Is Jenna Dewan leaving ‘The Rookie’? Bailey Nune’s Season 8 job offer raises questions
The ongoing season 8 of 'The Rookie' has a lot of elements to unpack before it heads towards its impending season finale. Beginning on a glamorous note with the squad's first international operation, 'The Rookie' season 8 took the ABC police procedural show's drama to the next level with Chen and Bradford reconciling their differences in favour of their relationship and Nyla and the rest of the squad getting on with their business. However, the one true point of contention in the show's narrative remained between Nathan Fillion's John Nolan and Jenna Dewan's Bailey Nune.
For starters, despite being present throughout some of the most complex cases the LAPD has worked on, Nune wasn't exactly an integral part of the core group. The reason behind this can be attributed to the fact that Nune is a firefighter, not a police officer. In addition to this, she has donned several hats in the past, including those of a soldier and a capoeira instructor. A comparison between her character and the proverbial rolling stone that gathers no moss is only fair.
Things are further complicated when Nune receives an attractive job opportunity that will require her to relocate to Washington, D.C, and this could serve as showrunner Alexi Hawley's own way of writing Nune out of the ABC show, perhaps by the end of the ongoing season. One must remember that no official statement in this regard has been issued either by the network or Dewan herself, and therefore, all claims made in this regard remain purely speculative.
The previously aired episode titled 'Cut and Run' saw Nune receiving a call from her former military commander, Colonel Russ Wilkes. Russ tells her that SecDef has tasked him with assembling a team of his own within the Pentagon. The said team will be mandated to renovate battlefield medicine, thus ensuring that it is aligned with the standards of the current century. Wilkes further reminds her that this is the most important assignment of his career and that she was the first recruit he could think of.
Nolan and Nune's relationship initially flourished on the latest season of 'The Rookie,' as they celebrated their honeymoon in Prague. Nevertheless, Nune's vacillation regarding the Washington job offer threatens to put their relationship in jeopardy. Despite the ongoing uncertainty, it can also be speculated that if Nune were to be written out of the show by the end of season 8, it does not permanently close the door on her return in the future. Such an eventuality would ensure that she keeps making appearances every once in a while. However, Nolan must endure the pain of separation before that happens. 'The Rookie' is exclusively available on ABC and Hulu.