THE ROOKIE’s Alexi Hawley: ‘We’ve Earned the Next Step’ with Chenford

After more than four seasons of build-up, THE ROOKIE’s Lucy (Melissa O’Neil) and Tim (Eric Winter) took a big step in the fall finale when they decided to give their relationship a try. And though the show returns in January with a major crossover event between THE ROOKIE and THE ROOKIE: FEDS, the duo’s promise to go on a date won’t be forgotten.

“If we pivoted away from it at this point, people would hunt me for sport,” THE ROOKIE boss (and THE ROOKIE: FEDS co-creator) Alexi Hawley tells Give Me My Remote with a laugh. (Hawley also has the new Netflix series THE RECRUIT dropping on Friday, December 16—look for more on that later this week.)

“This would be like episode 86 [in the series’ run]—we’ve been building to this moment,” Hawley says of Chenford. “What I’m really proud of is that we didn’t take any shortcuts. We made it very organic. And I think the audience appreciates that.”

Of course, with any slow-burn, “there have been moments along the way where I got a little worried,” Hawley acknowledges. “The moment when they were driving together, where he was saying that she couldn’t do undercover. She told him she loved him, and ended up making him really uncomfortable. And then she was like, ‘Psych!’ That was a moment where the audience could have come after us. But they got it, right? They got that it was organic to the storyline. And, plus, they’re like, ‘She’s really in love with him, and he’s really in love with her.’ They always read into that kind of stuff.”

But now that they’ve acknowledged their feelings and decided to take the leap to dating, it will stick.

“I felt really satisfied that we’ve gotten to this place where we’ve earned the next step,” Hawley says. “But we can’t make it easy, and we can’t make it fast. [The fans] definitely will be all on board for where we’re going.”

THE ROOKIE, Tuesday, January 3, 8/7c, ABC

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