Updated with video.
Warning: spoilers ahead for the Season 5 finale of The Rookie, called “Under Siege.”
The Rookie rarely shies away from intense storylines on ABC in between the cute Chenford moments, but the “Under Siege” case felt worthy of a horror movie for most of the hour. The Season 5 finale also ended on a bloody cliffhanger with Thorsen possibly on death’s door after being shot, but that wasn’t the final shot of the episode, and I’m thinking that we should be more worried about the more mysterious cliffhanger.
What Happened With Thorsen And The Investigation
The horror elements of “Under Siege” started early when Thorsen and Juarez’s walk home from a late night/early morning D&D session turned into investigating a strange sound down an alleyway. Although they couldn’t have known it at the time, they made a huge mistake by splitting up, and they were attacked by men in seriously creepy masks. Thorsen was shot, and Juarez was concussed after one of the men dropped a riddle on her.
All hands were on deck at Mid-Wilshire, but masked men started targeting them as well, with Nolan and Bailey attacked at his home and Nyla’s baby daughter being kidnapped, although the little girl was thankfully recovered right away. Bradford and Chen were swarmed by goons while chasing down a lead, and likely wouldn’t have survived if not for the timely arrival of the cavalry. The leader of the masked men turned out to be Luke Moran, whose grudge against the cops was rooted in serving ninety days for elder abuse.
Moran chose to die via suicide by cop, but not before a mysterious phone call with a man who had helped the whole plot. The man on the phone told Moran that he “hurt them a lot,” and “saw a wrong that needed to be righted.” It was a creepy scene, but easy to overlook while the episode was still airing due to Thorsen’s code blue in the hospital, with Juarez looking on. “Code blue” generally means cardiac or respiratory arrest, and Thorsen seems to be dying.
And the possible death of a character would normally be enough of a cliffhanger, but there was a second that could be much scarier in the long run, and made me very happy that ABC had already renewed The Rookie for Season 6.
What Happened That We Should Be More Worried About
Nolan at least wasn’t convinced that the mystery was fully solved after Moran’s death, who after all wasn’t a man of the kind of means required to hire mercenaries. Unbeknownst to him, a long line of police cars was speeding to the scene, sirens blaring and lights flashing… with a pair of black Escalades driving in the opposite direction, and a man in the passenger seat who dropped a foreboding comment as he watched the cops driving in what appears to be the wrong direction. He laughed in a pretty sinister way and said:
Look at ‘em go! Hot damn, that is money well spent. Weaponizing Luke Moran against the LAPD has driven every cop in the city away from our target, and by the time they realize the damage we’ve done, we’ll be long gone.
While I’m grateful to the man for dropping some exposition before the final credits rolled on Season 5, I am not feeling great about what he said as the two black cars drove toward downtown Los Angeles! I’m of course worried about Thorsen and don’t want to lose him in Season 6, but it sounds like the world of The Rookie could be on the verge of losing a lot more. Fingers crossed for Thorsen and the city of Los Angeles over hiatus! It was a doozy of a cliffhanger, and really felt like the first half of a two-parter.
Unfortunately, fans will presumably be waiting for a while for the second half, as the story didn’t carry over into The Rookie: Feds for another crossover despite the back-to-back time slots. The renewal initially seemed like a guarantee that The Rookie would be back on ABC in the fall, as per usual, but the 2023 WGA writers strike could mean that the fall TV season doesn’t get off to its regular start. For now, we can revisit earlier episodes of The Rookie’s first five seasons streaming with a Hulu subscription, and find more viewing options on our 2023 TV premiere schedule.
