I had completely forgotten about the bribe, it happened months ago. Why is Everett still hung up on that when he should be angry about his recapture? Does he know who exactly did it? The cops were all wearing camouflage makeup.

HAWLEY: There’s a moment in the boat after they grabbed him where he’s looking up at Tim, and Lucy’s putting zip ties on him. So he knew it was Tim. In my mind, the abduction is a backup plan that was put in place in case he didn’t get away, that was his reaching out, quote unquote, from the grave, so to speak. They were waiting a little bit; when he got rearrested, that got triggered.

DEADLINE: Since Everett is behind bars, do we know who is pulling the strings on his behalf? Is it somebody we know or is it something you will be deciding in the Season 9 writers room?

HAWLEY: Yeah, I think so. Obviously we introduced Malcolm into that universe in this episode, but it’s too soon for him to be that deep with Everett. So yeah, I think there’s a right hand person out there that is pulling these strings for sure.

DEADLINE: Is Everett targeting only Tim and Lucy or is he going after the entire squad that arrested him on the boat?

HAWLEY: It is meant to be just for Tim and Lucy, and it’s really meant to be Tim because Everett said, ‘You’re going to regret this.’ And he’s a man of his word.

DEADLINE: I assume that a main plot line next season will be Nolan and the rest trying to bring Tim and Lucy back?

HAWLEY: I don’t know if it’s all season but we’re definitely gonna start that way, figure out where they are, and figure out how to get them back, and whatever obstacles we can put in their way on that. And then seeing Tim and Lucy wherever they are, I don’t think they’re going to sit idly by and wait to be rescued. What does that look like? I don’t know yet, but I’m excited to find out.

The Return Of Liam Glasser

DEADLINE: Season 8 had two cliffhangers involving villains. Before Everett, you brought serial killer Liam Glasser back for a couple of episodes. He also made a threat to Nolan after he lost the custody hearing.

HAWLEY: I wouldn’t say it was a threat in the same way. Everett’s threat was very much like, I’m going to get you. Glasser’s threat was, in a perverted way, like, You saved my life, means that whatever comes after this is on you. Not that I’m coming after you, but once I kill again, the bodies that are on me, ultimately, you have something to do with those because you saved my life and then you set me free a little bit.

DEADLINE: What did Glasser mean when he mentioned that famous serial killers had paused their sprees while they had little kids. Even if he doesn’t have custody, he still has kids. Is he, in your mind, saying that he’s going to start killing again?

HAWLEY: But he’s not parenting those kids. The custody hearing, the restraining order, he’s had nothing to do with his children, so therefore it’s all free time. I think what we’re trying to get at is that some of these serial killers who have had families as beards were less active once they were actively parenting young children. So that was what Glasser was trying to do, which is threaten a little bit like, I got free time on my hands now, so I’ll go right back at it. So we’ll see.

DEADLINE: On The Rookie, you sideline villains for a while, and then they pop back in. Obviously Tim and Lucy’s storyline has urgency. Are you going to wait a little until Glasser resurfaces?

HAWLEY: Probably a little bit. It’s going to be all hands on deck, and Tim and Lucy at the beginning of the season will take up some space. Also, we’re not watching Glasser, unfortunately, we know who he is and what he might be up to, but it’s not our job, and we don’t have the resources. I think Glasser is a smart villain, it’s why he got away with it is because he was doing a DNA buffet with his victims, and he was burying them in another serial killer’s grave.

He’s smart, so I do think it would take us a little while before we would get onto whatever he might be up to next. It’ll definitely be Season 9, I don’t want to wait too long to see him again. But I’m not sure exactly what part of Season 9.

DEADLINE: But, asking on behalf of all parents, his former wife and his children will be safe, right?

HAWLEY: Yes, I think they will be. Going down that road would get him in trouble immediately. I think he’s smart enough not to mess with them.

Oscar On Pause, Other OG Villains Activated

DEADLINE: Season 8 brought back another popular Rookie villain, Oscar Hutchinson, played by Matthew Glave, who has appeared on the show every season. You brought him back for one episode, and he is in the wind again. Will he get an arc soon beyond the one-off?

HAWLEY: I think so, I’m a little sketchy on that right now. I love Matthew, I think he’s so much fun as an actor, and he’s been great for us. I also know that we have a little bit of a shelf life on how many times we can bring him back and let him escape again. I feel like we’re at that point in the same way that I felt like Monica had reached the end of her story. I feel like with Oscar, we got to figure out something clever to do with him rather than just another meet cute, so to speak. I don’t know what that is yet. I want to get them back but I don’t know exactly how to do it just yet in a way that’s fresh.

