Warning! Major spoilers ahead for Season 8, Episode 17 of The Rookie, “Dead Ringer,” streaming now with a Hulu subscription or Disney+ subscription.
Season 8 of The Rookie is winding down on the 2026 TV schedule, and the drama is not done throwing out surprises. Monday’s episode ended on quite a heartbreaking note when Bridget Regan’s manipulative lawyer, Monica Stevens, was shot and killed by a faux rideshare driver after trying to make an escape from some dangerous criminals. Now, the actress has revealed why she’s sad about it, but it’s not the reason I assumed.
Since Season 5, Monica had been causing trouble for our favorite characters. She was also Elijah Stone’s defense attorney and had some ties to some pretty dangerous people. However, her storyline for Season 8 kicked off in Prague, and she helped out every once in a while. But, even though it seemed like her life of crime was finally behind her and she was getting the protection she needed from some very bad people, fate told her otherwise.
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It was definitely a surprise when Monica found out she was not in fact going to LAX and was on her way to her death, but she took it like a champ. Despite the fact that she was a pretty intense character, The Rookie will be feeling the impact of losing her for a while. While fans and the characters might have been surprised, Regan admitted to TV Insider she wasn’t. She also explained that she was sad for the life that Monica was so close to getting:
I was thrilled that she lasted as long as she did. If you play with fire as long as she has, eventually you’re going to get burned. And as I said to Alexi and everybody, I was like, ‘She’s not on her ninth life. She’s on her 37th. She’s escaped multiple assassinations and prison time and being thrown in a wood chipper. But what I was surprised by was just how incredibly sad I was for her. Not that she died, but that she never truly flipped, that she actually succumbed to the dark side and couldn’t find her way back. And I felt like there was this version of Monica that could have been something else, but she just could never get there. So to me, that was the real heartbreak of it all.
Sure, Monica has done some pretty horrible stuff, both personally and professionally, even leading the LAPD to Prague at the beginning of the season. But Regan makes a good point. Every once in a while, Monica would help out, but she didn’t stay good for very long.
The fact that Regan is sadder about her character never flipping than her dying says a lot. And who knows what could have happened in Season 9 had they never killed off Monica? Unfortunately, fans will never know, and creator and showrunner Alexi Hawley explained his reason for killing off a character fans love to hate:
It felt like it was time. Ultimately, it felt like she’d escaped a lot of things. And I never like to just tread water or feel like we’re telling the same story over and over. So I think it just felt like it was a natural end. And yeah, it felt like we needed to give her a really powerful ending.
It’s always sad whenever a character dies on a show, especially one as memorable as Moncia Stevens, regardless of their actions. At the very least, Hawley knew when to say goodbye and didn’t want to keep her on an endless loop. Plus, Regan isn’t too torn up about her death; she’s sadder about the way her character’s life turned out.
With The Rookie’s Season 8 finale airing on Monday, it’s hard to predict what exactly will happen and what kind of impact Monica’s death will have on everyone. So fans will just have to tune in at 10 p.m. ET on ABC to see how it all turns out.
