Television shows often contain plot holes that eagle-eyed fans catch, and The Rookie is certainly not immune to these mistakes. Most of the time, episodes have minor errors that can be easily forgotten. But every now and then, writers overlook major elements that completely contradict their storytelling. And unfortunately, one of Lucy Chen’s central storylines in The Rookie Season 5 contains a significant plot hole.
Lucy often works undercover in ‘The Rookie’
After Lucy was promoted to Police Officer II in The Rookie Season 3, she became interested in undercover work. Nyla Harper, who previously was an undercover police officer, took Lucy under her wing and helped her with her first operation. Lucy proved to be a natural at it, much to Tim Bradford’s dismay (as fans recall, his marriage to Isabel crumbled because of her undercover work).
Lucy went undercover again in the season 3 finale to help take down La Fiera. She was almost made, but Tim, Nyla, and other LAPD officers saved her. Since then, Lucy has sporadically worked undercover and even attended UC school at the beginning of season 5.
Most recently, Tim and Lucy went undercover as “Dim” and “Juicy,” their criminal doppelgangers, in The Rookie Season 5. And when their work as Dim and Juicy became the subject of a true crime documentary in episode 18, one of the series’ biggest plot holes became even more prominent.
A plot hole reveals why Lucy shouldn’t be able to work undercover in ‘The Rookie’
Since Lucy frequently works undercover for the LAPD in The Rookie, why are they signing off on her documentary appearances?
The ABC series loves its true crime documentary episodes (there has been three total). But if Lucy was serious about becoming an official undercover police officer, she shouldn’t be able to participate in them. Someone could very easily recognize her from the documentaries and blow her cover. And to make matters worse, one of the films centered around her work as an undercover cop.
The Rookie is determined to ignore this plot hole regarding Lucy’s story in the show. So we’re confident that the problem will never arise whenever Lucy goes undercover next. However, that isn’t stopping fans from voicing their opinions on this major error in The Rookie.
‘The Rookie’ fans react to the error
In a Reddit thread, The Rookie fans expressed their issues with Lucy appearing in documentaries despite wanting to be an undercover police officer.
“Chen’s UC storyline and her always being in media just doesn’t make sense,” a Reddit user wrote. “But the writers continue to skip over it for some reason. Guess it’s something we just gotta ignore.”
One fan commented, “It’s wildly unrealistic. The realism diminishes with each season, but it’s still fun in other ways.”
“The true crime documentary stuff is a bit harder to swallow,” someone else shared. “I suppose we could assume what we the audience sees is the unedited footage, and inverse they distort her scenes so she’s not recognizable. But yeah, it’s a bit of a stretch.”
The Rookie Season 5, starring Melissa O’Neil as Lucy Chen, airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
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