THE ROOKIE Post-Mortem: The Team Breaks Down Aaron and Celina’s Bond, Chenford’s Lie Detector Declarations and Filming that Dance-Heavy Wedding Reception

February 27, 2024 by Marisa Roffman

THE ROOKIE – “The Hammer” The team comes together to celebrate John and Bailey’s wedding; meanwhile, Celina discovers a discrepancy in her case, leading to a new discovery. Elsewhere, Lucy and Tim’s relationship is put to the test. TUESDAY, FEB. 27 (9:00-10:00 p.m. EST), on ABC. (Disney/Raymond Liu)
LISSETH CHAVEZ, TRU VALENTINO, MELISSA O’NEIL

[This post contains spoilers for the Tuesday, February 27 episode of THE ROOKIE.]

Almost everything that could have gone wrong on their path to the altar did, but John (Nathan Fillion) and Bailey (Jenna Dewan) tied the knot on the Tuesday, February 27 episode of THE ROOKIE.

And while the happy couple (eventually) had things fall into place—with a lot of help from their friends—things weren’t as resolved for a few of the show’s other duos.

With Aaron (Tru Valentino) still struggling in the aftermath of his season-ending near-death experience, he leans extensively on Celina (Lisseth Chavez)…and Nyla (Mekia Cox) is visibly concerned.

When Nyla tries to talk to Celina about it at Bailey’s bachelorette party (AKA emergency wedding cake-baking meet-up), the young officer gets defensive at the observation that she is close to Aaron.

“Is that a problem?” Celina asks.

“It could be,” Nyla replies, noting they’re now trauma-bonded. She cautions Celina against being his entire support system.

Celina takes the advice to heart when Aaron tells her about his bad dreams at the John-Bailey wedding reception. She chides him over not talking to his therapist about it, but he acknowledges that won’t help if he wants to be back to his job in a normal capacity.

“You’re the only person I can talk to about all of this,” Aaron tells Celina.

“And I will always be here for you,” she replies. But things go awry when he tries to kiss her and she rebuffs him. He apologizes, but she bolts.

As for how real Aaron’s feelings are, well, it’s a bit murky. “I think just like in real life when you’re around someone very often, and you guys share the same type of interests and stuff like that, and you feel comfortable around them, it’s sometimes I think it’s easy to blur the line between like, ‘Oh, are we friends or are we more than that?’” Valentino tells Give Me My Remote. “So I think Aaron, with the trauma, and Celina being like the only person he felt at the time that he can really share some of these things with, I think he misread the moment.”

“To put it lightly,” Shawn Ashmore, who plays Wesley, adds with a laugh.

“It happens,” Valentino continues. “You live, you learn.”

Unfortunately for Celina, that was only the start of her nightmare: When a suspect called her claiming that he was being hunted and he wanted to talk, she took off after him…only to discover it was a trap. The LAPD mobilized and saved the day, thankfully, but Aaron—who got drunk in the aftermath of Celina’s rejection—wasn’t there when she was saved. So what will their relationship look like the next time the duo are on-screen together? “They do have to take a bit of a step away from the friendship, just because it’s a little bit awkward,” Valentino previews. “But eventually I think things start to smooth [out].”

Also working through things are Lucy (Melissa O’Neil) and Tim (Eric Winter), who have been off-kilter as they work through whether their relationship can handle her desire to pursue a path as an undercover detective.

Finally, Tim goes to drastic measures to prove he’s fine with her career choice: A lie detector test.

“So I can ask you anything?” Lucy asks.

Tim tries to set the parameters just about work, but Lucy is determined to have a little bit of fun with her boyfriend, claiming she wants to be thorough. First, she asks him if he actually releases bugs she’s asked him to trap and set free from her apartment. (He does not; he kills them, much to her horror.)

Then she asks an important question: “Do you love me?”

“Yes, I love you,” he replies.

“True,” she says, beaming at the results.

Things are less joyful when she asks the big question, though. “Do you want me to be an undercover detective?” she asks.

“Yes,” he confidently replies…only for the machine to call his bluff.

After Lucy calls out his lie, a surprised Tim acknowledges, “I guess we really do have a problem.”

