‘The Rookie’ Creator On Premiere’s Biggest Moments & Season 8 Details

SPOILER ALERT: The story includes details about the Season 8 premiere of The Rookie.

ABC’s The Rookie kicked off its eighth season with Nolan (Nathan Fillion) and Bailey (Jenna Dewan) getting an impromptu second honeymoon in Prague as they were assigned to babysit the scheming former lawyer Monica (Bridget Regan) who is now cooperating with the feds as part of her immunity deal, helping track down high-value criminal and terrorist targets in and outside U.S.

First on the list is weapons trafficker Lukas Wagner, currently located in Prague. The multi-country operation — which involved Nolan, Nyla (Mekia Cox) and FBI Special Agent Matt Garza (Felix Solis) using Monica as bait to arrest Wagner while their LAPD colleagues raided his weapons stash in Los Angeles — went relatively smoothly, with the biggest hiccups being Monica attempting to slip out undetected and an unhappy former client of hers, billionaire Jakob Olmstead, sending assassins to try and kill her. Both were thwarted by Nolan and Bailey.

Monica was finally able to retrieve valuables from a secret bank safe only to see all but one diamond necklace confiscated by the FBI over their murky origins, with Garza explaining to her on the flight back that she could get $100K for it and rent an apartment in the Valley area of Los Angeles.

“You want me to live like a poor person?,” Monica exclaimed, to which Garza responded, “I want you doing 25 years in federal prison but we all make sacrifices.”

Lucy Chen (Melissa O’Neil) and Tim Bradford (Ereic Winter) — aka Chenford — spent the episode questioning their reconciliation after Tim’s failed move-in proposal at the end of the Season 7 finale. With Lopez (Alyssa Diaz) and Celina (Lisseth Chavez) making it their mission to bring the lost souls back together, they set Tim and Lucy up for a heart-to-heart. It worked. Tim overcame his fear of screwing up again and asked Lucy to move in. After he promised to be a better communicator, she agreed.

The episode ended with Nolan and Bailey enjoying honeymoon bliss in Prague until they were interrupted by a busker singing “Daddy Cop,” the viral song written and performed on the show by Zander Hawley, son of The Rookie creator Alexi Hawley. Meanwhile, Grey agreed to relinquish his watch commander post in order to join Garza’s task force after Nyla turned down the offer, putting her family first, with Tim in line to succeed Grey at the station.

In an interview with Deadline, Alexi Hawley discusses the events in the Season 8 premiere and what is next for Tim and Lucy in light of their big decision to move in together and Tim’s promotion. He reveals which couples will hit rough waters in a “very relationship-forward” eighth season that “might be our biggest season ever” action-wise, and which character is set for a great arc.

He addresses the similarities between Monica’s storyline and NBC’s series The Blacklist, starring James Spader, talks about filming in Prague to big crowds and how the “Daddy Cop” bit came about.

DEADLINE: When we last spoke about Chenford after the Season 7 finale, you said that they have been through a lot, so you’re not going to create more obstacles for them. What prompted you to make one more in the S8 premiere? Why did they get cold feet all of a sudden, especially Tim?

HAWLEY: I don’t know it was cold feet so much as, in the aftermath of a near miss of the asking, is he moving too fast? Sort of self doubt that comes in, what if it’s not like it was before — which feels very real to me as an idea — it seemed magical, and then he f*cked it up, and now what’s it going to be? It felt like, ultimately, the one thing that we really needed was a conversation and to express some real fears. Just seemed grounded.

DEADLINE: Tim and Lucy had to be pushed and literally tricked into having that meeting. Talk about that. And did you think this was the Chenford conversation fans have been waiting for for years where they finally clear the air?

HAWLEY: I do. Our fans are very passionate about the show, and I’m sure there’s some things that I didn’t talk about that maybe they thought I should. But, yeah, I felt like part of their issue has always been a little bit of communication, I think prompted more by him than her, but even so, just thought we’d earned it. We need to get there, and I love that it takes a village a little bit to get these two back together. We played with that in the finale last year a little bit; I just love that everybody is rooting for them in the way that we’re rooting for them. So just felt like a fun way in.

DEADLINE: Is it clear skies for those two from now on? Are we done with obstacles, and how will they be living together?

HAWLEY: We’re not done with obstacles in the sense that we still need drama, but I think a lot of their drama is focused more in navigating workplace, home life and career things that they’re both going through as opposed to a romantic obstacle, if that makes sense.

We do have some fun — I don’t want to spoil where we’re going but like, even the moving-in is a complicated thing, and when you unpack. How you unpack all that stuff? Just felt like a way to have some fun with their relationship without all the high stakes that we’ve had recently.

DEADLINE: You mentioned the workplace, and at the end of the premiere Grey vacates the watch commander post. It took forever for Tim and Lucy to be equals as sergeants so they can date freely. With Tim poised to take over Grey’s role, would that promotion become a problem in their relationship, not being on the same footing?

HAWLEY: We’re not playing it as a problem. I mean, to a certain extent, they’re equals in rank, although by becoming a watch commander, he is sort of overseeing. But that being said, the fact that they’re not just dating — they’re not married but in a much more committed relationship — I think for us to navigate some of those obstacles, you can get waivers on that kind of stuff. So that was our thought going in, I don’t feel like it’s the same obstacles as before.

DEADLINE: So the new post would not change the dynamic of their relationship?

HAWLEY: There’s a little stuff to navigate, Tim, how he faces the new job, all that kind of stuff, but it’s more of them going through it together as opposed to a way to put something between them.

