SPOILER ALERT: The story includes details about the May 6 Season 7 Episode 17 of ABC’s The Rookie, “Mutiny And The Bounty”.
The penultimate episode of The Rookie‘s seventh season marked the return of Flula Borg’s bounty hunter Skip Tracer Randy, a crypto billionaire for a day (or hundreds of millionaire, which he admitted does not roll off the tongue as nicely), who used his newfound wealth to try and win the heart of Chastity (Meg DeLacy), the stripper girlfriend of John Nolan’s (Nathan Fillion) half-brother Pete (Pete Davidson).
Davidson did not make an appearance but we did get an update on this character who “is traveling.” Meanwhile, Randy flaunting his money made Chastity a kidnapping target. She was ultimately rescued and Randy lost access to his crypto wallet after her forgot the password but not before he paid for Wolfgang Puck to cater dinner for the Mid-Wilshire police team and for Bradford to get one-on-one with Dodgers star Kike Hernandez.
Elsewhere in the episode, ADA Sean Del Monte (Michael Trucco) dropped out of the DA race after he became the object of blackmail by a gang his team was prosecuting who threatened to expose his son’t drug problem. Sean refused to budge and convinced his son to go a rehab only for the two to be attacked, with his son barely surviving the shooting.
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And the news Chenford fans had been expecting for weeks. Lucy Chen (Melissa O’Neil) did pass the sergeant exam with flying colors. Tim Bradford (Eric Winter) was right there with her as she saw the results, looking proudly — and lovingly — at Lucy as the major obstacle to them rekindling their relationship, their different ranks, disappeared. A new one came up right away though — Lucy got an assignment at the station but it sent her to the night shift, working opposite hours to Tim.
Also facing time apart are Celina (Lisseth Chavez) and her musician boyfriend Rodge Bronson (Zander Hawley) who told her he was going on a tour.
In an interview with Deadline, The Rookie creator/executive producer Alexi Hawley spoke about Randy’s return and when we can see Pete back on the show. He addressed the future of the DA race, what’s next for Celina and Rodge, the celebrity cameos in the episode and how Lucy’s promotion will impact her relationship with Tim. That will be addressed in the upcoming Season 7 finale next Tuesday, which, as the promo at the end of tonight’s episode reveals, will feature the return of escaped prisoner Oscar (Matthew Glave).
DEADLINE: How did the idea came about to bring back Randy? Also, you have us a little update on Pete Davidson’s character but was there a chance for him to also come back?
HAWLEY: We love Flula, Skip Tracer Randy is a favorite of ours on the show. It’s all about scheduling, right? You have actors who are very popular and busy, and we managed to land Flula. Pete Davidson is someone we’re desperate to get back, and he loves doing the show. His reps have reached out to us about him doing the show, it’s just about trying to land when he’s actually available, because he’s super busy.
Hopefully in Season 8 we can get Pete back, that would be great, but for tonight’s episode, Flula is just a force of nature and a joy to watch. Not to use term chaos agent but definitely makes things a little crazy.
DEADLINE: What’s the future of the DA race with Sean dropping out?
HAWLEY: It’s funny you asked that because that is something we were circling in Season 8, how much we lean into it. I’m a little allergic to politics, just as storytelling, because I don’t find it that interesting on narrative TV but I think we found a way in to keep that storyline going in Season *. It’s early days but that’s not the end of that storytelling.
DEADLINE: Those celebrity cameos, how did they come about? Did you try other famous LA people too?
HAWLEY: We got lucky. It was fun to do those. Kike Hernandez from the Dodgers was a great get for us as was Wolfgang Puck. It was fun to reach out to get some people, and they showed up and had a great time. We got lucky, the first two people we asked said yes.
DEADLINE: At the end of the episode, Rodge told Celina he was going on tour. Is that relationship going to be dormant in the near future or will it continue next season?
HAWLEY: He is one of the characters that populates our world, coming in and out. To be totally transparent, he’s also my son, Zander, who wrote Daddy Cop. So the fun for me was, Daddy Cop was such a big thing, how do we keep that going?
But I do think that, Liz, who plays Celina, she has a sparkly energy, and I find it joyful that he can match that. She is a little hard to pair romantically because there is such a sparkle and innocence to her. But yes, we will see him on and off, probably in Season 8 at some point.
DEADLINE: At last but definitely not least — Lucy passing the sergeant exam and the loving looks she and Tim exchanged when the results came out just as she got her night shift assignment. How does it set up next week’s finale. What can we expect from it?
HAWLEY: I think the challenge of the night shift is going to be Lucy’s burden. And then also, having gotten to a place where we’ve told the audience that this was the obstacle to get our Chenford back together.
Now, they’re literally on different schedules, and so that will be part of — I don’t want to use the word fun — but of the episode is the obstacles to overcome. And yeah, and then obviously, on the Oscar front, Nolan and Harper going out into the desert, it’ll be a big action movie; there will be pretty big action set pieces at the end.