Richard T. Jones Reveals What’s Next on ‘The Rookie’ After Monica’s Return: She’s ‘Destructive’ (Exclusive)

Monica Stevens made her villainous return to The Rookie on Tuesday, March 25, and according to Richard T. Jones she’s just getting started.

Warning: Spoilers below from season 7, episode 11, of The Rookie.

“She’s a very destructive person,” Jones, 53, who plays Sergeant Wade Grey on the ABC series, exclusively told Us Weekly of Monica’s (Bridget Regan) end game.

He teased that the red-haired villain “is manipulating the system fully and completely” as the show heads toward the season 7 finale. (Monica first appeared during season 5 working for high-profile criminals, which are almost always at odds with the LAPD.)

During the Tuesday episode of The Rookie, officers John Nolan (Nathan Fillion) and Celina Juarez (Lisseth Chavez) went undercover on a metro bus to catch petty criminals in the act. What they didn’t expect was the bus to get hijacked by a bomber and the criminal’s brother asking for millions in cryptocurrency.

Throughout the standoff, Nolan focuses on keeping everyone calm, including a pregnant woman who seemingly starts to have contractions from the stress. At one point, the hijackers agree to let four hostages off the bus in exchange for a plane — one is his brother who was shot, one is Celina, who had to identify herself as a cop, and one is the pregnant woman, plus two others.

Nolan eventually stops the remaining assailant before anyone else gets hurt and they defuse the bomb. However, the pregnant woman flees the scene soon after the police realize she was responsible for rigging a boobytrap house (where the ransomed call was routed) that nearly killed detectives Nyla Harper (Mekia Cox) and Angela Lopez (Alyssa Diaz).

It turns out, the pregnant woman is working with corrupt lawyer Monica and was tasked with stealing a government official’s key card during the hijacking — which appears to be a giant smoke screen.

While the woman is apprehended, she vows to keep her connection to Monica secret. Jones exclusively told Us that when it comes to “discovering Monica’s influence” or the reason she’s “stirring the pot” the LAPD won’t connect the dots right away.

“The evidence starts heading towards that situation where we’re trying to figure it out [what Monica wants],” Jones explained. “We don’t know who it might be, but the finale is the biggest reveal for us.”

The actor teased that Grey and his team won’t be made “aware of how deep it is” for a while as they start chasing leads. (Monica threatens the safety of the woman’s “child’s life” before she is taken into custody.)

The LAPD doesn’t know “how much she’s stirring the pot, how many sides she’s playing in this whole thing until the finale episode,” Jones said, adding that her end game is “not clear yet.”

When it comes to escaped convict Oscar Hutchinson’s (Matthew Glave) connection with Monica, Jones told Us that his “hands are also in the pot.”

He played coy about when Oscar will make his return to The Rookie, but hinted, “Somehow those two forces will come together.”

Jones teased that Oscar and Monica, who helped Oscar escape prison at the end of season 6, will “come together in some form or fashion and cause havoc.”

He added, “The connection between the two, it will not be as clear as people might want it to be by season’s end.”

Fillion, 53, previously told Us that Monica has not changed her devious ways but exclusively revealed that Oscar might be the bigger baddie. (Oscar has helped the police on and off for years, but he is also a criminal who broke free from prison last season.)

“We’ve known [him] since season 2,” the actor said earlier this month, pointing out that Oscar “seems affable and charming and hilarious [but] don’t turn your back on him. He will literally stab it.”

The Rookie airs on ABC Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET.