‘The Rookie’ Brings Back Polarizing Character: Creator Alexi Hawley On [Spoiler]’s Surprise Return & David Krumholtz’s Villainous Turn In Episode 803

SPOILER ALERT: The story includes details about Episode 803, “The Red Place,” of ABC’s The Rookie.

Known for weaving in multiple story arcs with a cadre of recurring characters coming and going, The Rookie had the first major return this season with Seth Ridley (Patrick Keleher), the pathological liar rookie introduced last season, back in tonight’s episode. (Monica and Garza’s appearances in the Season 8 premiere were set up in the Season 7 finale.)

After scheming his way through training by an ever-growing web of lies that included a cancer treatment, Seth tried to redeem himself by taking a bullet to save Nolan’s (Nathan Fillion) life at the cost of his lower leg, which was shattered and later amputated.

We had not seen Seth since the incident at the end of Season 7 until he got a check-up visit from his fellow rookie Miles (Deric Augustine) in tonight’s episode. Things did not go well, with Seth clearly still bitter, and the exchange, which opened with Miles’ awkward line, “I think we started off on the wrong foot,” quickly escalated.

“It sis not fair. I came clean to everyone, I’ve confessed every lie, every sin. Nobody has forgiven me for anything that I’ve done,” Seth lamented, to which Miles responded, “What you did hurt people who care about you. It will take a lot more than an apology to fix that,” before Seth kicked him out.

The two patched things up when Seth visited Miles later in the episode, with the former admitting, “You’re right man, the self-pity has got to stop, I want to do better,” asking Miles for help. Miles agreed on one condition, “I would need radical honesty.” They shook hands.

Seth found Miles at his new place — he now shares an apartment with another rookie, Celina (Lisseth Chavez) as her previous roommate, Lucy (Melissa O’Neil), finally moved in with Tim (Eric Winter).

In the episode’s criminal case storyline, a low-key arrest by Nolan (Fillion) of Ezra Kaine (guest star David Krumholtz), an unassuming trespasser at a local rec center, unlocked a cold case of a murdered Oregon couple, with their then-15-years-old daughter, Samantha (Bailey Gavulic), missing. She was found in Ezra’s hotel room, revealing that he refers to himself as “demon Aamon, the Seventh Spirit, Marquis of Hell.” He had abducted her to be his “soulmate,” but was now preparing to kill her as he had kidnapped a new young woman to be his companion. (She was later found and rescued.)

The Rookie creator Alexi Hawley, who co-wrote the episode with Brynn Malone, spoke to Deadline about Seth’s return, Krumholtz’s creepy murderer, and how The Rookie‘s popularity with young viewers helped get the Numb3rs and Oppenheimer star for the guest star turn. This was The Rookie‘s last episode in its Tuesday 10 PM time slot; the series is relocating to Monday 10 PM beginning Jan. 26.

On the decision to bring Seth back and continue his redemption arc, pairing him with Miles as his guide on the journey

HAWLEY: Patrick is such a dynamic actor, and I felt that his storyline last season was really provocative and interesting. The dial between Boy Scout and guy that feels a little creepy was really fine-tuned to get there, which was interesting to me, but yes, what does it take to redeem? Can you redeem a character who really has not just f*cked up, but really crossed the lines? That was what was interesting to me. And then to not have it be easy, it’s not as easy as just calling people and apologizing, and you get forgiven, and everything’s good.

Seth still has a lot of maturing to do, and he needs to understand, ultimately, that some trauma that you’ve inflicted on other people you’ll never be forgiven for, and you have to figure out how to walk that path.

So I liked it when Miles shows up, Seth is still very defensive, and a victim. I think we see a lot of that sadly in the world right now, the sense of victimhood. Not to get political, but somehow you’re always the victim of stuff that happens to you as opposed to, sometimes you do stuff that’s bad and you should pay for it. That was the setup, how do we start down this road of trying to bring him back, and can we and do we and all that stuff.

How much will we see Seth this season?

HAWLEY: He’s back a few more times this season, at least. We’re starting a conversation with this episode but he will be back. We’ll seek the continuation. I don’t want to give you a number but yes, this story’s not over yet.

Is the door open for him to become a cop again?

HAWLEY: Technically, he could, yes. If he can pass the physical part, he could come back. It’s just all the other stuff.

On the somewhat cringey “I think we started off on the wrong foot” line Miles said to lower leg amputee Seth

HAWLEY: That was painfully awkward on purpose.

How did The Rookie land David Krumholtz to play Ezra?

HAWLEY: Getting David was such a get for us. I didn’t even know that that was possible because he’s so talented; he was in Oppenheimer, for God’s sake. You want some subtlety to it, because, in theory, it would be easy to make this arch and make this broad.

Ultimately, I believe he has a kid or kids who are big fans of The Rookie, and I think that definitely helped us. I’ll take it, but yes, that was a real dream to get him. And what I will say, is that he’s brilliant in the episode, but the actress who plays his victim was equally brilliant. Sometimes you don’t think going into casting. I knew she needed to be good, and obviously it’s a very powerful role, but until you get into editing, you don’t really realize, oh, if she hadn’t been equal to him in terms of her performance, it would have felt very unbalanced.

So yeah, we just got really lucky. She was brilliant and really balanced that episode nicely.

Many memorable Rookie villains have found their way back into the show. Could we see Ezra again, in prison or somewhere else?

HAWLEY: I’ll just be honest with you, I don’t know necessarily how to bring him back yet, but never say never.