When the idea of Bailey (Jenna Dewan) moving to Washington, D.C. to take a dream job came up on The Rookie, the idea crossed my mind that the character was being written out of the show, but it turns out that it was just a maneuver to introduce a new storyline for her character that would put her in danger.
“[Showrunner] Alexi [Hawley] is the greatest human alive, so he definitely gave me a heads up [that I wasn’t being written out],” Dewan tells Parade in this exclusive interview. He said, ‘Don’t be worried when you read the script. There is a storyline we’re playing around with, with a job that’s going to be at the Pentagon in D.C., but you’re not going anywhere.’ He gave me that info ahead of time, and I was like, ‘Great, because I absolutely love this show. This is my favorite job in the entire world.’ I love the people, I love everything about it. So, I, in no way, would like to go anywhere.”
🎬SIGN UP for Parade’s Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox🎬
So, while Jenna is definitely staying put, Bailey has moved on to a new career in Washington, D.C., and it has caused trouble in her marriage. So much so that at one point her loving husband John Nolan (Nathan Fillion) said, “I’m trying to save our marriage.” And that kind of surprised Bailey because she didn’t realize it was in jeopardy.
“We had the fight that kind of came out of nowhere,” Dewan says. “I think that it’s real. I believe you get in a relationship, and especially a loving relationship, but you are hopefully two people that are walking the same path. But at times, there are going to be moments where you are your own individual, and there are going to be different opportunities and jobs that come along that are not going to be in town, and then you find yourself at those crossroads. Well, what do I do? Do we want to all stay together, or do we want to go? Some people don’t have the luxury to decide that.”
Disney/Mike Taing
At this point in time, Nolan and Bailey are pretty much still newlyweds, so there is definitely an adjustment period still taking place, and sometimes it’s because it is hard to come together as a couple when you’ve been on your own with no one else to consider.
“Bailey is bumping up against her old self and the want to be ambitious and go after everything and say yes to every opportunity and adventure, and this natural wiring of hers, but I also think maturity is trying to show her a new way,” Dewan continues. “She does have her own ambitions in life and career that she wants to explore, and honestly, to go work on a task force at the Pentagon — that is something she’s never even thought of doing and is big enough that, I think, that would be something that would maybe eat at her that she didn’t at least explore that.
“John is really amazing. He noticed that and said, ‘Well, I want you to go for it, and we are okay. We’ll be okay. We can handle anything. We’ve handled so much before. We can continue to handle whatever comes at us,’ and I thought that was a really real interesting and complicated curveball for us.”
Related: Big Shakeup Coming on The Rookie: Sneak Peek of Change in Mid-Wilshire (Exclusive)
It was especially so for Bailey, who came out of a bad marriage, and we’ve seen that her abusive ex, Jason Wyler (Steve Kazee), was a sociopath, so it wouldn’t be surprising that she isn’t used to Nolan’s understanding.
“I think that there’s trauma, right?” Dewan says. “We all carry our own baggage into whatever our next relationship. And I think that her baggage with her crazy husband is that it’s hard to trust. It’s hard to let yourself go and to be vulnerable. But every single day, John continues to rewrite that wiring for her. She sees he is stable. He does love me. He is here through thick and thin with me. So initially, I think there’s some doubt with that, with can we get through this, and does he really want this for me? And in time, she realizes again, okay, we are a solid force.”
Jenna Dewan
So, Bailey has moved to D.C. and taken her job at the Pentagon, when she gets a call from Lt. Grey (Richard T. Jones), who asks her to conduct a covert investigation at the Pentagon, and she jumps at the chance without considering the consequences.
“I think she was at a perfect place of very bored with the current job and not realizing that 90 percent of the job was going to be in a cubicle doing paperwork,” Dewan shares. “So, I think for Bailey, it felt exciting and a little bit of an adventure, and she said ‘Oh, okay, I’ll go do that. What else am I doing? I’ll go do that.’ Definitely not thinking she was going to get herself involved in any sort of sinister plan. I think she really thought she was just doing a favor and kind of at a perfect moment that it was like half fun and half perfect timing.”
Related: Is Jenna Dewan Leaving The Rookie? Here’s What We Know
The mystery of what lies behind the locked door that Bailey knocked on at the Pentagon will play out over the next several weeks, so we don’t want to spoil it here. So, we’ll just end with Dewan’s tease of what is to come.
“All of a sudden, it’s like a Clue game come to life. Her adrenaline is going, and Bailey loves adrenaline, and I think there’s a bit of wanting to figure it out, be useful to Grey and to everyone back at home, and she can’t resist it.”
The Rookie airs Tuesday nights at 10 p.m. ET/PT on ABC. Streams next day on Hulu.
Next, The Rookie: North Cast Revealed: Meet the Stars Joining the New Rookie Spinoff
