While it was clear that Jason Wyler (Steve Kazee) had done a number on Bailey Nune (Jenna Dewan), the extent was unclear. In The Rookie Season 7, Episode 7, “The Mickey,” Bailey met another domestic abuse survivor and felt comfortable sharing her story. It was different from what most domestic abuse survivors would recount, but the effects were the same. Bailey detailed the torment of her marriage to Jason and how she would appear fine to other people. “That was eye-opening for me, Jenna. As an actress, just reading the script, I thought, wow, how incredible,” Dewan told TV Insider about reading the script for the first time. She discussed the power of how the show dealt with the topic, saying:
“You don’t think about it in that way. You have these sort of assumptions of how victimization and how abuse should look, but it can be a lot of different colors and it can be kind of sneaky and it can be hidden in a little covert. And I found that moment just me personally reading that and learning those lines, saying to myself, oh, that is so true. How many times you think, oh, that person has it all together. Look, they’re great, but you don’t know what people are dealing with, what they’re going through in their own life. So I do think that being vulnerable for Bailey is another part of her superhero capabilities, but she didn’t know that until meeting Diana (Virgina Kull).”
Bailey and Nolan Begin to Heal
Even in death, Jason never stopped terrorizing her. After his death, Bailey’s husband, John Nolan (Nathan Fillion), finds out what she did to accomplish this, and it causes a huge conflict in their marriage. They eventually get on the same page, but they will travel some distance ahead before they stabilize. “I would say there’s a lot more leaning into the stability with Nolan and really in the repair mode and also after such a beginning of a season that was so destabilizing, there’s a lot of stabilizing to come,” the actress added.
A new episode of The Rookie airs on Tuesday, February 25. In it, “Nyla (Mekia Cox) remains suspicious of Liam Glasser (Seth Gamble) as a wildfire erupts, causing chaos in the city. Meanwhile, James tries to help a friend, and Seth (Patrick Keleher) makes a costly mistake, putting two of their own in danger.”
