The following contains massive spoilers from the season 5 premiere of The Rookie.
This Sunday night in the season 5 premiere of The Rookie, what happened in Vegas between “Dim” and “Juicy” didn’t stay in Vegas for Tim and Lucy.
Before Sergeant Bradford (played by Eric Winter) and Officer Chen (Melissa O’Neil) resumed their undercover dynamics as thug and minor, they were each nudged by confidants (Lopez, Tamara) to respond for genuine feelings that are changing brewing beneath the surface.
Later, en route to Vegas in drug dealer’s pajamas, they shared another passionate, prolonged, “fake” kiss to help sell Dim and Juicy’s Mile High Club antics. Afterward, Tim himself checked out what Lucy might be feeling – but she shrugged as her convincing “practice kiss” simply had the understandable effect of an intimate act.
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When that successful assignment was over and Tim escorted Lucy home, she claimed that they were still technically “undercover” as lovebirds, and she invited Tim over. After much thought, he took the bait.
Getting “Chenford” this far in the Season 5 premiere “felt like the organic place,” showrunner Alexi Hawley tells TVLine. “The reality is when he was her line manager there was no way [to go there]. Even now we’re in a place where there’s a discrepancy in terms of rank, so that’s still an issue, but it felt like we were building to that place where it felt organic, him to advance
The season 4 finale’s double twist, which paved the way for Tim and Lucy to pose as a crime couple, “allowed us to bring to light some things that audiences saw completely beneath the surface,” Hawley noted, ” and now we’re in a place where we can’t ignore it. So this season we definitely have to focus on whatever it’s going to be, the next phase of that.”
But what will a “next phase” look like now that Tim and Lucy’s pairing has been cut short by the shocking discovery of the latter’s suitor, ADA Chris Sanford (Kanoa Goo), lying on her couch with her wrists slashed – the grisly work of an escapee Series murderess Rosalind Dyer?
“Rosalind was mad at Lucy for not showing up in court and for not playing her game…” says Hawley of Dyer’s agenda. “It was her way of getting back at Lucy. And it was also a pretty brutal obstacle to throw in Chenford’s way.”
Whatever Chris’ fate, “there’s going to be a huge sense of guilt” for Lucy, who takes the blame for him being targeted. “Rosalind only picked Chris because of Lucy, so that’s definitely going to have an impact,” says Hawley.
Will a devastated Lucy share what would happen between her and Tim as she processes what happened to Chris? “It’s definitely going to affect her perspective on what she’s going to do with Tim,” predicts Hawley. “She has to deal with it – this shocking reality or a splash of cold water” in an intimate moment.
Elsewhere in the season 5 premiere: Officer John Nolan (Nathan Fillion) was granted a “golden ticket” for his cunning exploits in the season 4 finale — with an invitation to pick any next LAPD post he wanted he wanted.
Confirming that gold tickets are real in such a scenario, Hawley notes, “You can’t say, ‘I want to be a commissioner,’ but for any department, any job you want, they will train you — and I love that.” the gag of anyone interfering as to what they should be doing, “K-9 unit / get to keep the dog!
Nolan will instead use the reward to get back into the training officer career, which is “very consistent with what we’re trying to do as a cop show, which is that the only way for the police, to change, the police is to change,” explains Hawley.
What kind of TO will Nolan be once his new gig begins Episode 3 (and after a modest time skip)? When breaking in his first shoe, will he be guided by Tim, Nyla, Angela or Talia?
“I think Nolan is basically a sensitive person – he listens, he asks questions – so I don’t think anyone would take him for a tough ass like Tim,” says Hawley. “But there’s this line of being too nice or too willing to voice a doubt about a job when st can come out of nowhere and turn everything upside down.
“We’re going to put him through a lot,” shares Hawley, which begs the question, “How do you train someone when there’s chaos?”
Want to know more about The Rookie or any other show? Email [email protected] and your question can be answered through Matt’s Inside Line.