Is ‘The Rookie’ Heading for Nolan and Bailey Divorce? Plus How Aaron Thorsen Returned

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for The Rookie Season 8 Episode 5 “The Network.”]

Well, one of the stable parts of The Rookie may not be so solid anymore. But at least the February 2 episode proves that Monica (Bridget Regan) still can’t be trusted? (Let’s be honest: Will we ever trust her? No.)

Tru Valentino returns as Aaron Thorsen in the episode, brought in to help with one of the Monica task force’s ops, and of course, she’s up to no good. Elsewhere in the episode, Nolan (Nathan Fillion) and Bailey (Jenna Dewan) remain at odds over the job she wants in D.C. and a potential move, plus Lucy (Melissa O’Neil) is suspicious of what really happened when two deputies (Keegan Allen and Samantha Boscarino) were shot.

Read on for a breakdown of the major moments of “The Network.”

How Aaron Thorsen returned

Garza (Felix Solis) recruits Aaron to help the task force (including Garza’s niece) break into a next-gen communication system being used by the biggest heroin trafficker in North Africa — who just so happened to be incarcerated with the officer in Paris. The plan is simple: Kadir helped keep Aaron alive in prison, so he’ll lean into his desire to repay him by warning him about an imminent law enforcement operation, an FBI one (intercepting a New York shipment) that Garza will be burning. The hope is Kadir uses an encrypted phone on that communication system to warn his people in New York, and they’ll be able to isolate the frequency.

That part goes off without a hitch. But then they realize that there’s a server farm underneath the L.A. River, which Nolan is able to help them narrow down the entrance to (via a construction project). It’s a stealth operation, with Nolan, Aaron, Garza’s niece, and a SEAL, Mike, going in, only for them to overhear plans to blow up the place after uploading everything to Vegas; Kadir must have gotten nervous about the network being compromised. An explosion, climb through a vent, and a shootout later, and everyone’s OK, though Mike does need surgery.

But Monica’s, of course, up to her own thing, which means calling someone and saying she’s going rogue and the secure phone network is no longer secure. If this person is smart, they won’t tell anyone and take advantage of the power vacuum coming. That information is free of charge, but what comes after it will cost a fortune.

Will Bailey move to D.C.?

Nolan remains firmly on the “no” side of things when it comes to a potential move to D.C. after Bailey was offered a dream she now very much wants. She’s trying to find ways to get him on board, including now seeing if he can ask around about any federal jobs that would excite him.

Nolan does just that, checking in with Garza after Bailey calls to check if he’s learned anything (she’s even put out feelers for him) or looked at any of the apartments she’s texted him. Garza can tell he’s not excited at the prospect, and Nolan admits he loves his job and isn’t thrilled about starting at the bottom. But he can’t even do that at the FBI, Garza tells him, with the age to join 35, unless he has other government experience — and it’s the same at the other agencies. Plus, even if age wasn’t an issue, the odds of him being assigned to D.C. right out of Quantico are non-existent.

And so at the end of the episode, Nolan tells Bailey he’s not moving to D.C. Yes, he wants her to be happy, but he can’t tear his life apart in L.A. to do it. Furthermore, now he’s wondering why their life together in L.A. isn’t enough for her. She insists that’s not it and she just wants to do this. He thinks it’s because she has a pathological need for movement, and they have joked about how she can’t sit still and how a day off for her means six different projects, but he wonders what she’s afraid will happen if she stops moving and lets herself be happy with what she has and where she is.

Bailey tells him she is happy and just got excited about the job. When she asks why he’s blowing it all up like he is, he says, “I’m just trying to save our marriage.” But “I didn’t realize it was in jeopardy,” she says and gets out of bed, walking out of the bedroom.

Disney/Mike Taing

A terrible little liar

Lucy and Celina (Lisseth Chavez) do a little digging after two deputies, Colleen and Ian, claim that they were shot when meeting with an informant. That informant insists he has an alibi and also points out that Ian isn’t exactly clean when it comes to what he likes to do with rookies. It turns out he’s right.

As Lucy determines by looking at the blood spatter at the scene (and ballistics confirms it), the two deputies had to have shot each other. She thinks they got into an argument, things got heated, Colleen jumped out of the car, Ian chased after her, it escalated inside the building, then when they heard the sirens, they made a truce and decided on a story. At the hospital, Ian and Colleen talk about what really happened: He shot her first, twice, because he couldn’t have her telling his wife about them. Colleen leaps to make a deal first when Nyla (Mekia Cox) and Angela (Alyssa Diaz) walk in.

What did you think of the latest episode? Are you worried about Nolan and Bailey’s future? Let us know in the comments section below.

The Rookie, Mondays, 10/9c, ABC