How Bridget Regan Felt About Leaving The Rookie After 4 Seasons

There's a joke about the Nathan Fillion-led cop procedural "The Rookie." Now that Fillion's character, John Nolan, has been a police officer for eight seasons, he's not really a rookie anymore. The show has been going long enough to have recurring villains be introduced, stay on for multiple seasons, and then depart — such as Bridget Regan's Monica Stevens. 

Monica is, in the vein of Saul Goodman from "Breaking Bad," a criminal lawyer. Introduced in "The Rookie" Season 5, she's the lawyer for crime boss Elijah Stone (Brandon Jay McLaren) and the ex-fiancee of Wesley Evers (Shawn Ashmore), one of the series' main characters and a much more benevolent defense attorney. Monica became a recurring character from "The Rookie" Seasons 5-8 and went on quite the ride.  By Season 8, she was working with the government for an immunity deal, but her luck ran out in the penultimate Season 8 episode "Dead Ringer."

Regan, speaking to TV Insider, said she was sad about Monica's fate but also not surprised, given she's been flirting with danger from her first appearance:

"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 ['The Rookie' creator] Alexi [Hawley] 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.' When her number was finally up, I wasn't surprised. I thought, 'Fair enough.' She's had an amazing run, four years on this show. I'm only filled with gratitude."

Indeed, though "The Rookie" fans might miss Monica, no actor can be sad about a guest spot turning into a four year run.

During Bridget Regan's tenure on "The Rookie," Monica was named by TVLine as a side character deserving a spin-off. That seems unlikely now (and the previous "The Rookie" spin-off didn't last long), but the actor has other roles to check out.

Regan is a prolific television veteran. From 2008 to 2010, she was the female lead on the ABC series "Legend of the Seeker," based on Terry Goodkind's "The Sword of Truth" books. She also had recurring roles on the post-apocalyptic sea drama "The Last Ship," the legal procedural "White Collar," and the comedy series "Jane the Virgin." 

For genre fans, Regan's most famous role might be Dottie Underwood in the short-lived ABC series "Agent Carter," set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. A spin-off of "Captain America: The First Avenger," "Agent Carter" naturally followed Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) in the 1940s U.S. "Dottie" was the alias of an assassin, an early member of the Black Widow program who became Peggy's recurring nemesis. Her super-villain experience doesn't even end at Marvel; Regan played the Batman villain Poison Ivy in three episodes of The CW's "Batwoman" show.

Looking to the future, if Nathan Fillion's animated "Firefly" reboot can get flying, perhaps he can find a guest role for Regan in the 'Verse. Her resume, from Dottie to Monica to Ivy, shows she plays a brilliant femme fatale, and Saffron (Christina Hendricks) can't be the only one Serenity has ever met.