Yahoo Lifestyle 'The Rookie's Eric Winter Previews a Return to Therapy in Season 7 (Exclusive)
One of the lessons that Tim Bradford (Eric Winter) is learning in the seventh season of The Rookie is that he must own the consequences of his choices.
The lesson began last season when one of his worst nightmares from the past came back to haunt him in the form of former military teammate Ray (David Dastmalchian). Ray turned up in L.A. and threatened to ruin Tim’s career, so Tim decided to be proactive and catch Ray doing something illegal.
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Instead, Tim lost his much-coveted job on Metro and, as a result, he ended his relationship with Lucy Chen (Melissa O’Neil), all of which led him to therapy. But then his therapist Blair London (Danielle Campbell) turned out to be providing information from her sessions with LAPD members to criminals. And his life went downhill from all of the above.
Luckily, he didn’t lose his badge, and when Season 7 began, Tim was back at Metro as a training officer.
“I think in his heart he feels like he did what he had to do, and it was for the greater good,” Winter tells Parade. “But you also need to follow the rules and that’s something that Tim’s a stickler with. So, I think he truly, in a way, regrets maybe the way he handled it. But I think, in the moment, he did what he thought was the best move. He struggles with it still.”
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He's also struggling with the fact that he still loves Lucy, and he destroyed her trust in him. He is trying to figure a way back to her, and it helps when she’s temporarily promoted to be a training officer for one of the two new rookies joining the series this season, so he makes her a bet–she's very competitive–on which one of their rookies will mess up first to keep things playful.
“Tim clearly cares about her,” Winter continues. “He broke up with her because he cares about her. It was a true statement of, ‘It’s not you, it’s me, I’m not good enough for you and I don’t think you deserve the drama I could cause in your life with my past and all that.’ So, he, again, did what he thought was the best move, but probably regrets aspects of the way it went down and wishes he could have had the confidence or the smarts to be able to at least talk to her about it first, where he’s at, how he feels. But that’s just not Tim’s way. He had to learn the hard way, I guess, with his decision.”
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Despite having had a bad experience with his therapist, Tim will return to therapy this season. Blair London (Danielle Campbell) may not have been on the up-and-up, but she was a good therapist, and Tim did learn about himself from her, so he wants to continue improving and possibly reunite with Chenford.
“We actually get to see Tim in a support group trying to work through these difficulties,” Winter says. “Granted, the situation he’s in at the time we see that scene is very funny, or it makes it kind of funny. I won’t spoil it. But, yeah, he took it seriously after those sessions with a therapist and knows that he needs help, and he can work on himself, and he can be better.”
The Rookie airs Tuesday nights at 10 p.m. ET/PT on ABC. Episodes are available to stream next day on Hulu.
