The Rookie kicked off Season 9 production on July 21, and there’s much to look forward to after that roller coaster of a finale.
Showrunner Alexi Hawley showed up at San Diego Comic-Con four days later with the cast in tow, and he did not tiptoe around The Rookie Season 8 finale.
He revealed that the Season 9 premiere will be a two-episode thriller, and he described it as high-stakes, dramatic, romantic, funny, and unexpected. Sounds pretty good, right?
(Disney/Mike Taing)
Hold your horses, for now.
Looking at The Rookie‘s history over the past couple of seasons, the way Hawley described the season premiere sounds all too familiar.
My mind keeps circling back to that one person who almost always fits this exact description, in more scenes than we would like. I think we all know who I’m talking about.
We did see a version of it during The Rookie Season 8 finale. And I really hope I’m wrong about Season 9.
Because the last person I’d want to see when Tim and Lucy finally get pulled out of wherever Heath Everett is keeping them is, you guessed it right, The Rookie’s superwoman Bailey Nune.
The Rookie Season 8 Already Showed Us the Bailey Playbook, and It Was Horrible
(ABC/Screenshot)
Let us rewind back to that finale.
Before that gut-wrenching cliffhanger that gave us Tim’s beach proposal followed almost immediately by Everett’s people grabbing both him and Lucy off that same sand, the hour had already spent its back half on a sequence that could’ve only been written by a true Bailey Nune fan.
Everett was already in cuffs. The extraction was complete, and his people were on the speedboat.
Nolan chose to stay for nonsensical heroics, somehow found a car in the ship’s belly, and drove it through gunfire for a Smokey and the Bandit tribute that Hawley seems to be proud of.
(ABC/Screenshot)
Fine. Fun, even, if you like your cop shows with a side of stunt-driving nostalgia. But what happened next was beyond atrocious.
Nolan jumped into San Diego harbor with, somehow, not a scratch on him, and went unconscious anyway. Why? Because we needed Bailey to save the day!
And we’ve witnessed this happen countless times before.
Whether busting open a four-man gang, escorting a high-profile target like Monica in Prague, or trapping an FBI informant, Bailey functions as the show’s Swiss Army knife.
But that tool has lost its sharpness over time with repeated use. And in most cases now, pushing her into every storyline feels more like fitting a square peg in a round hole.
(Disney/Mike Taing)
The Chenford rescue deserves better. Two of the most capable cops deserve a well-thought-out escape plan.
When Hawley said the premiere was “funny and unexpected”, I pray he wasn’t talking about Bailey, or perhaps not talking about Bailey.
Chenford Deserves a Rescue That Is Actually Theirs
I do see a silver lining with Season 9, as it comes straight from Hawley himself.
He told the SDCC crowd that Tim and Lucy will not sit around and wait to be saved, confirming the squad will spend the premiere tracking them down while Chenford works the problem from the inside.
(Disney/Mike Taing)
My hope with The Rookie Season 9 is exactly that. Teamwork.
After eight seasons of build, this is not a storyline that should hinge on someone else swooping in at the last second and saving the day.
The cast has their own separate read as we go into filming.
Melissa O’Neil already told the SDCC audience she was in shock reading the proposal scene, only to realize a page later that the kidnapping was coming right behind it.
However, Eric Winter has talked about wanting Tim and Lucy separated in different locations rather than together, specifically because it raises the stakes and forces each of them to solve their own half of the problem.
(Disney/Mike Taing)
That is a version of this rescue I would watch twice.
Tim and Lucy clawing their way back to each other, making their own hard calls under pressure, earning the reunion instead of being handed it.
What I do not want is a repeat of the harbor.
I do not want the emotional peak of a season-long arc undercut by a superhuman character conveniently drifting into frame at the exact right moment, again.
So when Hawley says funny and unexpected, I am choosing to hear that as a promise.
(Disney/Mike Taing)
Tim and Lucy fighting their way out using their tactical expertise, while each member of LAPD, along with Garza and his men, works together and finds them.
That’s the way it should be. Play around with that concept; there’s plenty of room.
But without the one character we’re all tired of watching in every single episode.
Did the harbor scene bother you as much as it bothered me? Are you annoyed at the idea of Bailey being part of the Chenford rescue, or are you fully on board with Bailey being wherever the danger is?
Tell me down in the comments, and if you want someone keeping track of whether Season 9 actually breaks the pattern, hit subscribe and come yell about it with me in January.
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