The Rookie season 3 premiere spoilers follow.
The Rookie showrunner Alexi Hawley has spoken out about that major twist in the series 3 premiere.
Picking up where season 2 left off, Nolan (Nathan Fillion) wound up being arrested after dirty cop Armstrong (Harold Perrineau) planted evidence inside Nolan's bedroom wall.
Instead of going to the proper channels to prove his innocence, however, Nolan elected to organise a ruse to get him in with crime boss Ruben Darien and become his inside man. But this plan soon backfired when Nolan was taken to a meeting with Darien... and Armstrong turned up too.
Related: The Rookie showrunner reveals how Afton Williamson's character will be written out
Luckily, Armstrong's gun jammed, allowing Nolan to break free and take out several mob goons, including Darien, before calling the police.
Back at the precinct, however, Nolan found himself in hot water for acting outside of the law, and now his hopes of one day becoming a detective may have been dashed.
"He got as close to getting fired as he could," showrunner Alexi Hawley told TVLine, before hinting that Nolan's career may now have to go in a different direction.
"I do think that it's very important that actions have repercussions, and noble cause corruption is a huge thing. It is a big problem of policing, but it'll also open up other opportunities for him, and it'll give him something to try and overcome, which is ultimately more dramatic than him just getting an easy pass."
Hawley also continued to add that it's "important" for the show to "set up situations that we honour".
"On most cop shows, cops kill people and they end up back on the street after the commercial break," he said.
"We can't. That's not what we do. And it definitely affects our storytelling, I think, in a good way. In the same sense, we need to honour this punishment, but it'll open up other doorways for stories for us."
The Rookie airs on ABC in the US, and airs on Sky Witness in the UK. It can also be streamed on NOW TV.
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