Rookie Blue‘s bombshell that Marlo is pregnant with Sam’s child may have sent “McSwarek” ‘shippers into a panic, but star Missy Peregrym has her own feelings about the twist.

“I think it’s brilliant, to be honest,” she tells TVLine. “I love the storyline. This is one of my favorite seasons.”

“What I really loved about it is this is life,” she explains. “It’s not like Sam was sleeping with two people at the same time. He was in a relationship. I was in a relationship. It’s just something where you have to figure it out and go through it. We haven’t done anything like this before, so it was all new for me.”

While Peregrym says she didn’t have any concerns about what the unexpected baby news meant for Sam and Andy’s future, her alter ego is not quite so calm and collected in the upcoming season (premiering Thursday at 10/9c on ABC).

“Andy struggles with: Is it selfish for her to be with Sam when there’s going to be this kid who needs a father?” the actress reveals. “Should they have the traditional family? That’s something that is above her, it’s beyond her, and she has to really evaluate for another life what the right thing is.”

Below, Peregrym previews Andy’s “difficult” adjustment to Sam’s impending fatherhood and whether the couple will be contemplating marriage. Plus: Could the show go beyond Season 6?

TVLINE | When you’re building a life with somebody and this sort of obstacle comes in, how does Andy deal with it?

She doesn’t know how to for the first bit. The arc of the season is figuring out where her place is in this family that is inevitably being built. She’s on the outside. Obviously, Sam and Andy want to make this work, but it’s not the ideal situation. There’s a lot of grief and anger that Andy is super uncomfortable with in the beginning. Because you can’t hate Marlo for being pregnant. This isn’t ideal for her either. It’s not ideal for anybody. But I have a relationship with Marlo. I risked my career to help her, so this isn’t just anybody. This is somebody I’ve really cared about, in a complicated way, obviously. It’s difficult. That’s really what she’s trying to work through this year.

TVLINE | Andy is now connected to Marlo not just in a professional way, but also in a pretty permanent way personally. How does that evolve their relationship?

You’re going to see that in different aspects throughout the entire season. Like I said, Andy really has no idea what her place is and what the right thing is to do. Should she step away from this thing? Should she fight for it to be with Sam? I can’t even imagine what that situation would be like, going through that.

TVLINE | What kind of mother would Andy make? Have you thought about that?

We’re very similar. I’ve played her for so long, so I just feel like I’d answer that like how I would. [Laughs] She’d be strong and very empathetic and very invested in her child’s life. This is the stuff she’s got to think about because she couldn’t wait to have kids with Sam and that’s something that she’s always wanted. Then to have this experience [of] it’s not your kid, but also, potentially [having] a role in that kid’s life, that’s also incredibly tricky. Andy does everything a hundred percent; if she’s in, she’s in.

TVLINE | With all this talk about family and children, does the topic of marriage also come up for Andy and Sam?

Yeah, the topic comes up, for sure. We’re in a serious relationship, and we’ve finally got a groove going. We’ve had to work so hard to build our relationship up, and we tried everything else except for really, really being together.

TVLINE | There’s no word yet on Season 7, but do you feel like there’s still a lot of story left to tell?

Yeah, always. There’s always story to tell. It’s going to be a transitional time, obviously. We’re not rookies forever. So there’s always room to grow just like everybody else grows. If we have the opportunity, it would be pretty exciting to have us as more of the adults in the situation and have other rookies. We’ve been playing with that already [with Duncan]. We’re already dabbling with that and moving forward and having career changes in terms of our positions, obviously. No one’s leaving to be a painter. [Laughs] It’s already growing in that direction. Of course, there’s a million different ways that you can take it, just like anybody’s life.