'The Rookie' finally made things official between its longest will-they-or-won't-they couple
Credit: Mike Taing/Disney
Warning: This post contains spoilers for the season 8 finale of The Rookie.
NEED TO KNOW
- The finale brings a heartfelt engagement that The Rookie fans have awaited for eight seasons
- But there’s also a shocking kidnapping moments after the happy news
- Showrunner Alexi Hawley says the engagement ring had its own storyline and teases more drama in season 9
The Rookie just won't give Chenford fans a break.
The season 8 finale ended with the moment fans have been waiting eight years to see: Tim (Eric Winter) finally got down on one knee and proposed to Lucy (Melissa O'Neil) at her favorite place, the beach.
"I was surprised you suggested it," an oblivious Lucy says as the couple strolls down the sandy shore at sunset. "I thought you hated the beach."
Then Lucy sets Tim up perfectly. "You ever have that feeling a moment is so perfect you're trying to memorize it while you're experiencing it?"
Tim replies, "Yeah, I do," and then drops to one knee with a ring his best friend Angela (Alyssa Diaz) managed to find in the Super Shop after he lost it earlier in the episode. "When we met, I had come to believe that the world was a really dark place. And for the last eight years, you've shown me just how much light there really is. You have healed me in places I didn't even know were broken. And I promise you, I promise to spend the rest of our lives doing everything I can to be worthy of that love. So, Lucy Chen, will you marry me?"
Credit: Mike Taing/Disney
For Lucy, the answer is simple: "Yes." But the show wasn't content to leave Tim and Lucy's story on a happy ending. Another couple walks towards the pair, congratulating them, before catching the newly-engaged officers unaware and injecting something in their necks. Both Lucy and Tim drop as the mystery woman says, "Heath Everett says payback is a bitch."
Lucy and Tim reach for each other's hands as black hoods are placed over their heads, leaving The Rookie viewers to wait until season 9 to see if the long-suffering couple make it out of their latest predicament safely.
Credit: Mike Taing/Disney
Given how neatly everything appeared to be resolved elsewhere in the finale, it's only natural that showrunner Alexi Hawley decided to end on such a nail-biting cliffhanger. The aforementioned Everett's (Jeffrey Vincent Parise) getaway plan was thwarted by Lucy, Tim, Nolan (Nathan Fillion) and the rest of the team, but considering the billionaire war criminal's vast resources, it's no surprise he found a way to make the precinct pay for locking him up.
In a Friday, May 1 interview with TV Insider, Hawley, 59, talked about having "fun" with Chenford this season as Tim and Lucy moved in together and settled into being a couple with the constant threat of a breakup looming. As the showrunner noted, the pair's engagement ring even had its own arc, from Tim gently rejecting his mother's gaudy family heirloom to choosing the perfect vintage ring and then briefly losing it before it finally made its way onto Lucy's finger.
Credit: Mike Taing/Disney
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"A lot of the fun when I’m not breaking people’s hearts with breaking them up has been the dating and then them moving in together and all that kind of stuff. So, it felt like the ring was just, it deserved its own story really. And obviously over [Episodes] 16 and 17, you went on a journey with that ring," he shared.
Hawley also explained to the outlet that Everett was never going to go quietly to jail. “Ultimately, the LAPD is trying their best to protect against all possibilities, but when you’re talking about a villain who is a billionaire, where’s the end? I mean, with enough money, you can pay people to do anything,” he said.
That includes having two fan-favorite characters kidnapped just seconds after they got engaged despite him being behind bars.
The Rookie has been renewed for season 9. Seasons 1-8 are now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+.
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