Chenford Is Endgame - Tumblr Posts
Omg yesss!! And I swear I will cry if these two don’t end up together. I know that’s the whole reason Lucy broke up with Nolan in the first place, but writers please make an exception! 😭🙏🏼
Can I just say how much I love the parallels between Tim Bradford and Lucy Chen? How the pilot episode introduces both of them up as fairly stereotypical, familiar character types so we think we know what to expect, but then it totally flips those perceptions on their head throughout the episode (and then the whole show)?
You have Bradford, this smug, tough, hardass cop. A guy who scares the rookies for fun and acts like a drill sergeant with his boot. That cold, challenging glance he gives Chen when they meet and his tough "I've been shot!" test tells you everything you need to know about him. Or so you think.
And then we have Chen. She's a confident, gorgeous, badass girl who's proud to be joining the police force. She takes down a criminal before her first shift even begins, and she doesn't even break a sweat. You just know she'll be everybody's favorite "girl power" rookie who shatters glass ceilings and takes on the world.
But man, are those first impressions dismantled over the course of Episode 1. The show takes viewers' expectations and turns them on their heads, and makes these characters so much deeper and more compelling in the process.
Yeah, Tim is a tough, smug hardass. But he's a tough, smug, hardass with a broken heart longing for his wife to just come home and be safe. He is hurting and afraid and so, so tender inside. The way his facade just completely shatters when he sees Isabel... I'm still not over it. That's the moment you see the real Tim Bradford.
And Lucy. Yes, she's a badass lady who's going to take on the world. But she's reduced to a timid, uncertain rookie in a matter of seconds once her training starts. Her confidence is not quite all it seemed to be. She's not quite sure who she is or what she's doing here. She's eager to please and wants to fit in, but she doesn't quite know how. Not yet.
The show creates these two characters who seem to fit all the stereotypes we're used to, but then it breaks them down so that instead of one-dimensional characters, we get two beautiful, wounded, scared people who have the opportunity to grow together towards their full potential.
Tim gives Lucy the tools and the nudge she needs to truly become the confident, badass cop that she was born to be. He's not the TO she would've wanted, but he's the one she needed. He trains her in a way that pushes her out of her comfort zone, but his own struggles and failings as a TO also force her to learn how to stand up to authority figures and make her own calls.
And Lucy is Tim's voice of sanity, pulling him from the edge when his wife threatens to drag him down. But she's also compassion and hope and sunshine in his darkness. She's a listening ear and a shoulder to lean on. She's someone safe who can see past the mask and will gently help him step out from behind it.
Their character arcs are deeply intertwined, and there's no way to undo that. They were literally written to complement one another. No matter what the writers try to throw at them or how they try to separate them, I think Bradford and Chen will always find their way back to each other, because they were made for one another.