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Tim Bradford is in some serious hot water on Season 6 of The Rookie, which has caused fans to wonder: Is Eric Winter leaving The Rookie? Keep reading to find out.
The Rookie is ABC’s police procedural that follows John Nolan (Nathan Fillion), a middle-aged, recently divorced man from Pennsylvania who moves to Los Angeles to pursue a career as a police officer with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). The series is based on the true story of LAPD officer William “Bill” Norcross and it premiered in 2018. Rounding out the cast is Eric Winter as Tim Bradford, Melissa O’Neill as Lucy Chen, Tru Valentino as Aaron Thorsen, Jenna Dewan as Bailey Nune, Lisseth Chavez as Celina Juarez, Richard T. Jones as Wade Grey, Shawn Ashmore as Wesley Evers, Mekia Cox as Nyla Harper and Alyssa Diaz as Angela Lopez.
Winter’s Tim Bradford is one half of the fan-favorite couple affectionately dubbed Chenford. He and Lucy Chen finally got together in Season 4 following a slow burn romance that spanned the first few seasons. The pair have had theirs ups and downs, but no one was prepared for the turn their relationship took during the sixth episode of Season 6, which saw Bradford’s past come back to haunt him.
With Chenford seemingly on the outs and Bradford’s career in jeopardy, fans are questioning if the show is setting up a potential departure for Eric Winter. Here’s everything to know about the actor’s future on The Rookie.
Is Eric Winter leaving The Rookie?
Is Eric Winter leaving The Rookie? Most likely, no. Although we don’t know for sure, Eric Winter has not given any indication that he is leaving the show. His character is, however, going to be facing some major consequences following his actions in the Season 6 episode “Secrets and Lies.”
As the title of the episode implied, secrets and lies from Bradford’s past surfaced and put both him and Chen’s careers at risk. When Ray Watkins (David Dastmalchian) came into town, viewers learned that Bradford had falsified military documents about Watkins’ supposed death years prior. The latter had served in the same unit as Bradford and had killed two of their fellow soldiers for an illegal payout. Watkins was believed to be killed in action and Bradford lied about what he was up to so that his family could receive death benefits. As it turns out, Watkins is alive and hell bent on destroying Bradford’s career by exposing his lies.
Amidst the drama, Bradford went M.I.A. on his girlfriend and kept Chen in the dark. He eventually opened up to her and together they brought Ray down, but Bradford was not out of the woods just yet. Toward the end of the episode, he lied to his superiors and maintained the false narrative when an investigation into his past was opened up. Although the lie kept him his job and protected Chen, it destroyed him morally. He then pushes Chen away when she tries to comfort him and abruptly ends their relationship. “I just cant go back to the way things were,” he told her. “Maybe never.”
The breakup left fans feeling just as shocked and devastated as Chen was. While speaking to TVLine, Winter explained the reasoning behind his character’s controversial decision. “I think his mindset is he has spiraled. Tim has lost a bit of who he is,” he told the outlet. “He’s sort of accepting but not fully accepting the repercussions of where his past has landed him … And I think that in typical Tim fashion, he’s still trying to protect those around him, even from himself. So, Tim might think he’s doing good even though it’s very hurtful.”
In a separate interview with The Wrap, Winter teased what fans can expect from Bradford going forward. “Tim is gonna deal with the fallout of this. It’s not going to be all swept under the rug,” the actor said. “There’s going to be repercussions. Tim is going to have to find himself again, in the sense of what he does best and his purpose as an officer.”
As for if Bradford and Chen will reconcile, Winter told TVLine: “I think it’s going to take some time figuring out who [Bradford] is. Accepting his failures. Therapy. It’s going to take Tim doing things that he has never been comfortable doing before in order to dig into his past and why he is the way he is.” He continued, “It’s very cliché, I know, but you really have to come to terms with who you are and love yourself before you can go out there and love somebody else and give them your very best.”
Even with Chenford over (for now), Winter does not appear to be leaving the show anytime soon. He added of Bradford doing some self-discovery in the future: “I’m hoping to get into a lot of that in Season 7 — assuming we get a Season 7! Nothing has been announced, but going into the next season I’m hoping to get into much of that, for Tim and for the Bradford fans that are out there.”
The Rookie airs on ABC on Tuesdays at 9/8c and streams on Hulu.