DEADLINE: What other villains are you looking to bring back?

HAWLEY: Actually, my plan going into the writers room for Season 9 is to have somebody, or somebodies go back to the first couple of early seasons and try and figure out, some of our people that we’ve seen before who might have gone to prison, would they be out by now? Like, organically, are there some people that we put away that would actually have served their time, gotten out, and can we bring them back? Because we have some characters from the first couple seasons that I really liked, but obviously they go to jail, so you’re like, well, we can’t do anything with them. It’s nice, we’ve got to a place now where I think we can start to, as real life happens, oh, they’re back out and we do something with them.

DEADLINE: That’s the benefit of the show going to a ninth season.

HAWLEY: For sure.

Malcolm & Wesley: Surprising Bedfellows

DEADLINE: Staying on the villain beat, Glasser’s attorney Malcolm, who has now joined Everett’s team, didn’t seem like a redeemable character but then helped the police in the finale a bit. Will there be more shades to him next season, is there a nice person underneath maybe?

HAWLEY: I don’t know about a nice person. We work really hard to have nuance with our villains where we can, I think Monica is a good example of that this season with her last few episodes, and the tragedy that she even realized about herself. I would never want Malcolm to just be one-dimensional, I think there’s a lot to discover about him still going forward. Sean’s a really great actor, I was excited to get him, and it feels like there’s more we can do with him. So we’ll definitely dig in on that for next season.

DEADLINE: Malcolm and Wesley are now working together for Everett. For Wesley, that turn came out of nowhere. It was explained later that he was doing it to help the police but is that the truth or is he going to the dark side a bit?

HAWLEY: No, I don’t think he’s going to the dark side. I think ultimately, he saw an opportunity. Him and Angela, they knew they needed to get back at Malcolm and find out the truth [about Glasser]. And then Malcolm literally came knocking on his door with an opportunity, and I think Wesley took that but then failed to share that plan with his wife on the front side. I don’t know that Wesley’s still working for Everett in that 901, I don’t think they’re working together going forward, but I do think that Wesley is trying to figure out a way to burn Malcolm for what he sees as the pain that he’s inflicted.

Monica’s Redemption

DEADLINE: You mentioned Monica a couple of times, she got redemption at the end. Was that the arc you envisioned from the beginning, that she was ultimately going to die? Was there an option for her to get away? By the end, we were kind of rooting for her to get a new life.

HAWLEY: I think that’s right. I knew, I wouldn’t say in the very beginning of the season, but I definitely had conversations with Bridget in Prague [where the Season 8 premiere was shot] about making sure that Monica didn’t become a one-dimensional villain, and that even her trying to find money to live at a lifestyle, asking for help from Nolan, all that stuff was meant to sort of go, Monica, actually, is a human being.

I think the tragedy of Monica really was that she, at the end of the day, just couldn’t get out of her own way. And I think she realized that by the end. I thought that scene with Wesley was really powerful. Both of them are just so good in it. I just like that she sees the tragedy of her life and doesn’t quite know how she got there, even though she knows exactly the steps. I thought that was pretty poignant.

DEADLINE: Well, she really didn’t want to live in the middle of the country…(Monica refused to enter witness protection unless it involved her living on the coasts.)

HAWLEY: She didn’t want to be in a flyover state, working at a Cinnabon, she just didn’t. For some people, that’s the line. It sounds like a perfectly nice life, but not for her.

Nolan’s Nightmare Turned Reality

DEADLINE: To clarify, was it Bailey who saved Nolan when he fell overboard at the end of the clandestine operation to recapture Everett, right? It was very dark.

HAWLEY: Yeah, that was Bailey jumping in to get him.

DEADLINE: Nolan had a nightmare of him drowning in dark water earlier in the finale. Did he dream of the same thing that then happened to him in real life or was that a framing device?

HAWLEY: It was a framing device. I do think that he’s been carrying a lot of stress and PTSD, he did get shot recently as he was protecting Glasser, there’s been a lot of dramatic stuff. So I think the nightmare, the suffocation feeling he was feeling, was real. But yes, ultimately, it was a framing device.

Ring Shenanigans, Wedding Bells Next?

