Easily one of The Rookie's most popular characters, fans have seen Lucy Chen go through a tremendous amount on the hit show. First introduced as one of the series' rookie police officer characters, Lucy has grown exponentially since then. After going through severe trauma, the character came through the other side, and fans recently saw her achieve a truly incredible accomplishment.
After Lucy was initially introduced as a rookie officer, it seemed like the character was destined to become an undercover cop for a long time. Over time, however, it became clear that the show wasn't going to send Lucy down that road in the long term. Instead, the character began working to become a sergeant, and fans saw her achieve that goal during The Rookie season 7. As exciting as it was to see the character get that momentous promotion, most fans may not realize how much the new role could change the show.
Why Lucy Chen becoming a sergeant could transform The Rookie
During the most recent seasons of The Rookie, the relationship between Lucy Chen and Tim Bradford has become one of the biggest focuses of the series by far. In fact, it could be argued that The Rookie fans focus on "Chenford" too much. With that in mind, it is funny that it is the history of Tim's character that proves how impactful Lucy's big promotion could be for the show going forward.
After Tim was introduced to viewers as a training officer who teaches rookies how to perform their jobs, he went down a similar road to the one that Lucy finds herself on now. After working to get the same promotion, Tim managed to become a sergeant, and the character was put in charge of the show's version of the LAPD's Metro division.
Before Tim joined the Metro division, that group of highly trained officers was barely ever shown on The Rookie. All of that instantly changed dramatically after the character's big promotion. Suddenly, it seemed like the Metro division became a part of almost every episode of the series so that Tim remained in the spotlight in a major way.
Now that Lucy is a sergeant, the same thing could easily happen again. In fact, during the final episodes of The Rookie season 7, that was already happening. Even though the show had paid almost no attention to the LAPD's night shift before that, Lucy being put in charge of those officers suddenly thrust them into the series' storylines. While it is unlikely that Lucy will remain on the night shift, where the character winds up could alter the show in a big way. Fortunately, The Rookie is one of ABC's most-watched shows because its writers have a history of handling changes well.