Spoilers ahead for the Season 7 premiere of The Rookie, called "The Shot" and available streaming with a Hulu subscription now.
The Rookie arrived in the 2025 TV schedule with the aftermath of some Season 6 twists to address, including Nolan (Nathan Fillion) coming back physically and mentally after being shot as well as what Chenford's working relationship will look like after Lucy (Melissa O'Neil) and Tim's (Eric Winter) fan-favorite romance ended abruptly last year. A big change that was revealed over hiatus had to be addressed as well: the exit of Tru Valentino as Officer Aaron Thorsen. "The Shot" explained his off-screen exit well enough, but in a way that makes me wish he'd gotten an on-screen goodbye.
The news about Thorsen came after an opening sequence that was – unsurprisingly, after comments from showrunner Alexi Hawley – quite action-packed. It was also quite a casual reveal, coming as part of Nolan and Juarez talking about how she finally gets to wear short sleeves. After she noted that Thorsen got to ditch the long sleeves earlier than she did, they had this exchange:
- Nolan: "How is Aaron doing over in North Hollywood, anyway?"
- Juarez: "He's settling in. Happy that no one at the station knows he was a patient of Blair's."
And that was it! All in all, it was a pretty unceremonious exit for the actor who had been part of the show from Seasons 4-6, but at least not one that involved being killed off over hiatus. But the explanation being as straightforward as a transfer to a precinct not too far away from Mid-Wilshire just makes me wish that The Rookie could have at least brought Tru Valentino in for a cameo so that Thorsen could drop the exposition himself on screen rather than via a distracted Juarez.
Based on the actor's message after news broke of his exit, there didn't seem to be any bad blood left behind, and Valentino even noted that "You never know who may pop back up in the Mid-Wilshire precinct." I didn't get him back for one more episode with the premiere; could I get my wish later in Season 7? Even if he was never a key character on par with Nolan, Lopez, or either half of Chenford, his fate was one of the biggest cliffhangers at the end of Season 5.
All of this said, it was clear pretty early on why The Rookie wrote out one of its series regulars ahead of Season 7. There are two new rookies in the mix: Miles, the transfer ringer from Texas who wasted no time in annoying Tim as his TO, and Seth, the newbie who vomited all over a crime scene to the dismay of Lucy.
I'm personally not sold on the newcomers arriving to take up time that might have otherwise been spent on Thorsen, but as Chenford more or less noted, it's hard to judge a character based on just one day. Plus, their bet over Miles vs. Seth is a cute storyline for them after their end-of-relationship angst. For now, take a look at the promo for the next installment of Season 7:
Keep tuning in to ABC on Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET for new episodes of The Rookie, following Kaitlin Olson's High Potential at 9 p.m. ET and Will Trent Season 3 at 8 p.m. ET. The wait for the new seasons of both The Rookie and Will Trent was quite long, so hopefully the action is store will be exactly what fans have been hoping for.
