Rookie Blue Finale Post Mortem [En Anglais]

September 8, 2011 11:00 PM PDT
Rookie Blue Finale Post Mortem: Andy and Sam's 'Normal,' Luke's Future, and More
by Vlada Gelman

[Warning: If you haven't watched Thursday's season finale of Rookie Blue yet -- what's wrong with you? -- turn away now! Everyone else, forge ahead...]
ABC’s Rookie Blue wrapped up its second season this week with one very important question via Sam Swarek: “You want to try being normal together?”
After everything Andy has been through this season — getting suspended, a messy breakup and a very no-no hookup with her former training officer — she was right to respond, “How are we going do that?”
To find out the answer, TVLine spoke to executive producer Tassie Cameron, who teased what’s ahead for the pair and the rest of the 15th Division cops and detectives. She also weighed in on the possibility of the Canadian series getting a run during ABC’s traditional TV season.

TVLINE | Let me pose back a question from the finale to you: What is normal for Sam and Andy?
[Laughs] I wish I knew…. We spent a lot of time discussing that in the development of Season 3. We sort of wrote ourselves into that corner, with a few ideas about what we were going to do in Season 3. But it really took a lot of debate [about] how we were going to start that up again. We’re going to try to explore what normal looks like for them in at least the first half of Season 3.

TVLINE | Are they entering a relationship then in the next season?
They are both suspended at the end of the season. Our consultants told us if two officers are suspended for conduct unbecoming, which is what they would have been suspended for, then probably the ground rules during their suspension would be that they’re not supposed to see each other. So that was an interesting place to start.

TVLINE | She wasn’t supposed to see him when he was undercover either, and that didn’t stop her.
I know, but maybe she’s learned her lesson. [Laughs] There’s only one thing she is as crazy about as she is about Sam Swarek, and it’s her job. So we were really trying to examine that. Like, it’s one thing to break the rules when you don’t know what the consequences are and you don’t care, because you’re overwhelmed by passion or whatever. But it’s another when you lose your job because of it. So we were really trying to examine what it would feel like for somebody like Andy to be suspended for breaking the rules when she’s a real rule-follower. It provided a nice tension. Sam Swarek or her job, on some level.

TVLINE | Is Andy going to be struggling with balancing her ex, Luke, and this potential new relationship with Sam when they all work together?
Yeah. It’s a complicated thing, I’m sure, for somebody to be in that position…. We’re using Luke carefully in Season 3. We didn’t want it to be a graveyard of Andy’s ex-boyfriends or boyfriends or whatever, so we’re trying to use him in a new way. And it’s tricky. The funny thing is, for all the police officers we talk to, it sounds very true to their lives. They all date each other, perhaps not as much as we do on our show, but it does sound like their workplaces are full of messy complications.

TVLINE | With the episode where Sam and Andy first slept together, did you ever worry that maybe it was too soon for that?
Yep. [Laughs] Yes, I worried about it. We worried about it a lot. We talked about it a lot. You wouldn’t believe how many hours we spent debating how, when, why, we were going to make that leap for those characters.

TVLINE | What made you decide that now was the time? Not just the time for them to get together, but to have sex? They kind of skipped the relationship part and went right to the sex.
In terms of the second part of your question, I think that they do have a relationship. And we had already done the first kiss in the first season. So with these two characters, after two seasons together as friends, colleagues, it felt like the relationship was a deep one, even if it’s not a conventional love affair yet. So it seemed weird to be coy about them not fully going for it if they decide to do it. [Laughs] As for, “Why now?” You go back and forth. You worry that it’s going to be too soon, that people are going to be weirdly disappointed when they do hook up. And other viewers are yelling at you, “For Christ’s sake, please hook them up! I can’t stand it anymore.” Ultimately, I think what we do when in doubt on the show is we try and look at it from a place of realism. We try and forget the viewers and what people are saying and try to look at it realistically from these two characters’ perspectives and what would they or won’t they. And if we think they would, then we’re going to do it and put the audience expectations not aside, but try and look at them as people and deal with the repercussions afterwards. So we felt like it was time.

TVLINE | The Dov and Gail storyline this season was really interesting. Is that something you’ll be exploring more next season?
We’re going to do some stuff with Gail romantically in Season 3, but not pursue the Dov storyline. It will bubble away under the surface. But they’re really, really close friends, and they’re really interesting together as friends. Right now, we want to step away from that a little bit and put them both in different scenarios and see what happens. We want to see how that plays out with them going back to their strange chemistry as “frenemies.”

TVLINE | We learned a little bit about Dov’s family background this season with his brother. Are there plans to delve deeper into other characters’ backstories? Sam, in particular, is a real question mark.
It’s always tricky with characters like Sam Swarek because the fact that they’re so closed about their past is part of who they are as characters. You don’t necessarily want those characters to spill their person like, “Here’s who I am. And meet my mom.” It’s a delicate balance. I think we will learn more about Sam, for sure, and definitely learn more about Andy.… We didn’t see her dad this season. With any luck, if we can get the actor booked, we’ll see him in Season 3. We’ll also meet her mom.

TVLINE | Is Pete (played by Degrassi: TNG‘s Shannon Kook-Chun) going to be sticking around as a training officer? Are there going to be new cast members next season?
He’s a one-off guest star at least for now, although we loved him and would love to have him back if we do bring in more rookies. We do have a new rookie starting with the team [next] season. He comes from a military background and that didn’t seem to fit with the other the guy from the finale.

TVLINE | At the TCA Press Tour’s ABC exec session, one of the reporters asked about the possibility of the show airing here in the States during the regular season. Is that something you guys have discussed at all?
I heard about that, and we were absolutely thrilled that [ABC President] Paul Lee received that question warmly. It’s very nice to hear they would be open to it, and it’s always heartening. That said, I think we are all very happy with the summer slot. It works really well for us. I’m good with where we are. If something changed, I’m sure we’d figure it out. I’m sure it would be great on another whole bunch of levels, but I am also very very satisfied with thirteen episodes. You get to do a lot each episode. I’m happy with our slot. So anyway, it would be great either way.