The Rookie Finally Explained Why Tim and Rachel Broke Up

Note: This story contains spoilers from “The Rookie” Season 7, Episode 3.

With the third episode of Season 7, “The Rookie” finally tied up a long-running loose end that dates all the way back to Season 2 — what the heck happened between Tim Bradford (Eric Winter) and his one-time girlfriend, Rachel Hall (Jasmine Matthews)?

The character debuted on the show about five years ago in the third episode of Season 2, “The Bet,” which saw Lucy (Melissa O’Neil) and Tim strike up a simple bet: she bet she could find him a good match for a blind date and he bet she couldn’t. The wager? If she won, she got to finally switch uniforms and wear short sleeves. If not, no short sleeves and she had to do 50 pushups after every call.

That’s when Lucy set Tim up with social worker Rachel, an old college friend of hers, who became Tim’s first big romance after his messy and painful split from his ex-wife, Isabel. (Obviously, Lucy won the bet, though not without Tim trying to derail it first, of course.) Tim and Rachel even started to get pretty serious, with Tim standing up to her father to continue pursuing their relationship.

Shortly thereafter, Rachel got a dream job in New York, and while that might make a natural break, the last time we saw them together in “The Hunt,” they were cute as could be, sharing a passionate farewell kiss and deciding to try to make it work long distance. But then, that was that.

So what happened to Tim and Rachel’s romance? Rachel returned in the Season 7 episode “Out of Pocket” and gave Tim — and the audience — a direct explanation. In a bit of a cheeky meta-moment, Rachel said, “I know I kind of disappeared,” before explaining further.

“I’m sorry I didn’t keep in touch, I was just working constantly, and then my company downsized, and I was just trying to keep my head above water until I couldn’t, and now I’m here,” she told Tim (who, in very Bradford tradition, insists he didn’t “need closure”). And that’s how they “ended with a whimper and not a bang,” as Rachel put it.

The episode also answered another question that might have been on people’s minds: how did Rachel feel about Lucy getting into a serious relationship with Tim after her? Turns out, she didn’t mind a bit. It’s all pretty straightforward thanks to good communication and good sense.

“I called her when Tim and I got together and we talked it out,” Lucy explained.

To which, Rachel noted, “They were a much better match anyway.”

Or as Celina succinctly put it: “Hos before bros.”

New episodes of “The Rookie” airs Tuesdays on ABC.