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Lydia Adams
Lydia Adams
Basic Facts
Age 34 (Season 1 and 3)
Occupation LAPD Police Detective
Rank Detective II
Division Gang and Drugs Division (prior to the start of the series)
Robbery-Homicide Division (Season 1- )
Home Carla
Relationships
Lovers Terrell
Family Enid Adams (mother, deceased)

Christopher Adams (son)

Friends Josie (running buddy)
Enemies Cathleen Kerik (Head of LAPD Media Relations)
Background
Hobbies Running
Hangouts Boy Girl
Portrayed By
Regina King

Detective Lydia Adams is a seasoned detective working in the LAPD's Robbery-Homicide Division.

Biography[]

Lydia Adams was born and raised in the Kenwood & Burbank neighborhood of Burbank Los Angeles by her mother Enid Adams, a now retired French Literature Teacher.

Throughout her youth Adams worked hard in school, ran track and cross country throughout high school, and graduated with a degree from college. It was there that Lydia applied to the LAPD and soon became a cop.

She later becomes a mother. The father of her newborn son is Terrell, an ex-boyfriend who is married and already has kids. As a result, Lydia is worried about Terrell's marriage being ruined but she assures that she will handle it on her own.

LAPD Career[]

After working a few years as a street officer, Adams eventually rose to the rank of Detective II and worked two years in the LAPD's Gang and Drugs Division. Lydia was soon transferred to the Division Homicide unit, and it was there that she met her future partner and close friend Russell Clarke. Adams carries a Smith & Wesson Model 3913 9mm handgun as her sidearm and one spare magazine. Although she is not seen drawing her firearm in the line of duty as frequently as the patrol officers do, she has been involved in at least 3 officer-involved shootings as of the end of Season 5. “Heigh! (Hey) stop running! 🏃🏻‍♀️“ is Lydia Adam’s famous trademark. She does this when she is in pursuit.

Season One[]

We first see Lydia in the pilot episode of Season One, in which she helps to try and find a missing girl who has vanished from her neighborhood.

Lydia's life is changed drastically in the season finale when after taking in a young girl named Janila, a key witness to a attempted murder case, the suspect's grandmother sends her men to Adams' home to kill the young girl. Adams courageously fends off the attackers, killing two gang-bangers and wounding another. At the same time her partner Russell is shot and seriously injured by a crazed neighbor, who then shoots himself and his wife. She also saved the life of fellow officer Sammy Bryant, freeing him from his bonds after finding him bound and gagged.

Season Two[]

In Phase Three, while Russell is in the hospital trying to recuperate, Adams is assigned an interim partner, Detective Rene Cordero. At first Adams is not pleased with being assigned a new partner and becomes very cold towards Cordero. However, over the course of the first half of the season they become friendly and together help solve some of the most brutal murders they have yet to come across. In Butch & Sundance Lydia and Rene are the lead investigators in a gruesome triple homicide, where a mother is bludgeoned to death and her two young daughters are found bound, gagged, raped and murdered in their bedrooms. In U-Boat Adams is then assigned to a new partner Detective Ray Suarez, and together they try to solve the murder of a promising S.U.L.A student. In the season finale Maximum Deployment Lydia is then partnered up with her old partner Russell, and together they attempt to solve the double murder of an elderly couple. First suspecting the couple's youngest daughter and her drug addicted boyfriend, over the course of the investigation Lydia and Russell find that it was the couple's oldest daughter and her husband, who were in financial trouble and were trying to get her dead parent's life insurance money. Russell feels that he has lost his edge due to failing to see the suspicious reaction of the oldest daughter and her husband while interviewing them. It's this reason in which Russell tells Lydia that he can't be a homicide detective anymore, which breaks Lydia's heart.

Season Three[]

In Season Three Adams is facing problems both career wise and personal wise. In Let It Snow Lydia is trying to adjust to her mother returning from France and having a new live-in boyfriend. The relationship forces Lydia to consider her own life and the fact that she's still a single woman. While at the same time she has difficulty adjusting with her new permanent partner, Detective Josie Ochoa, as they try to investigate a rapist who raped and murdered an office cleaning lady. In Punching Water Lydia and Josie are tasked with assisting Sammy and Nate in their investigation to solve a series of gang murders. In Sideways Lydia learns that Russell had leaked photos of a crime scene for $500,000, citing his financial troubles; Lydia responds upon finding this out by telling Russell "I don't know you anymore". In Graduation Day Lydia's phone slowly begins to die to which Josie lends her a charger. Outside Lydia's phones goes off numerous time in the car while charging which Josie (casually glancing over it) see's who has been calling/texting Lydia. Josie eventually picks up the phone to her son saying "Hey baby" which causes her to hang up and reveals that Lydia has been seeing her 28 year old son who is a patrolman for the LAPD. While driving Josie confronts Lydia and compares Lydia's age to that of her son's stating Lydia is a child molester before stepping out of the car.

Season Four[]

In Season Four Lydia gets a new partner, Ruben Robinson who is a Detective trainee under Adams' supervision. Ruben greatly respects Adams and is eager to learn from her experience.

She is pregnant throughout most of the season and tries to hide it from her colleagues, even withholding this from her commanding Officer Fernandez when questioned.

In Wednesday she gets a visit from Donelle an addict and witness. Lydia refuses to help her and Donelle is later found dead on the beach.

The cases she handles with Ruben are a hit-and-run and a convenience store murder (both in "Underwater"), the murder of a woman whose immoral business hurt her community, home invasion covered up for murder, the death of a nanny and the disappearance of his kids and the death of a gang member whose tagging may have been a motive for his murder. Also she is forced to serve on patrol for a day and a suspect is able to get away because she ran while pregnant which incapacitated her and she had to go to the hospital but luckily did not get a miscarriage.

Officer-Involved Shootings[]

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