Tonight on ABC their new series The Rookie airs with an all-new Tuesday, April 22, 2025, season 7 episode 16 called, “The Return,” and we have your The Rookie recap below. In tonight’s The Rookie season 7 episode 16 as per the ABC synopsis,“The team has mixed feelings when a familiar face returns hoping to prove himself.
Meanwhile, an influencer gets his fans to come after Wesley, and Tim supports Lucy as she prepares for the sergeant’s exam.”
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In tonight’s The Rookie episode, Seth Ridley was back tonight! The rookie told so many lies that no one could believe a word he said. Or trust him on the street. He was a danger to himself and to others. He should never have been allowed back into the Rookie program.
The one good thing about all of this was that everyone knew he shouldn’t work with Lucy again. Lucy didn’t want him back. They couldn’t force her to take him back. No, she was far too busy studying for the sergeant exam. It will help her get ahead with her career. It will also give her a chance at being with Tim again. And so the person that got stuck with Seth ended up being Nolan.
Nolan was Seth’s new TO. He’s yielded great results with Celina. She was now a successful P2 because of him. He helped another weak excuse for a cop during the purge and so Seth shouldn’t be a problem.
Not for Nolan. Nolan was pretty easygoing most of the time. He even changed up his teaching techniques in case that’s what Seth needed all along. He didn’t need the understanding that he could have gotten from Lucy. He needed Tim. The tough one. Nolan realized that and he decided to be less friend/more a boss.
Nolan channeled his inner Tim. He spoke with Seth. He admitted Seth has a lot to do to prove himself. He grew up with a pathological liar for a mother. He knew better than to trust anything Seth said and that included his excuse he used to get back into the program. Seth claimed his doctor tricked him into believing he had cancer.
He said the doctor was carrying out an insurance scam that he had no idea about or he would have reported him. The cops couldn’t prove he was involved in the scam, but they did know that he had the chance to go back to his original oncologist.
The doctor that actually saved his life from cancer. Seth could have gone back to her. He chose to go to a doctor that was considered inferior by everyone in the field and that’s how they learned he was lying about cancer.
They just couldn’t connect him to the insurance fraud happening on the side. Seth was allowed back into the program and Nolan was going to teach him how to be a good cop. The other cops at the station didn’t have to work with him. They saw him. They turned their backs to him. Seth was shunned until he either washes out or rises above it.
He couldn’t rely on Miles either. The two of them were close at the academy. They were friends. They were so glad about working at the same station and then Seth tarnished everything. It made people doubt Miles too. Miles was saved by holding on. He did his job. He saved lives. He wasn’t Seth who got ten grand in backpay for the months he was fired.
Seth can now afford a place. Miles was still sleeping in his car. He hated that everything seemed to work out for Seth. The two of them got into a fight in the locker room. There were no witnesses and so Seth claimed he tripped into a locker door with his face when Nolan asked what happened.
Nolan told him to log the injury before they shipped out.
They got called to the scene of an armed robbery. The store owner triggered the silent alarm. There was a kid in there with a gun and luckily there was another man there to talk him down. The good guys worked together. The kid drop the gun. He got arrested and Nolan promised to speak with the ADA on the case.
Only there was a downside when they got back to the station. The witness. The guy that talked down the gunman had done so by admitting he went to prison himself for armed robbery. His name is Gene Webster. He got out five years ago. He got a job. He got married. He even has a kid now and he didn’t want to give up any of those things.
Nolan and Seth learned that he had been released because of a clerical error. He still had five more years left on his sentence. The Las Vegas prison system wants him back and it was up to LAPD to escort him there.
The cops knew that it would be a crushing blow to detain Gene. They were just calling a hero earlier and indeed it was their report using his name that alerted Las Vegas that he was there. They’ve been keeping an eye out for him. They thought he’d get in trouble again. And that didn’t happen until he tried to detain him.
Gene took his second chance in with all of his heart. When the cops came to his house to explain what happened, he couldn’t go back to jail. He couldn’t lose everything. He couldn’t spend another five years behind bars.
He ran. He assaulted Seth and then he ran. There was no telling where he is. The cops had to go back to their Lieutenant with word of their failure. Grey didn’t hold it against them. He didn’t say a bad word about Seth. He just told Seth to log his injuries in the incident book. Seth might be able to hide the punches to his stomach from Miles that way.
Also, Seth agreed to go to dinner with Tamara and Lucy. They had it at Tim’s house. Celina was there as well. She brought along her boyfriend Rodge. They all did their best to be nice.
They mocked the flowers that Seth gave Lucy behind Seth’s back. That was them being nice because they were tempted to say it to his face. The dinner itself had barely started when Lucy saw the ring. Tamara was wearing a ring on that distinctive finger. Tamara said it wasn’t an engagement ring. It was a promise ring. Rodge pointed out that promise rings are engagements rings.
Lucy snapped after that. She begged Tamara not to marry a lying psycho like Seth. She tore into Seth. Tamara then got angry at Lucy for not being openminded and she stormed off with Seth. Celina later told everyone else what happened at the dinner. Seth brought it up to Nolan too. He couldn’t see why everyone was so against him.
He wasn’t evil. He just bent the truth a little in the beginning. The fact he used his ten grand from the city to buy Tamara a “promise ring” was something he tried to ignore. No one liked how he got that money.
Nolan just told Seth to focus on the job. It will get easier if Seth follows the rule book. The two soon learned that Gene took five grand out of her checking account. She was possibly going on the run with her husband and they needed the money to start over. They followed the wife to a warehouse.
She was trying to pay off an old associate of her husband to take Gene out of the country, but he was demanding a lot of money. Money they didn’t have. They have a mortgage and a kid in Los Angeles. It was expensive.
Jose didn’t care. He wasn’t going to stick his neck out for a layaway plan. He wasn’t going to do it for the money either. He was going to keep the five grand and kill the couple. Everyone would believe they ran off together. They didn’t know about the cops. Nolan wanted to keep it that way until Seth made a mistake. He knocked into some pipes. They were forced to reveal themselves and identity as cops. It led to a shootout. Nolan was almost killed. He was saved by Seth. Seth took a bullet in the leg. It was bad. They had to amputate.
He’ll live. He can get a prosthetic. He just couldn’t be a cop anymore. The whole thing also made him realize he was done with lies. He told Tamara about the truth. He bribed a crappy doctor to say he had cancer. He never had cancer. He lied to Tamara about it. She was so disgusted when he told her that she stormed off.
Their relationship was pretty much over. Tamara also mended things with Lucy. Lucy was the one person she could always count on. Not even two social media stars in a relationship could say the same.
Tulsa got arrested for driving drunk. He then sicked his fans on the ADA prosecuting him. Which turned out to be Wesley. Tulsa put Wesley’s face on the interns and his fans took over from there.
They found Lucy at the park with her kid. They filmed her. They got in her face about corruption. She snapped when they started harassing her toddler. She arrested one. The others fled. Tulsa could bail himself out jail in an hour and they didn’t have his money to bail themselves out.
Tulsa’s girlfriend also posted a video of him mocking his fans to her. She said he was a gaslighting narcissist. She was finally going to live in her truth and she was coming out with a makeup line called “Survivors’ Skincare”. It was skincare for survivors. Like she was. She tore him down just to prop herself up. His brand was done. He quickly agreed to rehab.
The harassment of Wes and Angela stopped, but everyone felt worse about Seth. They shunned him and he turned out to be a hero. He can’t be a cop again. Only he can earn disability now while he figures out his next step. He also helped out Gene. Las Vegas was dropping the charges. The same for LA. Gene gets to go home to his family.
THE END!