The Rookie star Melissa O’Neil is opening up about the sweet moment between her character, Lucy Chen, and Eric Winter’s Tim Bradford during the show’s 100th episode.
“You know what? That [scene] was adorable,” O’Neil, 35, told TVLine in a Tuesday, February 27, interview. “It’s one of those exciting situations where when Alexi is directing and I feel like we all have a bit more freedom to collaborate with him because he’s right there with us in the room, and we’re like, ‘What do you think about this?’ So, yeah, we had a lot of fun.”
The Rookie celebrated 100 episodes on Tuesday with John (Nathon Fillion) and Bailey’s (Jenna Dewan) wedding, but Tim and Lucy, affectionally referred to as “Chenford” by viewers, were dealing with their own set of issues. After Lucy shared her belief that Tim had reservations about her undercover work should she make detective, he set out on a mission to prove her wrong. His plan backfired, however, when a polygraph test didn’t give him the answers he hoped for.
“I am going to prove to you that I’m rooting for you,” he explained to Lucy in the season 6 episode titled “The Hammer.” Lucy took him up on his offer, lobbing a few softball questions to him before the pair shared a tender “I love you.” She then asked him straight up if he wanted her to become an undercover detective.
Tim answered yes, but the line detector said no. “I guess we really do have a problem,” he admitted, shocked by his own truth.
Despite the disagreement, the couple ended on good terms by the episode’s end. Tim made it clear that his problems with Lucy’s potential promotion aren’t about her, but stem from his ex-wife, Isabel (Mircea Monroe), being fatally shot on the job. The two share a dance in the show’s final moments, promising they’ll get through the hurdle together.
“We’re always looking to walk a fun line with ‘Chenford’ and their relationship, which obviously came into its own last season, and that seemed like a really fun way to get to the next stage, but also to throw a complication in there at the same time,” showrunner Alexi Hawley, who wrote and directed the episode, told TVLine. “I thought it was super fun to shoot.”
While Lucy and Tim have become a fan favorite pairing of the ABC procedural, the slow-burn romance wasn’t initially intended to be part of the show. The duo’s chemistry, which began when Tim was assigned as Lucy’s training officer while she is a rookie, quickly became a highlight of the series, causing social media to light up with people rooting for their professional relationship to turn romantic.
“When this all started, there were these hashtags, and it’s funny because we, as actors, threw around #Tucy and #Chenford early on, but it was really us playing with the fact that we were partners,” Winter, 47, told TV Guide earlier this month. “The fans truly grabbed onto it from Day 1 and said, ‘They’re a couple! This needs to happen.’ And we’re like, ‘How?! I’m so mean to her. I’m bossing her around. I’m a jerk all the time.’ I don’t think it really set in for us until they entertained it.”
While their relationship remained platonic for years, season 4 took a turn when the two posed as a couple while going undercover and were forced to confront their blossoming feelings. Season 5 saw the pair falling in love, while season 6 has approached how they will deal with being both partners and in a romance relationship.
“As characters, I think it’s part of the fun of the storyline — the fact that it is awkward at times, or maybe we’re trying to be a little bit affectionate out in public, but then we pull it back,” Winter explained. “We have to do our job, and we have to take our jobs seriously. [As Tim] I can’t treat her differently. Even though she’s my girlfriend, I’m a sergeant, and she’s supposed to follow my command. There’s a lot of things that you can play with.”
As season 6 continues, Lucy and Tim will confine to navigate their new dynamic, and Tim will be forced to figure out how to support Lucy’s career goals, despite his past trauma.
“It’s not always easy to navigate changes in careers and relationships,” Winter told TV guide. “These are jumps in a job that can take a toll on a relationship, and given Tim’s past with his ex wife, it’s a lot. So I think it would have been a shame to not feel them go through those challenges and try to navigate that as a couple, because that’s what you want. You want to see real couples have real problems and figure it out. Her being a detective is a tough thing for Tim to go through.”
