Note: This article has spoilers for “The Rookie” through Season 7, Episode 18: “The Good, the Bad, and the Oscar.”
If you were hoping to see “The Rookie” duo Lucy Chen (Melissa O’Neil) and Tim Bradford (Eric Winter) back together in full swing by the end of Season 7, you might have been surprised to find that the finale left things a bit inconclusive. What’s more, fans are going to have to wait until 2026 to get their resolution after ABC announced Tuesday at Upfronts that the series will once again make a midseason return.
But don’t take it as a sign of doom or further disrepair for the fan-favorite couple’s romance (dubbed #Chenford by the passionate fandom). In fact, series creator Alexi Hawley sees it as a “super happy ending” for the pair, who slowly re-built the foundation of their relationship throughout Season 7 after Tim blew it all up in Season 6’s profound act of self-sabotage.
“Look, I feel like, even though we didn’t dot the i’s and cross the t’s, I think we’ve turned a corner. I think we built to a place where it is, for me, still a feel-good ending for their relationship,” Hawley told TheWrap. “It made me laugh that she fell asleep on him.”
When Lucy passed the sergeant exam (placing first, no less) in Episode 17, it was not just a big career step; it opened the road for Lucy and Tim to make things official again. But it also came with a catch — Lucy is now working the night shift, which left her too exhausted to hear Tim’s big profession and proposition at the end of the finale.
In their final scene of the season, Tim and Lucy finally found time to “catch up” after Lucy’s night shift switch. Tim was waiting at her apartment, where he laid out a rom-com level spread of Lucy’s favorites — pancakes, chocolate croissants, veggie burgers and even a seabass — and told her to relax. But that’s not all, he also had a big speech, telling her that he would never assume anything about their future and that, after a lot of therapy, he knows why he broke them up.
“I’ve been doing the work to fix what’s been broken inside me. So you can trust me when I tell you, Lucy, I will never hurt you like that again,” he told her, leading into his big move: if they’re going to get back together, he thinks she should move in with him so they can give their relationship “a real shot.” There’s just one problem — she passed out on the couch while he was talking and never heard it.
“I think ultimately, the journey that we’ve been on this season really has gotten us to a place where we really believe him, that he’s done the work and that he cares so much about her, and we know that she cares about him, but also needed to forgive him,” Hawley said. “We saw that process of moments where she had not quite done it yet, and that great Melissa moment of discovering ‘I already did’ in Episode 15.”
“I do feel like, even though we might not have gotten all the way to the end of the journey, it still feels like a super happy ending to me,” he added.
That happy ending comes after a long road to reconciliation, with some unexpected hookups and a lot of intense conversations (one while trapped under a raging fire and one while dosed up with truth serum, just to name a few). So why the slow burn for this chapter of their love story?
“It was really important to us that the bomb that he rolled in on the two of them was seismic, and it did not feel like something had to be wrapped up in three episodes,” Hawley said. “It said a lot about the character, and the characters were forced to grow and to deal with some unpleasant truths.”
“The Rookie” will return for Season 8 in 2026.
The post ‘The Rookie’ Creator Says That #Chenford Finale Scene Is a ‘Super Happy Ending’ After Season 7 Slow-Burn appeared first on TheWrap.