The Rookie Fans React With Glee After Getting Long-Awaited Chenford Moment In Winter Finale

Spoilers ahead for The Rookie's two-hour winter finale, “The Collar” and “Take Back.”

The two-hour midseason finale of The Rookie arrived this past Sunday as part of the ABC fall 2022 schedule, and it marked a pretty big moment for two characters. Before this week, Season 5 seemed to be slowly building up to a romance between Lucy Chen and Tim Bradford (also known as "Chenford"), especially after Tim’s girlfriend, Ashley, broke up with him. Well, this was certainly a week for fans to remember, and they appeared to be utterly gleeful by the end of the episodes.

In the first of the two installments, “The Collar,” Lucy’s lawyer boyfriend, Chris, suggested that they move in together, and the notion terrified her. Throughout the episode, Tim tried giving Lucy advice in the hopes of helping her determine whether she really loved Chris. In the end, Lucy realized she wasn’t meant to be with him, leading Tim to inquire how she would feel if he asked her out. Needless to say, that the moment and Tim basically declaring his feelings for Lucy made fans happy. One Twitter user couldn’t help but notice how smitten the sergeant is:

The series has been building up to Chenford since the first season, and that's only increased now that Tim isn’t Lucy’s T.O. The small moment at the end of the first part of the winter finale signified the start of what could be a very beautiful relationship, even if it involves the two characters taking some risks. One fan could tell that just by the characters' faces, that they're meant to be together:

On the show, Lucy found it difficult to be honest with Chris after he suggested they move. Things got even more awkward in “Take Back,” though, when Chris went to Tim to get advice about Lucy. At least one fan was under the impression that Tim was becoming impatient when it came to his pursuit of Lucy:

In fairness, many viewers would've also been impatient if they'd had to wait until 2023 for a resolution to this situation. So many were surely thankful when Lucy did eventually break up with Chris, and Tim asked her out. The Rookie's official Twitter account perfectly summed up the situation after their long-awaited moment:

Unfortunately, The Rookie is now on hiatus until early January, meaning that we have to wait practically a month until viewers are reunited with the full-fledged Chenford. While it's honestly not that long a wait, one fan shared an accurate representation of what these next four weeks of waiting are going to be like for series devotees:

It’s clear that fans are appropriately happy that their #1 ship is finally happening. It'll be interesting to see what happens when the show returns, and it should be noted that Chenford won't be the only significant change that's present when new episodes arrive. The Rookie is changing days in the new year, as it will air on Tuesdays ahead of The Rookie: Feds. That shift could lead to more crossovers between the two procedurals, opening up possibilities for even more engaging storylines.

The winter finale also saw Tim’s sister, Genny, move to LA after her divorce, meaning that the show could dig more into Tim’s backstory. I'll be looking out for her reaction to Tim's romance with Lucy, and one can only hope that she's as big a fan of Chenford as many of us are.

New episodes of The Rookie begin airing on Tuesday, January 3 at 8 p.m. EST on ABC and, while you wait for them, stream past installments using a Hulu subscription. You can also check out CinemaBlend’s 2023 TV schedule for info on the titles hitting the small screen in the new year.