DEADLINE: You’d mentioned in May that you don’t like night shoots, and that we’ll see Lucy very soon coming into the daylight from her current night shift. It didn’t happen in the premiere. Will the watch commander change help Lucy become part of the daytime team again, with her and Tim on the same schedule?

HAWLEY: Yes. The moving pieces of him moving up opens his slot as the daytime supervising sergeant. So yes, it will move her back into our world. And to be clear, night shoots are all great if it’s justified for the story. It’s just I try and be kind to the crew, unless we need a night, then we don’t do a night.

DEADLINE: Switching to the Prague storyline and Monica. It has a strong The Blacklist vibe. Was it intentional, are you paying an homage to that show? And will that continue; will you stick to that format with them crossing names off that list throughout the season?

HAWLEY: Yeah, it’s definitely an homage. I mean, we didn’t run away from it — nor do I think we should. It’s a great setup, and it allows Monica back into our world in a really complicated way because she’s been the enemy but now she’s working with us, and we trust her, question mark? So, yes, there will be several — not a ton, but like, three or four episodes during the course of the season — where we go back to the task force of it all and use that to expand our world a little bit in a fun way.

DEADLINE: Is Monica committed to working with the feds? She tried to escape twice in the premiere. Is she committed to that setup?

HAWLEY: Until there’s a better option. She wasn’t trying to escape so much as meet up with the person who went to get the stuff out of the safe deposit box, that was what was going on there. She finally got a way to get that meet, to try and get some of her ill-gotten gains which the Feds didn’t know existed. So that was the setup there.

What I love is that last scene with [Garza] on the plane where she’s like, “In the Valley?” The idea of her being a poor person is just… So, yes, I think she’s leveraged herself into a position where she’s managed to escape jail and all that kind of thing. But she doesn’t have a law license, she doesn’t have a way to really make money, so I think she’s in this until she gets a better exit package.

DEADLINE: I feel like she should be in witness protection or something. Once it gets out that she outed a big, Top 10 Most Wanted bad guy, you’d think that other assassins will come after her. I don’t know if the San Fernando Valley is hidden enough from view.

HAWLEY: They’re still using her, and they’re using the weight of her being an overtly, an FBI-LAPD asset as a way, like, if you go after her, you’re gonna end up in trouble with that. But that will only sustain for so long before she’s talking about people. So we’re definitely walking the line with that.

DEADLINE: Was this the first international episode that you have done for The Rookie?

HAWLEY: Yeah, we’ve talked about stuff before, but once you start putting the price tag together, it always seems like, well, L.A. fakes Argentina OK if you go to this place. But I had just come off doing Season 2 of The Recruit where we spent a month in Korea, and it just felt very possible. And just rolling into the season, I’m like, Season 8, it’s rarefied air already, how do we start with a splash. And knowing that you can do it for a price, and knowing that the premiere was already going to inherently be over budget on purpose.

I think the thing that sealed the deal was I didn’t ask for more money for it. I was just like, we’ll absorb it. We just want to go do this, and now I’m like, where are we going with the premiere next season? Knock on wood.

DEADLINE: Is this something that you’re going to try to make into an annual thing, kicking off each season in another country?

HAWLEY: I would do it again. A thing we can talk about every year is where our premiere of The Rookie is going to be in Season 13, 14, 15 but for now, we had a really good time, it was a great experience. I would definitely say I would probably do something like that again next season, and then we’ll see.

DEADLINE: What were some of the more more memorable experiences in Prague? We already heard Bridget got food poisoning.

HAWLEY: Yes.

DEADLINE: What else do you remember from filming there?

HAWLEY: For me, being in Prague really brought me face to face with how popular the show is, especially internationally. People came from other countries to set, they lined up everywhere we shot on location; they were three or four deep. They were lined up outside the hotel. Just watching how passionate people were was really rewarding, I don’t see that so much.

We live in a world, for the most part, where everything’s theoretical, people on Twitter and all that. But to actually see that fandom, that was really special, and it’s just a unique opportunity. Most shows don’t do that. We’d never done that before. So to go and have this experience with the cast who went, and also the crew who went, it just felt special.

DEADLINE: Was it an homage to the international popularity of the show that you had a random busker in Prague sing “Daddy Cop”? Or was that an improv thing?

HAWLEY: It wasn’t an improv thing. What’s funny is, we went to scout a few months before we went back to shoot. We were on the Charles Bridge. It was Bill Roe, who’s our producing director. Because there are buskers out there playing, he’s like, Wouldn’t it be funny if somebody’s doing “Daddy Cop”? So I reached out to Zander with the idea, and he’s like, “Oh, I know a guy in Prague. I have somebody who reached out to me through the music to say he’s a fan.” So ultimately, that guy, we got him through Zander. It was so much fun and to go up there and do that little bit. And of course, Nathan was so funny with it, so that was a joy.

DEADLINE: Overall, is there a theme you’re tackling this season? Can you also tease the evolution of some of the storylines that started in the premiere?

HAWLEY: I think we’re very relationship-forward this season. Obviously, Tim and Lucy are moving into a new phase. There’s going to be some challenges for Nolan and Bailey and Grey and Luna, there’s some trouble in that relationship as well. And then some obstacles with Wesley running for office, what that does to his relationship with Lopez. I think this is a great Lopez season, I’m very excited about that. There’s some really fun stuff and good stuff for them this season.

So there’s a lot of storylines that really push on the relationships. At the same time, I think it might be our biggest season ever, just in terms of set pieces and action and stuff and even scary, like Episode 3 is very intense. There’s another episode or two down the road that are more horror movie than maybe we’ve done before. I just love that the show can sustain all that.