Celina Juarez

Officer **Celina Juarez** is a recurring character in the fifth season and a main character in the sixth season of *The Rookie*, played by Lisseth Chavez. She is a Police Officer I and is assigned to the Mid-Wilshire division. Her badge number is 53362, and her training officer is John Nolan. Juarez and Nolan's call sign is 7-Adam-15. She first appears in season five , episode three, "Dye Hard".

## History

Juarez is from the Los Angeles area. When Juarez was nine years old, her younger sister Blanca was kidnapped from the family's front yard. After three weeks of no leads from police, her mother turned to a psychic for help. The psychic was able to assist police to recover Juarez' sister, but she died as a result of the kidnapping after spending two weeks in the hospital. The experience led to Juarez putting great faith in her intuition, and a strong belief in spirits, auras, astrology, and clairvoyance. The death of her sister and the failure of the police to find her ultimately led to Juarez pursuing a career as a police officer to ensure her family's experience was not repeated.

Prior to joining Mid-Wilshire, Juarez graduated from college on the dean's list, and took graduate-level classes in criminal justice. She received top marks in her classes at the police academy.

Juarez is John Nolan's first probationary trainee as a Training Officer. She clashes with Nolan and leadership at Mid-Wilshire on her first day after she performs a "bad stop," pulling a car over without cause because she detected a "dark aura" coming from the trunk. She defends her actions after it's proved the car was implicated in a violent crime, but Nolan points out that none of the evidence recovered is admissible. Nolan has the power to kick Juarez out of the program but decides to give her another chance on the condition she come to him with her suspicions, however outlandish they seem. After learning about her history, Nolan comes to suspect that much of her reliance on auras and signs from the divine is actually her brain's way of processing information. He ultimately realizes Juarez has good instincts, albeit a very different approach to policing, and they come to trust one another.

Juarez spends a few nights at John's house after she has trouble adjusting to the stress and to her new schedule as a police officer and accidentally falls asleep on duty. She claims that Bailey and John's friendly bickering relaxes her as it reminds her of her parents. Juarez becomes closer to both Bailey and John, and returns to her own home after buying a new mattress.

A few months into her rookie year, Juarez is implicated in the death of a suspect in her custody, but initially it is unclear if his death was due to her actions or due to injuries sustained in a fight with another suspect. Juarez is devastated by the incident, convinced she is at fault. John assists her as her union rep as she is investigated, offering comfort and advice, and Juarez is ultimately cleared of wrongdoing by an autopsy.

Juarez becomes close with officer Aaron Thorsen, and Nolan and others suspect that they are dating. Nolan advises her not to date fellow cops, advice that she resents and chastises him heavily for. Juarez reveals that she and Thorsen are close because they play Dungeons and Dragons together to blow off steam, but insists they cannot date as he is a Scorpio and she "can't deal with Scorpios". Despite that, she still remains friends with him. In a later episode, Thorsen tells Juarez that he knows what it's like to not know what happened to someone you love, citing his own experience.

During "The Collar", she implores Richard Dormer to tell how to deactivate the bomb but he refused. Juarez relates by bringing up how her sister's death affected her, and her words seem to get to him, as he forces the CEO to admit his wrong and role in his sister's death. After the apology, Dormer seemingly gives the way to defuse it but Juarez quickly realizes his need for revenge is causing him to lie and she tells Nolan the correct way, successfully stopping the threat.

In "The List", when Juarez meets Simone Clark, they find that both have "Jupiter in my second house", but before they can bond over that conversation, Clark's supervisor cuts it short.

We meet Karla Juarez, Celina's mother, in "Daddy Cop"; Celina says that her mom "hasn't left the house in five years" and that Karla thinks Celina spends most of her time at the station doing paperwork. Karla has two birds, Lorca and Neruda, whose portraits she paints and sells online "to pay the bills".

Blanca's case is finally solved in "A Hole In The World" when the LAPD find that one of their own is implicated in her death, and Celina and her mother both find closure in the resolution of the case.

In "Under Siege", Juarez and Thorsen are ambushed while walking home from a D&D session. Thorsen is critically wounded, Juarez sustains less serious wounds, and she sits next to Thorsen's bed in the hospital as he lies unconscious, encouraging him to rally using memories of his victory during their D&D campaign.

## Quotes

"It's just that hospitals remind me of my sister. When they found her, she was in bad shape. She, uh, held out for two weeks, and I visited every day." - "The Fugitive"

## Trivia

* She and her sister used to do magic shows as kids.
* She and Aaron struck up a friendship, since they both play Dungeons and Dragons.
* Her sister being abducted is what spurred into her becoming a cop.
* It turns out that her lifelong exemplar, Joel Chambers, was the abductor and murderer of Celina's sister Blanca Juarez. She was devastated after hearing the news yet relieved at the same time, as both her mother and Celina had gotten closure to their tragedy.
* "Miss Cleo" was a television personality in the 1990s who claimed to be a psychic.