Why Chenford Is the Heartbeat of ‘The Rookie’ This Season — And We Can’t Get Enough!

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The Rookie has officially aired the midseason finale of its seventh season, and it is a truly nailbiting and emotional installment. The episode delivers on a number of storylines that have been building up all season, in an explosive hour of television that ends on a massive cliffhanger. While the LAPD deals with a wildfire, a number of plotlines finally reach their tipping points. Liam Glasser (Seth Gabel), the serial killer who hurt Nyla (Mekia Cox) earlier this season, finally gets caught. James (Arjay Smith) gets shot after trying to help Kylie (Maria Zhang), a woman whom he met at the community center who witnessed a shooting at a club.

While dealing with calls back at the station, Seth Ridley (Patrick Keleher) makes a massive mistake that might just finally lead to his downfall. He doesn’t pass the necessary information along when he’s told that certain roads aren’t safe, which leads to Tim (Eric Winter) and Lucy (Melissa O’Neil) getting trapped in the middle of the fire. It is a terrifying and intense scene that leads to the most emotional moment that Tim and Lucy have shared in a long time — and exactly the sort of moment that I’ve been hoping for since they broke up last season. These two continue to be everything this season of The Rookie, and I can’t wait to see how the second half of Season 7 continues to build towards their reconciliation.

Tim and Lucy Share a Near-Death Experience in ‘The Rookie’s Midseason Finale

In the midseason finale, Tim picks his nephews up from school and leaves them at his house for the afternoon when Genny (Peyton List) gets stuck in traffic during the wildfire. He goes back to work, but then goes to check on his nephews when he hears about a string of houses being broken into during the fire. Lucy goes with him to check on them, and it’s nice to see them so in-sync, and to see them riding in the shop together again. While driving back, they get caught in the middle of the wildfire, and the stakes are higher than ever. They leave the shop behind because of the gas tank, and the next scene is absolutely phenomenal.

Tim and Lucy huddle together under a fire blanket, and in a lot of ways, it feels like The Rookie has been building up to this exact scene since their breakup last season. Thinking that they are going to die, Tim tries to tell her how he feels, but Lucy isn’t ready for goodbyes. She tells him that she already knows that he’s going to say that he is still in love with her, and Tim confirms that he is, in fact, still in love with her. When he asks her if she is still in love with him, she says, “It doesn’t matter,” and he knows that this means yes. Lucy then points out how infuriating Tim had been, and he agrees with her. It seems like she’s finally getting to the root of the problem, which is that the love is very much still there, but the hurt still is as well.

I’d been hoping for a near-death experience to bring Tim and Lucy back together and to force them to talk about their feelings for a while, and this scene absolutely delivers. Even in a situation where they both believe that they will likely die, Tim and Lucy still banter and tease each other in the way that is so natural and effortless for them. Things have been so complicated between Tim and Lucy since the breakup, and even when they push it aside to focus on other things, the end of their relationship hangs over all of their interactions. Under that fire blanket, though, all of this falls away, and what remains are two people who love each other and might just die in each other’s arms.

‘The Rookie’s Latest Hospital Scene Is Promising for Chenford

When Lucy and Tim finally make it out alive, they hug, and then they get taken to the hospital. They rest next to each other in their hospital beds, and Lucy tells Tim that the experience put things into perspective and made her realize what is important. Tim tells her that he already knew what was important to him before the fire, and it’s clear that he’s talking about her. Lucy’s primarily talking about her career, though, and she reveals that she wants to take the Sergeant’s exam. It’s nice to see this shift in Lucy’s career path after the result of the detective’s exam hit her so hard, and it seems like it will be a good path for her. It also leads to a really promising moment for her and Tim.

Tim points out that if Lucy passes her exam, she won’t be in his chain of command anymore. She claims that she hadn’t thought about this, but the whole interaction feels very flirty. While offering to help her study, Tim even references the book on tape that she recorded for him in Season 2. After the hookup on Valentine’s Day, Tim and Lucy verbalized that the main reason why it couldn’t happen again was the chain of command issue.

Lucy becoming a Sergeant would fix that, but this also gets to the root of their other problem. Lucy was deeply hurt by the losses of her detective dream and of Tim, and she needs to get her confidence back before they get back together. Now, though, it seems like Tim is finally ready, and it’s only a matter of time before their reconciliation. He just needs to prove to her that things will be different this time.

I Want To See More of Tim Pining for Lucy in This Season of ‘The Rookie’

The Rookie has been very intentional with Chenford’s reconciliation arc this season, and I’ve really been enjoying it. It felt natural to see them start the season having gone back to their old competitive and playful dynamic, before then shifting to Lucy confiding in Tim about Seth. The hookup made sense and showed that the spark was still there. In particular, since the hookup on Valentine’s Day, Tim has been more openly pining for Lucy — and I couldn’t be happier about this development. This situation is much more complicated than Tim simply dumping her and realizing that he still wants to be with her. He always wanted to be with her, and just needs to get past the roadblock of feeling like he doesn’t deserve her.

That being said, Tim very much hurt Lucy in the process, and I want to see him pining after her for a little while longer. His feelings for her had been hidden (not very well) since their breakup, likely because he felt like it was unfair to show them. Since the hookup, though, we see Tim opening up about Lucy in his support group, talking about his regret about letting her go to Nolan, and now, outright telling her that he still loves her. As The Rookie moves into the second half of Season 7, we are in the home stretch now — and now that he knows that she still loves him, I can’t wait to see how Tim goes about actively showing Lucy that he’s not going anywhere this time around.

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