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Bernado "Bernie" Rocca is one of the main characters of Stingers. He was the original Head of the Undercover unit of Victoria Police, who was shown to be an effective and respected commander, who was willing to take part in field duties alongside his operatives if needed. He was also a close friend and mentor of Peter Church.

He served as a deuteragonist from season one to season two, a mentioned character in season three, and a minor anti-hero in season seven.

He is portrayed by Joe Petruzzi.

Early History[]

Not too much is known about Rocca’s past, except that he also worked as a police officer in Western Australia and was responsible for taking down criminals like Anthony Trent Howarth and Graeme Wilkins. Some time later, he formed the Undercover unit in Melbourne, and found Peter Church, who had been living off the grid after his fiancée Alice was murdered by a lone gunman (later revealed to be Aaron Fielder). Rocca manages to convince Church to join his Undercover unit.

Personality[]

Rocca is shown to be an effective and reliable boss of the Undercover unit, earning the respect and friendship of everyone in the unit thanks to his often-level-headed style of command. In certain situations, he sometimes will be active in field operations when it’s completely necessary. One example was in season two, when the unit was tasked with taking down a South American guerilla leader, Rocca was required to go undercover as he was the only member of the unit who could speak Spanish. Despite being level-headed for the most part, Rocca can sometimes get into a habit of grumpiness or anger, whenever an operation is jeopardized and if one of his operatives ignores his orders or puts other people at risk.

He had a close friendship with Peter Church, who often credits Rocca as the man who helped him find some meaning in his life by convincing Church to join the unit years ago. Despite this, they have clashed with one another at times, more specifically near the end of season one when Church started to completely disregard Rocca’s orders. Firstly, when Church went rogue during the investigation against extremist Aaron Fielder, after finding out that Fielder was the man responsible for the murder of Church’s fiancée Alice years prior, as well as when Church originally resigned from the unit during the Dino Rossi investigation due to his relationship with Christina Brock, Dino’s sister, which lead to a brief falling out between Rocca and Church, although they would patch up their friendship before Church rejoins the unit following Christina’s death.

Notable storylines[]

Near the end of season two, Rocca becomes focused on taking down a marijuana dealer named Graeme Wilkins, which he sends Stone undercover to investigate. At the same time, his relationship with Lucy is starting to be repaired as they undergo couples counselling. One night while dropping off Lucy from their counselling session, Rocca is shot in the back multiple times, and is taken to hospital in a critical condition, prompting Church and Mac to find Rocca’s would-be assassin, despite facing possible disciplinary action from Rocca’s temporary replacement Susan Abbott. Church and Mac believe that Wilkins is responsible for Rocca’s shooting at first, when it’s discovered that Rocca took him down when working as a cop in Western Australia, but they later find out that Rocca’s shooter was another WA suspect that he previously arrested, Anthony Trent Howarth, who Church takes down and forces him to confess to Rocca’s attempted murder. Rocca soon wakes up in hospital, and everyone is relieved, but Rocca expresses doubts about returning to the unit. Rocca recovers at home with Lucy and the rest of his family, when Mac reveals to him that the new Deputy Minister is considering the option to disband the Undercover unit, prompting Rocca to later return to the unit and confront Abbott about her report to the review panel, which he finds out from her was only a standard report that wasn’t supposed to affect the unit’s survival. After Church takes down his informant Terry Hanks, who is revealed to be the drug dealer nicknamed The Dingo. Rocca and Abbott later meet with with the review panel, and soon informs the unit that they've won their bid to keep the unit running. However, Rocca later tells Church that he’s leaving the unit, as his recent brush with death has convinced him to put his family first instead of being a cop, before saying goodbye to Church, who is saddened over Rocca’s decision to leave. Some time later, Mac becomes the Acting Head of the unit until the season three premiere, when she officially replaces Rocca as the Head of Undercover. It is also revealed at the same time that Rocca recruited Danni Mayo into the unit shortly before leaving the unit.

