What’s Next for Tim Bradford? Eric Winter Gives a Sneak Peek at ‘The Rookie’ Season 7

To say that Tim Bradford (Eric Winter) faced challenges in The Rookie Season 6 would be an understatement. Despite the hurdles, he emerges in a better place by the season’s end.

Tim’s past catches up with him, leading to significant changes in his life, including a breakup with Lucy (Melissa O’Neil) and a premature end to his time at Metro. However, he’s returned to patrol, a role he still finds fulfilling, as Eric Winter shares.

In the following discussion, Winter reflects on Tim’s journey through Season 6 and shares his aspirations for what lies ahead.

What do you know about what next season holds for Tim? Eric Winter: I don’t know a whole lot. I do know Tim is going to be back in his good old-fashioned training officer style, doing what fans I think loved early on and the way that Bradford does it with new rookies, and I think that’ll be very fun. I’m excited to get back in the field in that sort of role as a true training officer, not just to partner with Aaron [Tru Valentino] or with Lucy or whoever, but he’s out there to try to train and make the next generation of police better. So I think that’s going to be exciting to see him out there in that element.

Looking at his journey this season, is there anything he would’ve done differently or do you think that he’s happier being back on patrol than he would’ve been if he stayed at Metro?

I think Tim loves training the next generation, for sure. But obviously, I think a dream gig for him was being in Metro, sergeant in Metro, being on the forefront of the action and catching the baddest of bad guys, and being out there and impacting the community like that. So I think that was the dream gig, although I think he loves the training officer job as well. But I think his main focus was protecting Lucy and Lopez [Alyssa Diaz], not letting them get into trouble, obviously trying to salvage what was left of his career that he could. Whether he did it the wrong way or not, Ray [David Dastmalchian] was not a good guy, so I think in Tim’s mind he’s justifying his actions, but it came at a cost and now that’s why he spiraled so far out of control and has to rebuild.

I love the Tim and Lopez dynamic, and I loved seeing that again this season. Yeah, absolutely. And I was so glad we circled back to that. Obviously, he was in her wedding and he’s so important to Lopez and they have such a great bond, but there are so many characters and we’re servicing so many stories that sometimes a story gets set aside for too long. And it was great to see that circle back and have Lopez be there for him, have his back, which kept that sort of storytelling alive, which I liked.

Especially in a shortened season, because you only had 10 episodes. Which is a bummer. Don’t get me started. Don’t get me started on that. [Laughs] Now we’re in midseason for Season 7, so it’ll probably be a little shorter of a season, I’m sure, as well.

I talked to Alexi Hawley and he said he thinks it’s going to be 18 episodes, so that’s still more than this season. Yeah, 18 is better, for sure, than anything else. I would love to get back to our 22, but let’s see if we can somehow sort that out.

Do you think Tim is kind of the healthiest he’s been mentally at the end of this season? I think he’s getting there. I think Tim lived a life of sweeping a lot of things under the rug. I think that’s how Tim dealt with his pain and his childhood and his ex-wife, and Tim likes to sort of sweep things under and move on. And I think finally this season, you saw a culmination of everything sort of, even though it was one incident, but all that emotion coming to the forefront about, “Man, I’ve been doing exactly that, sweeping things under the rug, lying to myself. I’m not this good of a person. I’m not the best version of myself.” So I think he’s getting there. I think we’re seeing him at the end of the season very humbled and ready to rebuild.

What were your favorite moments from this season, whether to film or just something you were glad was included from a story perspective? You’ve been talking about the therapy…

Yeah. I loved the arc for Tim right in the middle. I really loved getting into his past. That was incredibly fun to explore because there’s been so much character development around Tim over the seasons and it’s always jumping into his past, right? It’s always jumping into his past, which I love learning more about him all the time, and I don’t even know what’s coming. And I see the script and I’m like, “Oh, wow, Tim, you did that.” You know what I mean? I enjoy that aspect for sure. And I would say that with the fights… The fight was epic. That was really fun, I was very proud of how that turned out, how it cut together. I did most of it except for being thrown everywhere. I did everything else, so I was pretty proud of that.

Do you want to see more of that next season or do you think he needs a bit of a break? Tim could probably use a little bit of a break because he did get his butt whooped a lot. But it’s fun to play as an actor. It’s always fun, but I think Tim’s probably exhausted.//Source: tvinsider.com