‘The Rookie’ Finally Lets Chenford Open Up About Their Breakup (but There’s a Catch)

There have been a lot of romances on ABC’s The Rookie, but only one has had fans truly obsessed. Since the beginning of their partnership, Lucy Chen (Melissa O’Neil) and Tim Bradford (Eric Winter) have had everyone rooting for them to succeed. Although the two seem like they have very different personalities a lot of the time (Tim has even earned the hashtag #GrumpyCop, while Lucy’s big heart always shines through), their mutual love and respect for each other has always won out. There have definitely been some bumps in the road, and some viewers have been rooting for the slow-burn relationship to finally get fired up again. In this week’s episode, we get to see Tim and Lucy have an honest conversation about their relationship, but there’s a catch that might make reuniting a bit complicated still.

The Chenford Romance Has Been a Bumpy One in ‘The Rookie’

Lucy started out as Tim’s rookie in Season 1. Even though there was chemistry right from the beginning, Tim was more interested in training Lucy (with his “Tim Tests”) than he was in flirting. In the next couple of seasons, their connection deepened, but it was not until Season 4, when they shared a kiss while pretending to be a couple on an undercover assignment, that Chenford became a reality. The following season saw them confessing their true feelings for each other, and Seasons 5 and 6 allowed the couple to form a true partnership (complete with a lot of bickering and then making up).

But The Rookie writers must have felt like breaking our collective hearts, because Tim suddenly breaks up with Lucy in Season 6. He claims it’s because of his past, and that he thinks Lucy would be better off without him. Lucy is obviously devastated, and the subsequent episodes have shown how she’s tried her best to move on. In the series’ latest season, the pair can’t help but come back to each other, including some ill-advised hookups on Valentine’s Day and April Fool’s Day. They pretend that this is a no-strings-attached relationship, but both Tim and Lucy are clearly still in love with each other. What has been keeping them apart is their inability to have an honest conversation — until the latest episode.

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“We Have Been Heading in That Direction”: ‘The Rookie’ Showrunner Gives an Update on Chenford’s Future

There will be obstacles.

Lucy and Tim Finally Get to Discuss Their Breakup in ‘The Rookie’

In Episode 15, which aired on April 22, Lucy and Tim are assigned to search for a missing woman in an abandoned ward in Westview Psychiatric Institute. While looking around the creepy building, they discover that the walls seem to be wet. Before long, the pair start to feel strange. They’re trapped in the building, waiting for back-up, when Tim realizes that they’ve somehow been drugged with a truth serum. Later, they’ll discover that a doctor in the hospital had discarded all of his hallucinogens in the building years ago, and the chemicals had seeped into the walls (which is why they appeared wet). Chenford decides to have a talk while they wait for a team to arrive, and the truth serum allows them to have a completely frank conversation.

At times, the talk verges on silly (Tim admits his most embarrassing moment was putting his hamster down his pants to sneak it into school in the third grade), but then Tim gets real with Lucy. He tells her that his father punished him in severe ways when he was a kid. He internalized a lot of that behavior and, because he felt like he still deserved to be punished, he re-enacted his father’s actions, even as an adult. He broke up with Lucy because the thing he knew would hurt him the most would be losing her. Even if this confession is brought about because of the truth serum, it’s the first time he’s been so straight-forward about his patterns and his feelings with Lucy.

In turn, Lucy admits that she had already forgiven Tim a long time ago. She hadn’t quite realized it herself, but as soon as she says the words aloud, she knows it’s true. Lucy and Tim are rescued shortly after and are treated for the drugs they’ve been exposed to. The documentary crew who were filming the investigation corner the pair later in an interview and claim that the two discussed even more interesting things during their time at Westview, including baby names!!! Even while in a drug-addled state, the pair can see a future together (and one with kids, apparently).

‘The Rookie’ Has Thrown Another Wrench in the Chenford Romance

The true twist of the episode is that this touching heart-to-heart occurs when the pair aren’t really in a normal state. This brings up the most important question: will Tim and Lucy even remember the details of this conversation? Of course, they could watch the body cam and documentary footage, but the whole experience might feel really hazy to them in hindsight. It’s possible that either of them could use the truth serum as an excuse to brush off the whole encounter and go back to being cordial but distant with one another. Perhaps Tim or Lucy will assert that the truth serum-induced chat is just their subconscious thoughts processing their behavior, and that they shouldn’t act based on what came out during this involuntary loss of control.

Lucy and Tim are both pretty stubborn individuals. Both of them need to admit they have to work on themselves if there is any real hope of rekindling their romance. Even if they do recall what they shared with each other at Westview, where does the couple go from here? Are they finally going to act on their feelings for one another, or is this Chenford slow burn going to continue for the rest of the season? The good news is that this episode has at least provided us with some vital background information on why Tim broke up with Lucy in the first place. And now that Lucy has admitted that she doesn’t really hold a grudge against Tim for breaking her heart, it seems like there could be a path forward for them. Lucy and Tim are so obviously endgame, but it seems like they might be the only ones who haven’t seen that clearly for themselves yet. Hopefully the truth serum-fueled conversation will be just the catalyst they need for the couple to reconcile for good this time.

New episodes of The Rookie air Tuesday nights on ABC, with episodes available to stream on Hulu in the U.S.

The Rookie

Release Date

October 16, 2018

Network

ABC

Showrunner

Alexi Hawley

Directors

Tori Garrett, Chi-Yoon Chung, Michael Goi, Sylvain White, Lisa Demaine, Lanre Olabisi, Bill Johnson, David McWhirter, Liz Friedlander, Daniel Willis, Toa Fraser, Anne Renton, Jon Huertas, Cherie Nowlan, TK Shom, Rob Seidenglanz, Valerie Weiss, Barbara Brown, Charissa Sanjarernsuithikul, SJ Main Muñoz, Nelson McCormick, Marcus Stokes, Adam Davidson, Anna Mastro

Writers

Corey Miller, Bill Rinier, Zoe Cheng, Mary Trahan, Ally Seibert, Liz Alper, Nick Hurwitz, Racheal Seymour, Madeleine Coghlan, David Radcliff