Warning! Spoilers ahead for The Rookie's Season 6 finale, “Escape Plan.” Proceed with caution. If you aren't caught up, you can stream the procedural with a Hulu subscription.
After The Rookie’s twist-filled Season 6 finale, the cliffhanger left some doors open as Oscar and Jason, Bailey’s abusive ex-husband, escaped prison. While it can be assumed that the criminal duo will be popping up and making trouble in the upcoming seventh season, that might be a little hard for Jason to do. That's because, Bailey will not be around to see her ex, as Jenna Dewan will seemingly be absent from the first few episodes.
Dewan is currently expecting her third child and second with fiancé Steve Kazee. She has been open about filming The Rookie while pregnant, and even though the ABC procedural hasn’t included a pregnancy storyline, Bailey and John are currently considering their options. After getting married in the 100th episode, they're as eager to start a family after talking about it.
In real life, the actress is getting closer and closer to her due date, meaning she will soon have to take a break from work. Since The Rookie will not be part of the 2024 TV schedule this fall and won’t be returning until midseason 2025, showrunner Alexi Hawley told TVLine what Dewan’s status will be at the beginning of the season:
They will definitely resurface at different times. As you know, Jenna [Dewan]’s about to have a baby in real life, so we probably won’t see [Bailey] for the first few episodes because of that. As a result, we aren’t sure when we’ll see Jason. But yes, I think we’re looking at how we can spread stuff out so we’re not just all diving into all of it at the beginning.
Dewan’s absence on The Rookie has been expected, especially once the series was renewed for Season 7. With the show not returning until at least January, that could help with the fact that she will be on maternity leave for at least a few months after giving birth. How many episodes she will be absent for is unknown, but TVLine previously reported that the new season will have 18 episodes and have a straight run.
As for how the show will explain Bailey’s absence, there are a few possibilities. She and John had been thinking about adoption in the season finale, so maybe she will be meeting with different agencies. Maybe the fire department will be off fighting a massive wildfire or somewhere else that Bailey needs to attend to, which would also be easy to explain. With Jason having escaped prison, it’s also possible Bailey goes into hiding until he’s caught, even though Alexi Hawley wasn’t sure where that was going for now.
It's still early prep-wise for Season 7, but once Jenna Dewan announced her pregnancy, it’s likely Hawley and the writers were already coming up with ideas surrounding her absence. It’s hard to predict just what will happen, but it does sound like she will be back on The Rookie at some point in Season 7.
Dewan has been keeping fans updated throughout her pregnancy journey and showing off her growing baby bump. Now that she’s not constantly working and filming, she will be able to relax a little bit before becoming a mother of three. Even though it will be weird to not see her at the beginning of Season 7, she definitely has a good excuse and it’s going to be exciting when she finally welcomes her baby into the world.
