Article taken from Zap2It

Sharon Raydor (Mary McDonnell) and Andy Flynn (Tony Denison) have one of those slow-burn television relationships that fans spend entire seasons shipping and waiting for the writers to make something of it.

Now “Major Crimes”  Shandy fans will start to reap the rewards of their patience when the show returns Nov. 24 on TNT.

“The fans are very excited about this relationship and I am so glad that they are,” McDonnell says toZap2it. “What James [Duff, showrunner] is beginning to explore is how someone’s a friend and a coworker and, perhaps, you start to feel these other things unbeknownst to self or despite the self’s intention. We start to experience more that season.”

The blossoming relationship between Sharon and Andy is more of an opportunity for McDonnell to explore aspects of her character that weren’t shown on “The Closer” and can only be revealed as “Major Crimes” digs deeper into her personal life.

“I think [Sharon] has got a really good mind [but] I am beginning to really love playing her heart,” McDonnell says. “I am beginning to understand something about her femininity that I didn’t understand at the beginning because most of what she put forth was the masculine side of herself.”

In the upcoming season not only will Sharon and Andy’s relationship come into question when his daughter visits, but Sharon will also be sharing her heart with Rusty — the teenager she took in during Season 2. Does that mean an end to Darth Raydor? Of course not — she’s still the same serious woman who is the best at her job, but fans and McDonnell alike can be excited about seeing the more emotional side of this tough cop.

“I am very much looking forward to what I began to feel in the second half of Season 3  — which is all kinds of feminine aspects of this woman,” McDonnell says.