I wish for once that TV shows would give us the chance to say goodbye to characters before their exits. The Rookie season 7 did what so many others have done before: a throwaway line to explain an exit.
Now, I get it when an actor choses to leave a series. There isn’t always the chance to write in an explanation and give that character a send-off. However, when the exit is done for creative choices, I wish they’d be more like Grey’s Anatomy and FBI’s recent seasons and allow us time to see the exits happen.
We learned after the season 6 finale that Tru Valentino wouldn’t be back as Officer Aaron Thorsen. It didn’t take too long for the season 7 premiere to explain where he was.
Nolan and Juarez gave us the update on Thorsen in The Rookie season 7 premiere
Nolan asked Juarez how Thorsen was doing, noting that Thorsen had moved to the North Hollywood precinct. Juarez shared that he was doing well in a place where nobody knew that he was a patient of Dr. Blair London, played by Danielle Campbell.
This told us two things: Thorsen is still a cop, and he and Juarez still talk. It’s great that the two talk, as it does open the door for Thorsen to return at some point. Maybe we could see the North Hollywood precinct get called in to help Nolan’s precinct with something.
It also gives us a reasonable exit storyline for Thorsen. He had already needed to deal with everyone knowing that he was acquitted of the murder of his girlfriend. Before he was a cop, he was a social media star and he had been arrested for the murder of his girlfriend, but he was innocent. It wasn’t easy for people to see past the initial arrest, though, not wanting to believe their own guys got it wrong.
Thorsen couldn’t go through something like that again. He wouldn’t want to be looked at differently because of someone else, so it did make sense that he would move to another precinct. I would have just preferred to have a goodbye happen on-screen.
The Rookie airs on Tuesdays at 10/9c on ABC. Catch up the following day on Hulu.
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