The Rookie Cliffhanger: What Do You Think Happens Next for Nyla/James? (And Can It Not Be Cringey?)
Raise your hand if you remember ABC‘s “Daytime Dilemma,” which ran between episodes of soap operas in the 1980s….
OK, that’s [counting hands…] seven of us. Cool, cool.
With ABC’s The Rookie on its “midseason break” — it’s off the schedule for exactly one, singular Tuesday, due to President Donald Trump’s Address to Congress — I thought we could play “Primetime Dilemma” and openly speculate about how the light procedural will 1) resolve the cliffhanger of James’ shooting, while also 2) following up on Nolan’s Three’s Company-like “witnessing” of Nyla’s husband kissing being kissed by Kylie, one of his community center pals.
To briefly recap where we left off: It was Kylie who kissed James (and she was instantly rebuffed), when he soothed her after a gang member she knows, Connor, showed up at the community center to threaten her. Nolan witnessed the very start of the peck, then quickly pivoted and skulked away. Nolan proceeded to vaguely get Angela’s POV on if a SO would want to know about extramarital flirtation; later, he shared with Wesley exactly what he witnessed. Wes suggested that John tell James what he saw and give him 24 hours to tell Nyla himself.
Nolan would not get a chance to tell James, at least not just yet. Because after the wildfire at the heart of this week’s episode was quelled, and the evacuation/community center began clearing out, James was standing outside with Kylie as she started to come clean about Connor. (She knows things about a shooting at a night club, involving Connor’s gang, but she is afraid to go to the police.) James assured Kylie that she will be protected, which gave her some comfort. But just then, Connor drove by and fired bullet after bullet at Kylie and James, hitting her at least three times, and James at least once.
WHAT THE PROMO FOR 7×09 TELLS US
This much we know, based on the promo (below) for the “midseason premiere” airing Tuesday, March 11: James does not die on the scene, and instead gets rushed to the hospital. As James is presumably operated on and as the shooting gets investigated, at least two motives emerge: 1) Connor’s Sixth Street Devils gang “saw James as a threat,” and 2) “jealousy,” as Wesley points out (knowing what he knows).
We see Gray advise Nolan that he cannot tell Nyla what he saw, because she has become a suspect. In the promo’s final sequence, Nyla asks for her union rep, Nolan, but is told by the DA office’s Vivian that Nolan is the one who saw James and Kylie kissing.
Assuming that Kylie, who took multiple bullets, died on the scene, James is the only one who can offer proper context for “The Kiss” (as the next episode is titled).
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
So the question before all of you is, what do YOU think happens next? Like, what’s the least cringey version of the whole, silly kiss thing?
➀ James survives and is be able to set the record straight (for both Johnny Law and wife Nyla) about him and Kylie. No harm, no foul. Hooray!
➁ James lands in a coma, leaving Nyla to think that he had stepped out on her, and face murder charges (for an episode or more). Oof.
➂ James dies in surgery, leaving his widow to forever think that he had stepped out on her, and face murder charges. Maximum, needless cringe.
➃ James comes out of surgery fine, is able to set the record straight about him and Kylie… but then experiences post-op complications and dies — allowing Nyla to skirt murder charges and mourn a good man.