“We’re always looking to walk a fun line with Chenford and their relationship, which obviously sort of came into its own last season,” THE ROOKIE creator Alexi Hawley explained when asked by GMMR about the pivotal scene during the show’s TCA panel earlier this month. “And then that just seemed like a really fun way to get to the next stage, I guess, but also to throw a complication in there at the same time. I thought it was super fun to shoot.”

“Oh, boy, that was adorable,” O’Neil added. “That was adorable. And it’s one of those exciting situations where when Alexi is directing, I feel like we all have a little bit more freedom to collaborate with him because he’s right there with us in the room. And we’re like, ‘What do you think about this?’ So, yeah, we had a lot of fun, and we reined back on some stuff, but I’m looking forward to everyone seeing it.”

Though things were tense, Chenford shares a dance at the reception. “Clearly I’m more conflicted about you working undercover than I realized,” Tim admits.

Lucy says it’s understandable given his history, but Tim says he needs to deal with it: “Your dream should have nothing to do with my issues.”

“Thank you,” she says. “We’re going to get through this. I love you.”

Despite the occasional tension in “The Hammer,” the cast was able to unwind—and have a bit too much fun together—while filming the reception scenes.

“Oh, that was awesome,” Valentino gushes. “It was so fun because there were other people [in the background]…a lot of the writers were on set and dressed in wedding garb. So that was kind of cool to see. Some of the crew members dressed up nice because it was also the 100th. So it was a really fun process. And when we’re all together, it’s very, very fun. And everybody’s great to work with and it’s a fun cast, like top to bottom. So that’s always fun when we have a big group thing.”

While John and Bailey’s portion of the reception dance was scripted, “but then everything else was kind of [natural],” Ashmore shares. “Alexi was like just let the music run.”

But despite the killer dance moves from the group, Ashmore admits that is very much not his thing.

“[Tru]’s a great dancer, and he wants to dance,” he says. “And my nightmare is to dance on camera. But then there’s like a circle and Alyssa [Diaz] is dancing in the middle. And I was like, ‘For God’s sake, do not pull me into this.’ I was so anxious about that. It was really fun and nerve-wracking. And as soon as they’re like, ‘Okay, we’re done on that.’ I was like, ‘Phew.’”

“Had I known that, I would have just pulled him out there myself,” Valentino jokes.

“Damn,” Ashmore responds with a laugh. “I shouldn’t have said anything. It’s not like the worst thing in the world. But there’s much better people. Jenna is a professional dancer. Mekia is a professional dancer. You’re very comfortable dancing. I’m just not the best dancer. I’m like, I shouldn’t be out there. The camera should not be on me when we’re dancing. It was fun though.”

Part of the joy for the actors stems from how rare it remains to be together as a full cast. “It’s just rare,” Ashmore says. “[Tru] and I have scenes in crossing—I’m in a part of the scene in the station and then walk by and then [it] hands off to another scene. So when everyone gets together, it is fun.”

And a little bit chaotic. Ashmore also echoes O’Neil that they were very lucky Hawley—who previously called the hour “the most fun I’ve ever had on set making, quite possibly, the best [ROOKIE] episode ever”—was helming the episode.

“It’s hard to get through takes because everyone’s laughing and having a good time,” Ashmore admits. “So good on Alexi for directing the 100th episode, where we’re all together—and wrangling us all.”

THE ROOKIE, Tuesdays, 9/8c, ABC

RELATED:

Follow @GiveMeMyRemote and @marisaroffman on Twitter for the latest TV news. Connect with other TV fans on GIVE ME MY REMOTE’s official Facebook page or our Instagram.

And be the first to see our exclusive videos by subscribing to our YouTube channel.

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases made through links/ads placed on the site.

Filed under The Rookie

Comments Off on THE ROOKIE Post-Mortem: The Team Breaks Down Aaron and Celina’s Bond, Chenford’s Lie Detector Declarations and Filming that Dance-Heavy Wedding Reception

Comments

Comments are closed.

THE ROOKIE Post-Mortem: The Team Breaks Down Aaron and Celina’s Bond, Chenford’s Lie Detector Declarations and Filming that Dance-Heavy Wedding Reception

Related Posts

Comments

Recent Posts

GMMR Favorites

Matched content