The Rookie: Does Chenford’s Breakup Romanticize Sacrificing Love for Growth?

Chenford has become everything on The Rookie.

Seriously, you needn’t look far to see the fanbase devoted to this pairing, and they’ve been loyal to both the characters individually and as a couple for as long as the series has run.

It’s been a long, slow burn for this ‘ship, and when it finally sailed during The Rookie Season 5, it practically broke the internet and our brains.

Finally, the long-awaited pairing was together, and we could anticipate all there was to offer with these two as a couple.

What’s exciting about Chenford is that the chemistry between Melissa O’Neil and Eric Winter is fantastic and can’t be manufactured.

And they have such a profound understanding of their characters and that specific dynamic, and they pour all of that into the series and the storylines that have unfolded.

That’s no less the case with the big Chenford breakup during The Rookie Season 6 Episode 6, which left viewers emotionally in shambles.

We’ve also been scrambling to find the needle drop that played as The Rookie shattered our hearts during that buzzworthy moment. Seriously, can ANYONE share the song playing with the rest of the class? We’re dying over here!

It was a wonderfully angst-filled development that hurt so good because of the tremendous performances of the actors and how deeply emotional the whole ordeal was.

After all, we’ve fallen in love with this pairing, and it feels like we’ve barely had them together before they ripped them away.

Truly devoted Chenford fans know this pairing will improve and strengthen after this.

A breakup is merely a drop in the bucket for these two characters, who have overcome so much already.

It’s standard fare for a beloved ship that they’ll inevitably rip them apart in a devastating manner before the two find their way back.

And it’s easy for us to believe Chenford would be no exception. They’ll face the same thing.

We can already envision a storyline where they have to experience some things as individuals before they reunite romantically, and then, we won’t have to worry about them as much.

From a writing perspective, we can even understand what they’re angling for and what they want to use this development to explore.

In hindsight, once they finally did pull the trigger on Chenford and made it canon, the pairing moved quickly.

Because of the nature of their dynamic prior to introducing romance, it was like an extension of what they already had — a great friendship and partnership with the bonus of love and sex.

And things moved rather quickly for the two of them. Lucy didn’t have much time between properly calling it quits with Chris before she embarked on this relationship with Tim.

It was similar to Tim and his romantic love interest, who I can barely recall offhand.

We had this pairing who had an incredibly slow burn catapult themselves into a very serious relationship that had them discussing their future children and practically living together in a matter of months.

In the eagerness to deliver all the domestic moments that fans craved, they accelerated this relationship, yes, but also the problems that a couple could face over time.

And they did that in such a short period that it’s probably no wonder they opted to break the pairing up nearly as quickly as they got them together.

They gave us a taste of Chenford to quench our thirst and then ripped them apart so that they could most likely have a “reset” and explore the characters individually again.

The breakup gives Tim and Lucy Chen a chance to explore some of the issues that may have arisen in previous relationships and this one so that they can unpack and resolve them before they reunite.

It also allows them to sort out their personal lives, as in individual lives, before considering where they are as a couple.

The thought process behind all of that is pretty sound. As brutal and infuriating as their final scene together was, you could understand Tim’s perspective, and you’d even go as far as to relate it to his character and everything we’ve come to know and expect from him thus far.

Outside of the difficulty in wrapping our heads around this controversial secret from his military past and the series of lies that disrupt what they’ve established for him.

If we’re setting aside the controversies of that specific storyline on its surface and how it reflects on Tim, past, present, and future as a man who has lived lies his entire career and will continue to do so, it’s at least characteristic that he would be grappling with the aftermath of all of this and opt to “protect” Lucy.

Naturally, you could understand Lucy’s perspective in this as well, as she stood there in frustration, anger, and disbelief and watched the man she loves walk away from her under the guise that he was doing it every bit as much for her best interest as his own.

We’re conditioned by now to expect these things and this notion that you can’t properly love another person until you love yourself.

It’s drilled into us to accept that one has to enter into a serious, committed, healthy relationship with another person with one’s baggage firmly sorted through and together at worst or entirely dropped at “best.”

These are ideals that have been imprinted on us for some time.

But one must also wonder if it’s fair or even realistic, or is it just the romanticization of suffering for love?

At what point is the narrative that one must sacrifice love for personal growth and evolution put under a scope?

The real irony in what Chenford is presently facing right now is that to become a “healthier couple” down the line potentially, Tim has to be a “healthier” person now, and the only path toward that is him working on things alone.

But isn’t proper communication and learning to navigate how to work through things adequately as a couple essential to being a healthy couple?

Why would and should Tim have to step outside of what he’s building with Lucy to figure things out, get his head straight, and work through his demons before he can be at his best within their relationship?

As endearing as Chenford has been, and as easy as it is to get wrapped up in the pairing, it’s also been noticeable that they’ve habitually put a pin in issues that arise without delving deeper into them.

There’s been a hesitancy for them to get down and dirty and really have to figure things out, such as going beyond the surface level regarding how Lucy’s pursuit of undercover work could affect them.

Sure, they nodded at things a bit. Still, they moved on fairly quickly from it despite Lucy accusing him of unwittingly sabotaging her because he didn’t want her to make detective and him tiptoeing around his genuine fears about the matter.

And as helpful as Lucy was trying to be, they managed to breeze past how she kept him in the dark and orchestrated a risky plan to get him in Metro that cost her a great deal in the long run.

All this coming out about Tim should’ve been the chance to see what Chenford is made of as a potentially long-lasting pairing.

Despite how idealistic and romantic it may sound, individuals don’t enter into relationships as their best selves because that’s a state of being one constantly strives toward but never fully reaches.