Spoilers ahead for the Season 6 finale of The Rookie, called "Escape Plan."
The Rookie can usually be relied on when it comes to finale cliffhangers, and the Season 6 finale may have outdone the bloody fifth season cliffhanger by the time the final credits rolled. The hunt was on for Monica Stevens, and a lot of money was being thrown around for the bad guys to kill each other, possibly with a lot of collateral damage. By the end of the hour, parts of the case were closed, while two cliffhangers guarantee that Season 7 has some big stories to pick up on.
All in all, after the final credits did roll with double cliffhangers to process, I really needed that soft Chenford moment with Lucy and Tim in an elevator!
The Rookie Season 6 Cliffhangers
The first cliffhanger involved Monica Stevens, who looked perfectly coiffed and put together even when trying to flee killers and/or the authorities. Her final plot was thwarted when Nolan and Harper quite literally crashed an exchange when Blair London was about to be handed over for an undoubtedly unpleasant fate. The LAPD officers succeeded in saving Blair, but Nolan took a bullet in the process. While it was a through-and-through that was more painful (and embarrassing) than damaging, it was enough to prevent Nolan from going after Monica as she ran away and escaped.
That's actually the less urgent cliffhanger of the finale, as Harper established that Monica's identity was now on Interpol's radar, and it was only a matter of time before she was captured. That does seem like it would be an anticlimactic ending for Monica's story and I'm not convinced The Rookie will do it, but her status as a free woman doesn't seem like it will backfire on the cops immediately in Season 7. At least, not compared to the other cliffhanger from "Escape Plan."
That would be because Oscar Hutchinson and Jason Wyler broke out of jail, with Oscar recruiting Jason for a violent interrogation of another prisoner in exchange for his freedom to go after Bailey and Nolan. After all, one of Bailey's sociopathic ex-husband's last moves before going to prison was to frame her, and he ended up behind bars because he assaulted Nolan.
If he was going to break out of the clink, going after Bailey and Nolan seems like his natural first stop once free. It probably won't help that they're married now as of the milestone 100th episode! Nolan got the call about the escape at the very end of the finale. I think this particular cliffhanger rules out my speculation for a time jump being required due to Jenna Dewan's real-life pregnancy.
As of the end of the Season 6 finale, Bailey and Nolan's lives seem to be in real and very urgent peril, justing by the look on his face when he got the news about the jailbreak. There are a lot of questions to ask during the long hiatus due to The Rookie Season 7 being held for midseason 2025, along with Will Trent! So, if you're anything like me, the final Chenford scene of "Escape Plan" is one of the most comforting parts of the finale to look back on now.
Lucy And Tim Share A Moment
The good ship Chenford hit some very rough waters in Season 6 when Tim broke up with Lucy when his past became too much for their relationship... from his perspective, anyway. The love was clearly still there, though, despite some awkwardness. Sure, Lucy encouraging him to pursue therapy resulted in him opening up to Blair of all people, but her heart was certainly in the right place!
And in the Season 6 finale, the duo shared an action sequence during a car chase to prevent a shooter from escaping. Tim jumped in the back of the shooter's pickup truck before he could peel away from the laundromat-turned-war zone, and Lucy chased after in the SUV. While Tim embraced his inner Indiana Jones circa Raiders of the Lost Ark by fighting the bad guy hand-to-hand in the front seat of a truck, Lucy jumped from the driver's side of her car to the back of the pickup to stop the fight before Tim could be stabbed to death.
All in all, it was a pretty cool sequence to show that the two are still a great pair as cops, and shippers can debate for the next six months about whether part of Lucy's motivation for the risky jump between moving vehicles was because Tim was the one in mortal peril. But that's not that one that has me breathing a sigh of relief when compared to the two cliffhangers. We can all agree that their final moment in the finale was pretty great, right?
In another elevator scene, Tim turned to Lucy to thank her for saving his life. She tried to brush it off and say that he would have had it even if she hadn't interfered, but he insisted on giving her the well-deserved credit. It was a sweet moment, followed by this speech from Tim:
Listen, I know I ruined everything and I know how easy it would have been for you to turn on me... You will never know how much I appreciate the kindness you've shown me, and I will spend the rest of my life trying to pay it back in whatever small doses you allow.
Because Lucy is not made of stone, this little speech clearly meant something to her, and it's a credit to Tim that he didn't say it with any expectation of a reciprocal gesture from her. She walked off the elevator after him, and I feel like the door is open for more of an official Chenford reconciliation ahead. Thank goodness for the Season 7 renewal!
How To Rewatch The Season 6 Finale
If there's one thing I'm confident of in the wake of an episode that ended with more questions than answers, it's that the Season 6 finale will be worth rewatching to see if anything was missed. Fortunately, "Escape Plan" will be available streaming with a Hulu subscription, along with the rest of Season 6 and the full first five seasons.
As for when the show will return for Season 7, ABC has only announced that it won't be part of the fall lineup and instead premiere in midseason. A midseason premiere could mean as early as January or possibly as late as March, so hopefully fans won't have to wait too far into 2025 to see what follows these cliffhangers.