Rocca resurfaces in the season seven episode “Wild Card”. By this point, the Undercover unit had been permutated into the Special Investigations squad, and out of the operatives who were part of the unit when Rocca left, only Church and Angie remained, as Stone was shot and killed by a hitman who was after Angie's informant and later fiancé Marty Engle, and Mac quit the police force soon after. He had also lost contact with Church and Angie after a considerable period of time. He later coincidentally meets Church at a golf park, only to accidently blows Church’s cover as he’s currently investigating Rocca’s friend, a dodgy stockbroker named Martin Kelly, for money laundering. They later meet up again playing golf, with Rocca telling Church that he and his family are doing OK. However, Church’s current boss Luke Harris later tells him that Rocca's wife Lucy had left him six months prior, along with the children, and that Rocca is financially struggling, prompting Harris to suspect that Rocca is associated with Kelly’s business activities and blew Church’s cover on purpose, prompting Church to defend Rocca. Rocca is later visited by Church at his apartment, and is seemingly shocked when Church mentions that Kelly is on their radar as a white collar criminal, as Kelly has over eighty complaints of stealing money from people in dodgy deals. Rocca later offers to help Church and the unit take down Kelly by having him think that Church is a bent cop, but Harris distrusts him, and sends Christina Dichiera and Leo Flynn to plant a listening device at Rocca's rented apartment, where they later discover that Kelly is planning to defraud $25 million dollars from his investors and transfer it to a bank in Vanuatu, seemingly with the help of Rocca. However, Rocca later reveals to Church that he's allowing Kelly to let the crime go ahead to make it easier to take Kelly down, despite the possibilty of Rocca himself possibly at the risk of getting arrested along with Kelly, prompting Church to question if Rocca knew what Kelly was scheming prior to blowing his cover. Rocca then reveals to Church that eighteen months prior, Rocca lost everything as a result of Kelly ripping off a fund that Rocca had invested all his savings in, which led to Lucy leaving him along with their children, causing Church to realize that Rocca's been planning to set up Kelly from the beginning, and becomes angry with Rocca for lying to him, but Rocca tells Church that if he told him the truth, then Church wouldn't have let him help in taking down Kelly if he knew that Rocca had a pensonal vendetta. Rocca then tells Church that Kelly has to commit the crime before he is arrested, despite it being against police procedure, as Rocca believes that Kelly will escape punishment like he has every other time if he was arrested beforehand, Church is reluctant to go with Rocca's plan, especially as Rocca suggests keeping the details from Harris, but ultimately agrees to help when Rocca tells him the bank where Kelly is planning to commit the crime, the Universal Band in Collins Street, and agrees to call Church when Kelly commits the crime. However, Harris knows of Rocca's plan thanks to the bug at his apartment, and sends Chris and Leo with the intent to take down Kelly and Rocca before Kelly can commit the fraud, despite Church's insistance of Rocca's plan to take down Kelly. However, Kelly and Rocca never show up to the bank, and fails to call Church, prompting him, Angie and Harris to wonder what's going on, only for Harris to find out that the bank in Vanuatu recieved the $25 million deposit that he asked them to freeze, meaning that Kelly had commited the crime, but that the funds were transferred from the Asia Pacific Bank, not the Universal. Church, Angie and Harris later discover that Rocca made no attempt to stop Kelly, and also made no attempt to call Church, causing him to realize that Rocca lied to him. However, Church soon recieves a call from Rocca, but doesn't hear his voice at all, prompting Harris to call Sophie Novak to trace Rocca's phone, which they discover that the call is being traced from Essendon Airport. Church, Angie and Harris soon arrive at the airport and manage to chase down and arrest Kelly, while Rocca is found tied up and gagged in the boot of Kelly's car, and is also arrested by Harris. Rocca is soon interrogated by Harris at Police HQ, and he continues to insist that he was helping them set up and take down Kelly, which is soon confirmed when Church hands Harris a letter written and sent by Rocca which detailed the entire outline of Kelly's scheme, including the correct bank, which was meant to be hand delivered to Harris in time for the unit to intercept Kelly, ultimately clearing Rocca of being involved with Kelly scheme, and earns Harris' amusement. Rocca is ultimately released, satisfied that he got his revenge against Kelly, who will likely get convicted and sent to prison. However, this seemingly comes at the cost of his friendship with Church, who despite understanding why Rocca lied to him, and why he went to such lengths to take down Kelly, is bitterly disappointed with his former boss, and they part ways on a bad note.

Gallery[]

Quotes[]

Trivia[]

• Rocca appeared in 45 episodes of Stingers from 1998 to 2003, departing in the season two finale in 1999, before making a one-off return during season seven in 2003.
• Rocca is the second main character of Stingers to depart from the series, following Kaye Kelso early in season one, and before Oscar Stone and Ellen MacKenzie in season five, and Danni Mayo in season six.
  • Rocca is also the only former main character of Stingers to return to the series for a one-off appearance.

Navigation[]

HEROES

MAIN Undercover | Special Investigations Angie Piper | Peter Church | Ellen "Mac" MacKenzie | Oscar Stone † | Danni Mayo | Luke Harris | Christina Dichiera | Bernie Rocca | Leo Flynn | Kaye Kelso SUPPORTING / RECURRING Bill Hollister † | Reg Masters | Susan Abbott | Sean Peck | Samantha Piper † | Carlo | Eric Chatterly | Marty Engle | Sophie Novak | Katherine Marks OTHERS Nick Torris | Rory Baines | Ben Matthews | Dale Kemp