‘Rookie Blue’: Missy Peregrym on Andy and Sam’s Reunion, Luke’s Return and Family Conflict

Cop drama Rookie Blue returns with some heavy hitters.

William Shatner starts season three off on the right foot, playing a drunk driver searching for something — or rather, someone. As Rookie Blue star Missy Peregrym tells The Hollywood Reporter,  Shatner won’t be the only person creating a ruckus: Andy’s estranged mother also comes back into the fray.

“With Andy seeing her mother for the first time, that’s not something I’ve ever experienced in my life so I didn’t really know what was going to happen in that moment,” Peregrym says. “Barbara [Williams] was amazing in it and as soon as we went to camera, it just took off. I found myself more emotional than I thought I was going to be in that moment.”

PHOTOS: Broadcast TV’s Returning Shows for 2012-13 Season

“That whole episode was such an interesting arc because it was something that happened as you were exploring it in the moment and that’s always the scariest but most exciting to see,” she adds.

When Rookie Blue picks back up, Andy will have been off the force for several months serving out her suspension. The premiere will also include the first meeting between Andy and Swarek (Ben Bass) since then, and as Peregrym teases, things don’t play out exactly how she’d expect.

“Andy comes back with a very different impression of Sam,” she says. “Andy thinks she’s gonna come back and get her job back and it’s going to be great. He’s upset with me, obviously because he feels hurt that Andy chose work over him. He didn’t think it was necessary to go away for three months, but it was a very logical thing to do. Already we’re thrown through a loop just having this miscommunication.”

Andy and Swarek share a moment at the end of the episode that serves as a starting point in this new direction they are headed. Instead of external forces causing conflict between them, it will be internal strife.

PHOTOS: Summer TV Preview 2012

“I think it’s really about Andy and Swarek making a decision. It wasn’t really possible for us to be together [in the past],” she says. “This third season, we can actually [be together] now and it’s starting to hit us with what this really means. We have to figure out what that is, which I think is very complicated. Sam gets extremely overprotective, which is irritating. He’s having a hard time doing his job because he’s allowing himself to be more vulnerable because he’s not the guy who’s by himself.”

Though things ended on a weary note with Luke (Eric Johnson), Peregrym promises that he will return but the possibility of reigniting the flame will no longer be there. (After all, Luke did cheat on Andy.)

“[Luke’s absence] solidifies that this [relationship] is over,” she says. “Luke comes back in later in the season [and] it’s tough. There’s so much else that’s happening that it’s a non-issue. It’s not like Andy thinking, ‘Did I make a mistake by not being with him?’ No, he cheated on her. The dynamic changes. He’s now my advocate. He’s the one who’s supportive of Andy in the job, whereas Sam used to be that.”
 

A new rookie, Nick (Peter Mooney), is also put into the mix, with personal ties to one of their own officers.

“As the season goes on, that changes the dynamic for Gail (Charlotte Sullivan),” teases Peregrym, who revealed that Andy has more scenes with Nick “than anybody really this season.” “She had a history with him that complicates things with Chris (Travis Milne), because Chris is going through stuff and is not sure how he feels.”

Rookie Blue premieres Thursday on ABC at 10 p.m.