Sumith Prasad
The fifth season of ABC’s police procedural show ‘The Rookie’ depicts an eventful phase of sergeant Tim Bradford’s life. Tim joins Lucy Chen in an undercover mission and starts to nurture feelings for her. He also undergoes a risky surgery that threatens his career as a police officer. When his girlfriend Ashley asks him to retire from the force early for the sake of his health, he decides against the same, which leads to his breakup with her. The twelfth episode of the season depicts another significant decision he makes, which alarms the viewers concerning Eric Winter’s future in the series. Well, here’s everything you need to know about the same! SPOILERS AHEAD.
What Happened to Tim Bradford?
Although Tim acknowledges his feelings for Lucy right after their undercover mission, her relationship with Chris Sanford stops him from getting together with her. After Lucy breaks up with Chris, she and Tim start to officially date. In the twelfth episode of the fifth season, Wade Grey asks Tim and Lucy to patrol together. During the patrol, the duo encounters a man who runs a store in his vehicle without any valid licenses and takes him into custody. While releasing him, Lucy pretends to have missed two earrings belonging to the man to test whether Tim can treat her impartially as a superior.
Although Tim has to report Lucy as her superior for losing the earrings, he fails to do so. He lets his feelings for her affect his job, which makes Lucy realize that they cannot work together. She proposes that one of them should leave the Mid-Wilshire station to save their relationship. Although Lucy decides to leave instead of Tim since there aren’t any vacancies for a sergeant in any of the other LAPD stations, the latter doesn’t allow the same and decides to put an end to his career as a patrolling officer. Does that mean we have seen the last of Eric Winter in the series? Let’s find out.
Eric Winter to Continue His Role in The Rookie
As of yet, neither ABC nor Eric Winter has released a statement concerning the actor’s departure from ‘The Rookie.’ Although Tim considers leaving the Mid-Wilshire station at first, he realizes that his or Lucy’s transfer from the place will only keep them apart. To avoid the same, he meets his superior Wade Grey, and asks for his transfer to a desk job at the station so that he will be removed from Lucy’s chain of command without leaving the place. Since Tim is working at the most prominent setting of the series, we may not need to worry about Eric Winter’s departure for now.
Tim’s transfer can be seen as a narrative development conceived to depict the complexities that revolve around dating a colleague rather than an indication of Winter’s supposed departure. Since Tim is able to successfully resolve the predicament, we can expect him to solidify the foundation of his relationship with Lucy in the upcoming episodes of the fifth season. Since Lucy’s personal life is an integral storyline of the series, Winter’s character is more or less guaranteed to feature in the show even if he leaves the Mid-Wilshire station. In addition, as per IMDb, Winter is part of the cast of the thirteenth episode of the season as well.
Considering these factors, we believe that Eric Winter will continue featuring in ‘The Rookie’ as Tim Bradford. Although the sergeant will be missed on the field, the viewers can expect more “Chenford” moments in the rest of the fifth season. Tim’s sacrifice to save his relationship with Lucy displays how committed he is to their togetherness, which most likely will lead them to end up together.
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