Warning: SPOILERS for The Rookie season 7, episode 12, “April Fools.”Season 7, episode 12 of The Rookie delivers an excellent Purge-style April Fools’ adventure, but Bailey (Jenna Dewan) sadly gets benched from the story entirely. Most of The Rookie’s cast get sizable storylines in the recent April Fools’ episode, but that only makes any absences feel more notable. Wesley (Shawn Ashmore) teams up with Angela (Alyssa Diaz) and Nyla (Mekia Cox) to solve a murder, John (Nathan Fillion) trains an extremely clumsy new rookie, and the episode makes great strides in rekindling The Rookie‘s Chenford romance. Meanwhile, Tim (Eric Winter) deals with a frustratingly chaotic social media intern.
It’s an extremely busy episode, but these storylines combine to create arguably one of the best outings of The Rookie season 7 thus far. The best part occurs at roughly the midpoint of the episode, at which point all of Los Angeles descends into anarchy as the city’s criminals declare a three-hour Purge. Within a short period of time, nearly entire city blocks are engulfed in flames. Unfortunately, the series’ most daring firefighter appears unavailable to actually make an appearance and help put those fires out.
Bailey Misses The Rookie Season 7’s April Fools-Themed Episode
The City Definitely Could Have Used A Firefighter’s Presence
Nobody in the City of Angels decides to hold an impromptu Purge without reason. It starts with a boneheaded yet ultimately well-intentioned prank by the LAPD’s new media intern, Libby, who tweets from the cops’ account that the station will forgive all parking tickets on April 1. After Tim berates her for it, she instead says all people arrested will receive a “get out of jail free” QR code. This gets her fired, so Libby strikes back by tweeting that all crime in Los Angeles will be legal for the next three hours. Unfortunately, the city’s criminals accept the offer.
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Libby didn’t know people would actually fall for such blatantly obvious pranks, so it’s not entirely fair to call her the worst character in The Rookie season 7, but it does feel pretty good to watch her get arrested at the end. In the meantime, however, arsonists and rioters cause absurd amounts of explosive property damage, including hurling Molotov cocktails in the alley where Nolan happens to be parked. With so much fiery chaos, it’s therefore strange that Bailey (and the entire LAFD, for that matter) never once shows up onscreen during the episode’s runtime.
Why Jenna Dewan Misses The Rookie Season 7, Episode 12
There Are 2 Likely Explanations For Bailey’s Absence
Bailey’s absence isn’t directly addressed in “April Fools,” so it’s plausible that she actually was out there addressing the riots in the world of the show. As for the actor’s absence, one of the likeliest explanations is that Jenna Dewan probably took the episode off to spend time with family. She recently said on The Kelly Clarkson Show that she was less than two months postpartum when she came back from maternity leave this season, so it’s reasonable that she might miss the occasional episode to spend time with her very young child.
The less attractive explanation is that The Rookie cut her character to save money. The back half of “April Fools” strongly emphasizes custom set designs and practical effects, meaning the episode probably had a higher budget than usual. Cutting talent costs is a common way for networks to shave off overall expenses, and excluding the character least able to fend off a horde of violent Purge rioters would be the sensible route to take. Fortunately, Dewan will be back in the next episode to continue exploring Nolan and Bailey’s relationship on The Rookie by furthering their ongoing adoption subplot.
The Rookie’s Purge-Style April Fools’ Episode Would Have Been The Perfect Outing For Dewan’s Bailey
It’s The Ideal Episode For Dewan To Perform More Stunts
There’s no telling precisely what The Rookie‘s Lisseth Chavez meant when she recently said there was a particularly dark upcoming episode, although this outing does feel like a decent contender. What is clear, however, is that the episode’s Purge storyline would have been the perfect opportunity for Dewan to do more stunts as Bailey. She also mentioned on Kelly Clarkson that stunts are her favorite part of the job and that she’s always asking for more of them, so a hectic storyline like this one would have ideally suited her.
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Bailey’s physical prowess even came up in conversation in the previous episode, when the LAPD watched in awe as she jumped from a moving SWAT vehicle onto a hijacked bus. Perhaps it’s too soon for The Rookie to have Bailey top that particular feat, but that’s all the more reason it would have been incredible to see them pull it off. The good news is that, with six episodes left in season 7 and Bailey returning for at least the next one, she certainly hasn’t run out of chances just yet.
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This story originally appeared on Screenrant
