Angela Lopez has a pregnancy storyline in The Rookie that hits very close to home for the actor, Alyssa Diaz. Over six seasons and counting on The Rookie, the other officers in the LAPD have worked tirelessly to keep the city safe from crime all while teaching the oldest rookie, John Nolan (Nathan Fillion), the finer points of police work. The lives of the officers outside their daily jobs are also of interest, and the cast of The Rookie features an ensemble of multi-layered characters who each go through unique arcs.
LAPD detective Angela Lopez is the co-lead of The Rookie alongside John, and she’s the new recruit’s training officer in the early seasons of the show. Angela has one of the best character arcs in The Rookie and her journey from police officer to detective is exciting and relatable to anyone who has worked in an industry dominated by men or another ingroup unwilling to make changes. She’s a shrewd, loyal, caring, and often hot-tempered officer who has a plotline that mirrored an event in actor Alyssa Diaz’s life.
Alyssa Diaz’s Pregnancy Was Written Into Angela’s The Rookie Season 3 Storyline
Angela Named Her Baby After The Late Jackson West
In season 3, episode 1, “Consequences”, Angela learns that she is pregnant with her fiancé, Wesley Evers’ (Shawn Ashmore), child. Angela has just been made detective in the premiere and she and Wesley decide to keep the news private as long as possible, worried it may derail her burgeoning career. Angela keeps the child hidden for nearly all of season 3, with only drug queen pin, Sandra de La Cruz (Camille Guaty), made aware in season 3, episode 3, “La Fiera”.
A time jump to three months later sees that she has given birth to a healthy baby boy and named him “Jackson” after Jackson West (Titus Makin Jr.) who died protecting Angela from Sandra and her gang.
In the season 4 premiere, “Life and Death”, Angela is taken hostage by Sandra, who wants Angela’s unborn child to replace the one she lost, an event she blames Angela for. However, Angela escapes unharmed, and a time jump to three months later sees that she has given birth to a healthy baby boy and named him “Jackson” after Jackson West (Titus Makin Jr.) who died protecting Angela from Sandra and her gang..
It’s a critical storyline for Angela’s character and The Rookie as a whole, more concerning her pregnancy in season 3 than the explosive premiere in season 4. Angela often comes up against the overt and discrete misogyny of being in a male-dominated profession and her pregnancy forces her to confront those realities head on. This whole storyline came about because Alyssa Diaz was pregnant. The series creator Alexi Hawley told EW,
“Alyssa just had a baby in real life. That was part of our journey this season was her calling up to say, ‘I’m pregnant’ and us going, ‘Okay, great you’re pregnant on the show.’ It really does add a level of reality to her experience to finally get this job that she wanted so much, but to be pregnant going into it and knowing the consequences that could come if people knew about it. I think it will resonate with a lot of women in the workplace who have had to walk that line.”
It’s a good way to show that even with her professional success, Angela still has extra obstacles to overcome as a woman in the LAPD. Also, the storyline ensured the excellent Alyssa Diaz got to keep appearing on the show.
Angela’s Second Pregnancy In The Rookie Was Likely Just Fictional
Season 5 Finds Angela Pregnant With A Daughter
Angela gets pregnant again later in the series. In season 5, episode 12, “Death Notice”, Angela learns she’s expecting a second child and in season 5, episode 22, “Under Siege”, the season finale, she gives birth to a girl who goes unnamed. Before the surprise pregnancy, Angela had been taking birth control pills, making this child a surprise.
Wesley and Angela were still in discussions about whether they wanted to have another child, and so this new daughter tests the couple’s relationship after more than a season of relative ease. It’s a test they both pass, coming out stronger on the other side of it after realizing simultaneously they want a bigger family. There is no confirmation that Diaz was with child for Angela’s second pregnancy storyline, so the arc in The Rookie was likely solely for the character, a way to show that Angela’s life still has a lot of surprises in store.
Other Shows That Have Written Real Pregnancies Into The Story
Alyssa Diaz Is One Of Dozens Of Actors Whose Pregnancy Became A Character Arc
Having the real pregnancy of Alyssa Diaz written into The Rookie was a great narrative choice, but Angela isn’t the only fictional character who’s had a child because the actor playing them did too. Many shows have had unexpected changes to planned storylines due to writing a real pregnancy into the narrative. It’s a borderline-tradition that’s stretched back decades, and has also been integral for allowing pregnant actors to continue working despite the physical changes brought about by carrying a child.
Most real pregnancies that get worked into TV shows happen in long-running series like procedurals and sitcoms for obvious reasons, such as filming schedules being tight and the need for new episodes being near-constant. Some prominent examples include Melissa Rauch/Bernadette’s pregnancy in The Big Bang Theory, Alyson Hannigan/Lily’s pregnancy in How I Met Your Mother, and Lisa Kudrow/Phoebe’s pregnancy in Friends.
It’s not only modern shows that work real-life pregnancy into fictional storylines, either. Lucille Ball was really pregnant in I Love Lucy season 2, which aired in 1952. This was a turning point, since prior to Ball’s pregnancy being written into the storyline (at the insistence of her husband and co-star Desi Arnaz), acknowledgment that a character or actor was pregnant was considered too sexually suggestive for TV.
There have been dozens more examples in the decades since, such as Jenna Fischer’s pregnancy creating the perfect opportunity for Jim and Pam to have a child in The Office. Alyssa Diaz in The Rookie is one of dozens of pregnant actors whose real life has changed the fate of their characters, and there’ll likely be many more in the future.
