Grey’s future is now one of the first big questions hanging over The Rookie Season 9. After spending Season 8 working for Garza’s task force and taking over as watch commander at LAPD’s Mid-Wilshire Station, the character ended the finale at a crossroads, with the show’s creative team now signaling that his next chapter will have to be built from scratch.
The Season 8 finale left Tim and Lucy in danger after their engagement turned into a nightmare. Tim proposed, Lucy said yes, and they were abducted right after. In the same episode, Grey faced his own uncertainty, and the show made clear that closing down the task force would not happen quickly. Grey said, “Closing up the task force is gonna take months,” and added, “After that, I’m not sure what my next move is. Unless you’re asking me to step in while you’re planning the wedding. In that case, I’m happy to help out.”
That uncertainty is now carrying into Season 9. Alexi Hawley said the task force is “all but over,” calling it “sort of our Blacklist homage” and saying it was built around Monica. “Now that she’s gone, the task force has no center,” he said. With Monica gone, the writers are already looking beyond the cleanup. Hawley said the early Season 9 room will focus on “figuring out exactly what Grey’s next chapter is.”
Grey spent Season 8 working inside the task force while Tim moved into his old job as watch commander. Now that the task force is winding down, the show has to decide where Grey lands next. Hawley said he does not think going backward is the answer and wants the move to feel like growth. “So one of the first things we got to figure out is what are we going to do with him that feels like growth,” he said.
There is also no indication the show is about to make a dramatic cast shake-up. Hawley said there is “no plan to do anything crazy right now” and that the series is still in very early stages for Season 9. He also made clear that Richard T. Jones remains central to the series, saying, “Richard is a hugely important piece of the puzzle of our show.”
That leaves Grey in the same place the audience is in: waiting for the show to decide whether the next phase is a reset, a promotion or something stranger. Hawley said the team wants a fresh direction without treading water, and he left the door open to bigger twists later. For now, though, the answer is plain enough: Grey is not going anywhere, and Season 9 will be about giving him a new job that moves him forward rather than back.
