‘The Rookie’ Showrunner on the “Real Effects” of the Chenford Breakups and the Return of Aaron Thorsen

Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for The Rookie Season 7 Episode 15.

With the recent news of the renewal of The Rookie for Season 8 and the coming finale around the corner, there’s a lot coming down the pipeline for the police procedural. After wrapping up yet another documentary style episode, one that saw the show dipping a bit into the supernatural and enlisting the help of Watcher’s Ryan Bergara and Shane Madej, there’s still a lot on the plate for the Mid-Wilshire division. Not only do they still have to watch their backs with Monica (Bridget Regan), but also Oscar Hutchinson (Matthew Glave), out loose. Not to mention the fact that Seth (Patrick Keleher) is returning as a training officer despite his dismissal.

We spoke with showrunner Alexi Hawley about The Rookie. In regards to the renewal, Hawley said he was excited to get into another new season and that, “the joy of our show and the patrols show of it all is that anytime we pair up two different characters, it makes for a different episode.” It seems like Season 8 might switch up some of the character pairings, allowing us to see more variety in the pair-ups. But before we can get to Season 8, we’ve still got three more episodes left of the season, and we talked with Hawley not only about the villains to come, but about the show’s biggest ships with Chenford and Bailan. The showrunner teased the return of a beloved former character and discussed the wildfire disaster episodes, and he also spoke about his relationship with the avid fans of this series.

Read the full interview below.

Working With Ryan Bergara and Shane Madej for the Documentary Episode

“They were just what popped to mind…”

COLLIDER: I was delighted to see Ryan and Shane as a part of that episode. Can you talk about what it was like getting them to join in on all this fun and what that process was like?

ALEXI HAWLEY: So, two of my kids love them, and that’s how I was introduced to them. My daughter is 24 or 25 right now, and my son is 17. So they’re older. It’s sort of a bonding show for them. So, I was introduced to them through my kids. And then when we started writing this episode, because I wanted to do something scary, I wanted something that was fun. And because these true crime episodes are always a challenge, but also a joy to break. And, you know, the first one was sort of inspired by the Making a Murder and Tiger King phenomenon, but I really wanted to lean into more of this, the horror for this episode, and they were just what popped to mind, and we reached out to them, and they jumped on board, and they were a joy to work with. And, yeah, so it was super fun.

Amazing! Well, did your kids get to meet them when they came on to set?

HAWLEY: Yes, they came to set. As you’ve seen, I’m in the episode a little bit. The day that we did the mental hospital stuff, where I interviewed them, and they interviewed me, yeah, Violet and Beckett came to see them.

Alexi Hawley About the Villains Coming in ‘The Rookie’

“We’ll definitely see them again this season…”

I’m curious about some of the other threats that are waiting in the distance. Will we be done with the threat of Monica by the end of the season, or is that something that you could see carrying on future seasons? And I have the same question about Oscar, who I know will see again, but I’m not really sure when.

HAWLEY: Yes, well, that’s very spoilery. Look, I mean, I think one of the joys of what we’ve managed to find on the show are some great villains. So I think Monica and Oscar are both that, although in very different ways. I mean, we’ll definitely see them again this season, I can say, without spoiling it. And then going forward, we’ll see, I don’t want to give anything away,

And then in Episode 15, we see more of Liam Glasser, who, at the end of this episode, it sounds like there might be a way for him to get out of jail just through a technicality. Is he going to be more of a threat? Can you tease if he’s going to be a threat in this season, or if it’s later on that we might see him again? How soon is this threat going to be present?

HAWLEY: God, you want me to spoil everything? He’s a great actor and a great character for us, and I love the idea that there are still repercussions, and there are still moves to make. I guess I would say they’re probably further than closer. I mean, I think ultimately, yes, we’ve put a little bit of sand in the oyster, so to speak, and we’ll see what comes from that. But I did think that it was really a fun idea, that this seemingly crazy True Crime documentary episode might have real repercussions down the road.

Alexi Hawley Discusses Chenford and Bailan in ‘The Rookie’

“We’ve all had moments of wanting something that maybe might not be emotionally healthy for you.”

I have to talk about the Chenford of it all. There’s been a lot of lead-up and a lot of hookups this season, and it feels like we’re going a little bit back and forth. Will fans be happy by the end of the season, and will they be finally able to move forward in their relationship, or is it still going to be in that nebulous region?

HAWLEY: Every word I say about this is parsed very closely, so let me think about how to respond. Let me back up a little bit by saying that I think that the journey this season has been really important, at least to us in the writers’ room and on the show, in terms of the real effects of the breakup and Lucy really coming to terms with who she is after, what she wants out of her career and out of her job afterwards, but also being a human being, and as we’ve all had moments of wanting something that maybe might not be emotionally healthy for you, like the hookups and all that kind of stuff, where, you know, have been a bit of a bouncing back and forth. That just feels very human to me. I mean, look, I do think that at the end of the day, that connection between them is impossible to break. And so I think, as we go forward, you will just see that.

I have a question about Bailey and Nolan’s relationship and this dream that they had of having a kid, which felt like it was over by the end of Episode 14. Can we still have hope of them starting some sort of family for themselves in the future, or is it something that they’ve decided we need to move on to past this point?

HAWLEY: I think at the moment there, they’ve gone on this journey which obviously had highs and, sadly, lows, and they’ve come to a place where, I think they see that that road is one that they’re just not going to go down. But you never know further down the road. But for now, I think that story is told.

Alexi Hawley Discusses the Wildfire Disaster Episodes

“We’re always looking for the next thing.”

