[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for The Rookie Season 7 Episode 7 “The Mickey.”]

We can breathe a sigh of relief: Nolan (Nathan Fillion) and Bailey (Jenna Dewan) are now on the same page on The Rookie.

The couple had been on the outs after he learned that she gave an assassin a tip about her abusive ex-husband Jason (Steve Kazee), leading to his death. Bailey, meanwhile, met a woman running a shelter, Diana (Virginia Kull), and talked to her about her struggle to label what he put her through as abuse. And so after spending nights away from the house, Bailey returned home and opened up about being in denial about her experience. Diana reminded her that Nolan is her best ally to help her face what happened and heal. Turning to Malvado was a desperate move for safety, she explains. Nolan regrets making her feel judged instead of supported, and he assures her that if he could do it all over again, he’d show her that his fear was for her and the danger she put herself in. He apologize for making her feel alone and assures her she’s not. “You’ve loved,” he tells her. Moving forward, they’ll fix this together.

Below, Dewan does a deep dive on the revelation for Bailey, what’s ahead for her and Nolan now, and more.

How hard was it for Bailey to admit, mostly to herself, that what she’s been doing is collecting ways to protect herself and it’s not working like she wanted to? Would she have without meeting Diana?

Jenna Dewan: No, I think meeting Diana was a true catalyst for that recognition in herself. I think Diana is a mirror for her, and I believe that Bailey has spent her entire life fighting against wanting to look like a victim, and you see that it’s evident in her work, it’s evident in how she protected herself and relationships and never wanting to be vulnerable. And it’s because she is a true victim. And I think that the recognition through Diana, that you are a victim and accepting that you are a victim, ultimately is a catalyst for her to go deeper and to become more vulnerable and heal finally.

While I understand that there’s so many different colors to abuse and how that can look, I think it was important to express that it can look differently than what you expect domestic violence or any sort of abuse to look. And that was eye-opening for me, Jenna, as an actress, just reading the script, I thought, wow, how incredible. 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.

That last Bailey and Nolan scene — it’s so sweet and it feels like they both needed that after their time apart, right?

Yeah. Yes, I do. I think that that coming together and reconnecting scene was really important because I think you have to be vulnerable and it’s so hard when everything feels like it’s on the line and admitting something that you’ve been burying deep down inside your entire life is so hard to do. And when you finally get that moment and you’re like, oh, I hope I’m safe enough to be seen in this way, and then you realize you are and you’re caught and you’re held in love, it’s the most healing thing in the world. So I really love that scene because I thought, wow, I’m so happy for both of them that they feel that safety within each other and can sort of go hand in hand and sort of see what life is going to show them next. But it’s like everything, it causes them to go a little bit deeper and with more trust together.

But also in that conversation, he talks about what he wishes he had done to support her, but where Bailey was with the threat of Jason out there at the time, would that have mattered?

Yes, I do think that knowing that Nolan would have helped if she had just expressed — and I think that that’s true 99 percent of the time in life in relationships. We think what we’re protecting ourselves, but actually the people we love are really there to accept you and all your feelings and all your good and the bad about you. But you’d have to be vulnerable enough to express that and lean on people for help. And so I do think, yes, I do think she would’ve made different choices. I do feel that he would’ve figured out a way to help her. I think that was an awakening for her, that I didn’t have to go through this alone.

What does fixing it together look like for Bailey and Nolan? What’s next for them?

Time heals like everyone else. And I think learning to be more honest with each other, learning to accept help from each other, and knowing that they really are there for each other. And I think the personal taking accountability on both sides of this, that was interesting for me because initially you read this stuff and you have your own opinion of who you think is in the right, but at the end you realize, oh, we all have a part in it always. We always all have a part in it. And the great thing about both of them is that they continue throughout the episodes coming up to keep taking accountability for their side of things, and that creates more healing. It creates them to understand, wow, we’ve really been through the fire and back and we still love each other, and there’s a lot of trust in that. At the same time, there’s always new things for us to tackle and it’s never boring from Nolan and Bailey ever. And so there’s something about that excitement and that unpredictability that really works for both of them and as a couple.

They were already a strong couple. Are they the strongest now because of what they went through, or are they just strong in a different way?

Well, I think you’re stronger. I think after going through everything they’ve been through, it’s make it or break it, and they’ve made it. And so I think ultimately you’re stronger for that. And I do think there’s a different level of vulnerability and trust that comes after this with a bit of a healing period. It’s not overnight, you don’t flip a switch, but I do know that they approach it more hand in hand and realizing, oh, we’re really there for each other.

Nolan had spoken to Tim about knowing when it’s over. At any point though, did Bailey think that this might be the beginning of the end of them or had she thought that he would fix it like she wanted?

I think she was hoping he would fix it like she wanted, and I think at the end of the day, she knows Nolan’s heart and I think she realizes that they both have a bit in this, a part in this. And I think she was hoping he would do the right thing, but knowing he’s a really good person, I believe you assume that that will happen. But at the same time, she knows that what she did is in direct odds to Nolan’s moral compass and even his entire job. So I think she was absolutely nervous.

How does she feel though about Jason being dead? Is it pure relief or are there complicated emotions?

I know. I would say there’s relief in the sense that the physical threat of Jason is gone, and that is someone who has haunted her and been a torture and a torment in her life for years. So the physical safety feels different. However, the psychological safety is not there overnight. So I think that there’s complicated feelings to that. I think how it went down is complicated for her to contend with, whether she is in the right or in the wrong, or however you want to look at it, it’s complicated how anything like that goes down. And I think she feels complicated, but at the same time, a lot of relief because he was a terrible influence in her life, a terrible person and had a lot of control over her. So there is some freedom and relief mixed with moral complexity.

Speaking of the vulnerability of her going forward, will we see a different side of Bailey just in general, not even just with her relationship with Nolan, but just approaching other aspects of her life?

I do think there’s a softening to Bailey that has been happening, but I think happens more so. She’s always adventurous. She’s always wanting to live life on the edge. There’s always a sense of, what else can I accomplish and do? I think there’s a real adrenaline junkie in her, and I don’t think she would do normalcy very well, but I think there’s a softening and an acceptance in her, and I think there’s a stability she feels with Nolan in she’s never felt before, and leaning into that a little bit this season.

What else is coming up for Bailey?

Well, there’s always fun, exciting things that happen every episode. It’s always a little bit of, what happens now, what’s Bailey getting herself into now? There’s a lot of complicated stories coming up where I’m really involved in my EMT and sort of getting to be on the job and on the field, so to speak, which I really enjoy. Just Jenna as an actress, I really enjoy those days because it’s fun for me and getting to be with the actual firefighters that day play on our show and getting to do fun action and stuff like that. And then 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 Rookie, Tuesdays, 9/8c, ABC

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