DEADLINE: The gag with the ring got a little bit out of hand with everyone knowing about it and giving advice. Did you intend it as a way to have the entire squad involved in the proposal?

HAWLEY: I just like the idea that the ring is a story, that it’s not just a device, that it’s not easy. Again, I joke about the romcom of it all but I do feel like our show contains a lot of different genres, and romcom is one of them. And so this idea that Tim starts out getting the heirloom ring from his mom, which is horrendous, we play that for fun, and then the idea of just trying to find a ring that speaks to him, and not having a ton of money, trying to honor the policeman’s salary of it all and everything; it just seemed like a story that was fun.

And then it ultimately came down to less about the ring itself and more about who Tim is and the proposal. As an anti-Instagram-worthy type guy, how do you propose in 2026 when you’re against all that splashy sh*t? For us, it all felt like a journey, I didn’t feel like we overindulged. I just wanted to go on that journey, I didn’t want to do it too quickly. I think the audience is really invested in the process.

DEADLINE: Part of that ring comedic storyline was the accidental voice message Celina sent her boyfriend Rodge indicating that she was expecting a proposal from him. It was all a big misunderstanding that the two cleared up and obviously she’s young but do you think that may manifest itself, with them considering marriage for real?

HAWLEY: I don’t think so. I mean, she’s still super young, they all are in that group. I think it’s too soon, they’re just dating. They like each other a lot, but every relationship doesn’t need to be serious. We have a lot of couples on our show, and I’m conscious of that for sure. So yeah, it was just another romcom moment.

DEADLINE: Speaking of romcom moments, we have to save Tim and Lucy first but when that’s done, is there a wedding in the plans for Season 9? Any kind of wedding?

HAWLEY: To be honest, I’m not 100% sure what it would look like. We’ve obviously done a lot of weddings. We’re lucky enough to now, going into Season 9, have done varying versions of weddings, whether they’re off-camera, whether they’re interrupted by being taken by La Fiera, whether they’re successful, like the 100th episode with Nolan and Bailey, we’ve done a lot of them.

So I’m always trying to figure out a fresh way in to stuff, and I don’t have it yet. I think what’s safe to say is that it needs to be satisfying. What that means? I don’t know yet. I would never just shortchange it but I don’t know. We got to figure it out.

Rookie Recruitment

DEADLINE: The main cast are all coming back, including Richard T. Jones. What about additions? Your only current rookie Miles didn’t graduate in the finale...

HAWLEY: But he will. Going into Season 9, he won’t be a rookie anymore.

DEADLINE: That’s what I was getting at. A show called The Rookie needs to have at least one rookie at any time.

HAWLEY: You are not wrong, it’s true. What that looks like is another thing we got to figure out. As we’ve talked about before, a rookie is always an opportunity to serve two stories. One is, who that person is, and then how that person affects everyone around them, especially their training officer. So I think that’ll be part of the thing.

Obviously we’ve had rookies that have flamed out quickly before. Greg Grunberg fired his gun at roll call, on morning one. We had a great episode where Katy O’Brian, before she blew up, we were lucky enough to get her, and I thought her episode was really great with Tim. So, there’s always a possibility what we start with might not be the whole season.

There’s still some stuff to figure out but you’re not wrong. Going into Season 9, we would need a new rookie, at least one. I want to figure that out.

DEADLINE: What about drone kid, Dash? I checked the LAPD requirements, I think he’s a little too young to be a rookie.

HAWLEY: That’s true, you’ve got to be 21.

DEADLINE: Is his arc done?

HAWLEY: I don’t know. I think he’s a fun flavor on the show. We’re lucky, after eight seasons and 144 episodes, we’ve had a lot of great characters on our show. I would love to see Tamara back next season. We didn’t get to her this season but I like her on our show. A lot of it is about balancing storyline. If there’s stories to tell, we’ll bring people back.

Final S8 Thoughts & S9 Priorities

HAWLEY: I’m really proud of Season 8. I do feel like every season of the show is different in varying ways. I think the freedom we have, just by not being a straight-up procedural, does allow us to grow and change and try different things.

So going into Season 9, I need to figure out what that looks like next season. What does the ninth season look like that the other ones didn’t? I do think the show has gotten more and more cinematic over the years, which I appreciate. We are more ambitious, we do take some bigger swings. So, going into Season 9 is just like, What haven’t we done before, and how do we keep the show fresh? Because I do think that’s one of our strengths.