I loved this season when you guys had the wildfire episode. I thought that was such a fun episode. Do you guys have any plans for more of these disaster episodes where it feels like it’s all hands on deck and there’s a lot of chaos?

HAWLEY: I mean, it’s one of the things we definitely do. I mean, we’ve done earthquakes before. We’ve done other kinds of natural disasters and stuff like that. And even a missile alert, which was in some ways a bit of a disaster. I mean, I think they’re really part of the language of the show. The thing that really helped us this season with that episode — because it was a fairly VFX heavy episode — us being a mid-season rather than a fall season show this year gave us a lot more post time before the episode aired, so it allowed us to lean in a little bit more, to being ambitious with that.

So I do think that that helped that episode. And, yeah, we’re always looking for the next thing. And obviously, you’re always walking a line on stuff that feels real and connected. Obviously, we put out the trigger warning card at the beginning and then the resources, because we shot this thing way before the horrible, tragic fires that destroyed the Palisades and Altadena, but we’re very sensitive about those while we were putting the episode out.

Will We See Tru Valentino’s Aaron Again in ‘The Rookie’?

“I think we’ll definitely see him again down the road.”

I know that there was a mention of Tru Valentino’s character in Episode 13. I loved his character, and I was really sad that he wasn’t going to be a part of the season. Is there any chance that we could see Aaron again?

HAWLEY: Yeah, no, no, definitely, for sure. I mean, these are the hard things you do as a showrunner, and in the writers’ room, is to try and keep the storytelling moving forward and making hard choices about what we’re going to focus on and what we’re not. That being said I love Tru and I have loved Aaron’s storyline, and so, yeah, I think we’ll definitely see him again down the road.

Ok, I’m looking forward to that for sure. I feel like I was really disappointed when he wasn’t coming back.

HAWLEY: Look, I hear you. I mean, I don’t want to make you feel like it’s going to be in the short term necessarily. But, yes, no, look, I agree. And again, it’s the embarrassment of riches of having so many great characters to service, but also feeling like we need to, I mean, it’s called The Rookie. We keep needing new rookies along the way, and you just have to navigate it.

Alexi Hawley in the Police Reform Subplot of ‘The Rookie’

“We’ve been very focused on this from early days.”

What are the ripple effects that are happening with this movement for police reform, because we’ve gotten a little bit of it, but it’s been a slow-moving, back-burner plot. Are we going to see more of that come to the forefront in the coming episodes, towards the finale?

HAWLEY: I mean, we don’t resolve anything. I don’t know that anything can be resolved at this point. Obviously, we’ve been very focused on this from early days. Especially after the George Floyd killing, it became a priority for us to really focus on injustice in the justice system. And we’ve carried it forward in bigger and smaller storylines. And I think, ultimately, have always felt through the people we talked to and the experts and everything that policing can’t get reformed until police embrace it. You know?

That if all the calls from reform come from outside the house, so to speak, then the movement will be reluctant, and what we’re showing is how difficult it is to move things forward. I think it’ll be something that is with us as we go forward in the season and then into next. How do we make inroads when it does feel like the push and pull of the spotlight being on the issue and then going away? How are we still talking about it when others might not be?

Do the Fans of ‘The Rookie’ Influence the Show and Its Direction?

“I have a very complicated relationship with social media.”

This show has a very active and vocal fan base. Have there ever been moments where a fan reaction or theories or opinions have affected the direction of the show to the extent or offered a helpful push in an unexpected direction?

HAWLEY: I don’t think so. I mean, to be honest, I have a very complicated relationship with social media. Tim Bradford has a line to that social media intern in the Purge episode about how social media is the worst of us, which literally came from me, because I do feel like… I mean, there are wonderful things about it, but it really, especially now with all the bots and the propaganda and all the disinformation that’s going through, and also just the effect it has on the FOMO, everyone else is having a good time, everyone else is beautiful, and I don’t feel that way like, it just feels very toxic. [Laughs] So how’s that as an answer to your question?

I think, at the end of the day, I don’t know. There’s a lot of positivity, there can be some real negativity, so I try and avoid it for the most part. I mean, obviously, I do hear people are not happy. People are happy with some things, but I do think our job is to tell the story that we feel is important to tell. And hope that the audience goes with us, and they have. To use Chenford as an obvious example, there have been moments, and I think I’ve talked about this before, in the course of that relationship, where I did get a little nervous.

There was an episode several seasons ago where Tim and Lucy are riding together, and he tells her that he doesn’t think that she could be an undercover officer, because she’s just too nice. And so she then confesses being in love with him, and ultimately, it was a sike moment. And I did get worried that the audience would get mad at me, but it was very organic for storytelling, and I really appreciated that, for the most part, everybody got it. And then they thought she meant anyway, so, which, again, it was all baked into it, but, yeah, so I don’t know.

New episodes of The Rookie air on ABC on Tuesdays in the U.S.

The Rookie

Release Date

October 16, 2018

Network

ABC

Showrunner

Alexi Hawley

Directors

Tori Garrett, Chi-Yoon Chung, Michael Goi, Sylvain White, Lisa Demaine, Lanre Olabisi, Bill Johnson, David McWhirter, Liz Friedlander, Daniel Willis, Toa Fraser, Anne Renton, Jon Huertas, Cherie Nowlan, TK Shom, Rob Seidenglanz, Valerie Weiss, Barbara Brown, Charissa Sanjarernsuithikul, SJ Main Muñoz, Nelson McCormick, Marcus Stokes, Adam Davidson, Anna Mastro

Writers

Corey Miller, Bill Rinier, Zoe Cheng, Mary Trahan, Ally Seibert, Liz Alper, Nick Hurwitz, Racheal Seymour, Madeleine Coghlan, David Radcliff