Perhaps no character in “The Rookie” Season 7 has caused quite as big of a stir as Bailey Nune, the firefighter and wife to LAPD officer John Nolan (Nathan Fillion), who tried to sic a hitman on her abusive ex Jason — who, to be fair, was very much trying to kill her. Once Nolan discovered what happened, the usually unshakable pair found themselves on the outs, and Bailey even left their home for a few nights to crash with a friend.
Season 6, Episode 7, “The Mickey,” puts Bailey’s battle to come to terms with her abuse front and center, spotlighting the mental toll of her ex-husband’s cruelty and contrasting it with the staggering supportiveness of her new husband. It all culminates in what Dewan told TheWrap is a “hugely healing” moment for Bailey, who realizes Nolan loves her “for all the colors and shades of the shadow” she has within her.
Dewan also talked about her own reaction to Bailey’s big Season 7 swings, finding empathy for the character and what makes the relationship between Bailey and Nolan strong enough to handle a hitman.
Bailey has been making some controversial decisions this season, which have caused a big reaction. When you started reading the Season 7 scripts, did you also have a strong reaction, or were you able to immediately understand where she’s coming from?
DEWAN: Yeah, I had a bit of a journey with it. Because it is complicated, morally. If you look at just the facts, it’s complicated. But when I would read this whole episode and read the scenes, it actually caused me to find empathy for Bailey in a way that I didn’t initially see right off the bat. And then, when I read the final scene, I realized: Oh, I, Jenna, haven’t lived with some looming threat, looming over me my entire life in an actual physical way.
You know, it’s not just emotional and it’s not just psychological. I think we’ve all had emotional and psychological impacts. But the physical of leaving her house and always looking over your shoulder and wondering, is this going to be the moment? You live with a certain PTSD, and so I understood that, in that moment, it was complicated for her. There was a lot of reasoning and I felt like she was right in saying, “You’re not seeing my side of this.” And at the same time … [laughs] You know, it’s a hitman. This is a really intense decision to make.
So, I found it really interesting for the writers to create this kind of complexity while also writing in a lot of sound reasoning for the empathy for Bailey. But in reading it, I felt wow, I really can see both sides, and I can see how complicated this is, but at the same time, I really can empathize with Bailey, because that feels like a very, very difficult place to just try and live life from.
This week’s episode brought a lot of that context to the table and what you were just saying about this looming, ever-present threat. Jason’s death is still very fresh, but it offers closure that she didn’t have before. What does that mean for Bailey, and who does she get to be when she’s not operating out of ever-present fear?
I think it’s one step at a time. Just because that threat is immediately gone, it doesn’t mean that you’re immediately healed, so to speak. It takes a while. It takes a minute to recalibrate and realize you’re not under direct threat anymore. However, psychologically, you’re still sort of looking around and wondering when the other shoe is going to drop, but then realizing that you’re out of that cycle.
I think Nolan is a really healing, stabilizing force for her in that way, because he truly loves her unconditionally, and ultimately comes around to understanding and saying, “I would have been here for you. I could have helped you in this.” Being able to ask people for help, being vulnerable, to look at your own part in things, all that takes time. So I think there’s a bit of a healing process for her, but there’s freedom. There’s a lot of freedom, because now you’re able to live and learn who you are outside of being a victim.
Absolutely, it really is amazing that her husband is so accepting of her turning to a hitman. Like you said, it’s very extreme. Can you talk me a little through Bailey’s headspace at the end of this episode, coming to that realization?
I think she’s scared. I think that she initially starts off not knowing how, if they were ever going to find their way back to each other, if this was going to be the straw that broke the came’s back. You know what I mean? That this is going to be the catalyst for an ending. And I think that that’s terrifying to her, to know that her actions could have, could have caused the demise of a relationship that means so much to her.
And at the same time, she’s then able to not feel what she feels, which is like, “How could you immediately go cold and blame me and not understand the moral dilemma I was in, and the enticing thought of being free of this criminal?” At least understanding, maybe not agreeing, but at least understanding why she was in that position. I think that that was more so what was important than agreeing with her, was trying to understand her, rather than just saying, “You were wrong for doing this.”
So when they come together in the end, and there is that moment of like, “I would have helped you, I would have been here for you. I think that’s hugely healing, because you immediately are like, “Whoa, you really accept me for all the colors and shades of the shadow that I have, and at the same time, still love me.” And I think that in life, when that happens, it’s enormously healing for people.
What do you think is at the core of Bailey and John’s connection that makes their relationship strong enough to get past something like this?
I think that they really deeply love each other, and I think that there’s a lot of commonality between the two having the certain jobs that they have, which are risk-taking, and they’re putting their lives at risk every single night. You almost have to be in that to understand it.
So I think they understand what makes each other tick. And at the same time, there’s a true chemistry between the two, and there’s a there’s a vulnerability that happens, and I think that they recognize that in each other, and there’s a sense of, like, we want to be together going against this world. Let’s be together in this.
They just keep being able to hear each other, to be accountable and take their part in things and growing from it, and they just get deeper and more vulnerable together. So there’s a lot of trust that happens when you’ve been through a fire, so to speak, and come out of it, and it just deepens our relationship.
What does it mean to you to have an episode broach the subject of domestic violence through the lens of your character?
Yeah, I thought it was absolutely amazing that that was shown in the way that it was, and I learned a lot through playing this arc. You know, I have experienced with my mother, very young — obviously, not to the extent that Jason and Bailey are — but I have seen patterns of abuse, and I have seen how that emotional abuse can really weave itself into all areas of life.
So I felt like, in playing this of Bailey, I felt as if — I hope that women who would watch this, and men, for that sake, who would watch this and see themselves in her at all, whether that is being seen or learning something new about themselves, or feeling heard, and hoping it would create a bit of a healing ripple effect that you’re not alone. Lots of people have dealt with this. Feeling seen was really important to me. Like I said, I learned a lot, and I’m hoping that that will be felt by others who have been through similar things.
“The Rookie” debuts new episodes Tuesdays on ABC, streaming Wednesdays on Hulu.
