Will James Murray die in The Rookie? Speculations explored

The Rookie has never strayed away from drama that raises the stakes to higher levels. Episode 8 in the 7th Season ended on a jittery note that has left fans eagerly waiting for answers to come.

With the show bouncing on its habitual airing schedule on March 4 due to Donald Trump’s address, viewers are stumped dealing with a cliffhanger that’s of importance: Is James Murray (played by Arjay Smith) about to die?

His fate, as of now, is unconfirmed after an awful shooting, and with Episode 9, The Kiss, yet to go air on March 11, theory and guesswork are at an all-time high. While James’ wounds appeared critical, they didn’t seem incurable —but The Rookie has a pattern of keeping audiences on their feet wanting and waiting for more.

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A Dangerous Encounter Ends in Disaster – Season 7, The Rookie

In Episode 8 of the 7th season of The Rookie, James finds himself caught up in the middle of a life-threatening position while handling a shelter for wildfire refugees.

Kylie (played by Maria Zhang), a volunteer, confessed to him about some personal issues and made known that a gang-related shooting had taken place outside of where she worked. Regardless of her unwillingness to get him involved, James being the person he is, did not take no for an answer. This decision of him is exactly what caused him harm.

Things took a 180 turn in The Rookie when Connor (played by Levi Meaden), a man associated with Kylie, showed up at the shelter. James jumped in when he became aware of the conflict between the two of them, and while Connor at first backed off, the trouble was still not over.

After a while, just when James and Kylie were standing outside, Connor came back and started to open fire, which left both of the characters in conditions that were extremely critical. The last scene where Celina (played by Lisseth Chavez) rushed outside to find them in such a situation, is what sets up the next episode.

The official synopsis for The Rookie, 9th episode reads:

“The team mobilizes to locate a suspect after a deadly series of events affects one of their own. Meanwhile, Celina takes on her first case with Bailey’s help.”

This synopsis is a strong suggestion to imply that episode 9 will have its focus on taking Conner down, but it nowhere confirms anything concrete about James.

For now, in the minds of the fans, his condition remains critical. However, The Rookie has put its characters in critical situations only for them to endure whatever they have been put through.

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More Than Just a Physical Battle

Even if James does end up not dying due to the shooting, his suffering won’t simply end just there.

Early on, a twist is what put his marriage to Nyla Harper (played by Mekia Cox) on the line. After Kylie suddenly kissed him, James is the one who instantly pulled away, asserting that, “I absolutely love my wife.”

However, John Nolan (played by Nathan Fillion) is the one character who saw the kiss happen—and to James’ bad luck, he did not see the reaction given by James—which leads to a problem whether Nolan would break the news to Nyla or not.

Nolan decided to take up some advice from Angela (played by Alyssa Diaz), making it extremely clear that she would not be accepting of such an incident relating to infidelity within her marriage.

When Nolan talked to Wesley (played by Shawn Ashmore), Wesley advised Nolan to give James a chance to admit it on his own before bringing it up to Nyla. Then, before James could even talk about the kiss, he was shot by Conner, leaving the whole thing unsolved.

With Nyla already double-checking their marriage—when she admitted that she may have rushed into the wedding with James, the result of James’ injury may or may not strain their relationship further.

If he dies, Nyla will have to live with the fact that James is no more. And if he lives, she will not only have to go through dealing with his near-death experience but also go through and accept the truth about the kiss.

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While The Rookie likes to dive into intense storylines, it is still up for debate if James will be killed off before Nyla even confronting him about the kiss. However, at the end of the day, it is the show runners that take the call and fans can only speculate.

However, James, living or dead, will surely be impacting the overall arcs of season 7 of The Rookie.