Fan Fury: ‘The Rookie’ Viewers Criticize Writers Over Tim and Lucy’s Breakup

In the latest episode of “The Rookie,” fans of Chenford experienced a devastating twist. Tim Bradford, played by Eric Winter, revealed a shocking secret to Lucy Chen (Melissa O’Neil) in the final moments. Throughout the episode, Tim had been deceitful about his activities related to his military past, which he insisted was for Lucy’s own good.

Despite his efforts to protect Lucy and Alyssa Diaz’s character, Lopez, from internal affairs—which also saved his job—Tim reached a painful realization. Although Lucy sympathized with his impossible situation, claiming she would have acted similarly, Tim countered that she would never have found herself in such a predicament and accused her of prioritizing self-interest over the team. “You thought you could handle it. You were wrong but you made it right, so it’s fine,” she pointed out.

But for Tim, it’s not that easy. “I just betrayed everything I thought was right about myself,” he explained. “I’ve been lying to myself, for a long time. That’s clear to me now, and I can’t just go back to the way things were—not right now, maybe never.” He broke up with her, even as she tried to argue, “You don’t get to do that. You don’t get to lie to me and then use that as an excuse to leave me. That’s not okay. That’s not okay. What you’re doing is not okay.” His attempt to make it better? “I know. You are an incredible person. … You deserve so much better. That’s why I’m walking away.” It didn’t. And after kissing her forehead, he left her standing there.

For fans of this TV show, there is deep disappointment. Many comments everywhere, expressing their frustration and annoyance with the scriptwriters regarding how they have developed Tim and Lucy’s relationship. Below, we have shared some comments from fans that have been made across social media:

”I’m disappointed in Tim’s actions. The writers are taking him out of character and it doesn’t make sense.”

”We are all upset at what happened in the last episode, blaming Tim and the writers. They did the jobs.The writers wrote and Tim acted. This has all the fans and even casual fans talking about it. This is good because we are waiting for a season 7 renewal and they will be more viewers tuning it to see what will happen in 3 weeks. The Rookie is the BEST.”

”We know Tim Bradford’s character is not perfect, but he was portrayed as a cop with principles. My question is are the writers running out of storylines? Why would they tarnish him in that way. I am still numb from last night’s episode. Don’t matter what happens next he will always be my favorite and Chenford is my favorite couple. They will work through it. This too shall pass. Love them”

”I’m sure everyone just swoons over the perfection of Tim Bradford, but if they watched and listened to the show, they would realize we only know what we know about him because of Lucy, he’s not a sharer so he has a whole lifetime of unknown layers and i personally like the story line and am looking forward to discovering the many layers of his character”