Bailan Is Bones: Can The Rookie Finally Put This Ship Out of Its Misery?

I’m not one to dance on a grave — but I’ll happily celebrate if The Rookie finally goes through with ending Bailey and Nolan’s relationship once and for all.

As a disclaimer, there’s no illusion of impartiality when it comes to this specific topic or these characters because this ship has become so frustrating that it makes it impossible to pretend or extend grace.

After tuning into The Rookie Season 8 Episode 5, it feels like the series may finally be broaching something that it never seemed capable of doing before: acknowledging that Bailey is a supremely flawed character who is very well incompatible with John Nolan.

Many viewers have felt that way the entire time.

Personally, there was nothing particularly appealing about this relationship, and in a ranking of Nolan’s love interests, she has been one of the most frustrating.

And it’s not just because on her own, Bailey is an annoying character, but because she’s collectively just a poor match with Nolan.

No amount of whimsy and random couples’ adventures can make up for that simple fact.

The Rookie is no stranger to putting their couples through the wringer.

We needn’t unpack the full breadth of what they did to Chenford, which frustrated us for pretty much the entirety of The Rookie Season 7.

And there was a period of time when it genuinely was starting to feel like Nyla and James were on their last legs.

Even Wopez has had some hurdles in their relationship, and right now it looks like Grey and Luna are facing some problems, too.

But this Bailan is on something entirely different, and of all the primary couples on this series, it’s the one they should stick a pin in … permanently.

More recently, the show has finally allowed Nolan to address some of the issues with Bailey and even parrot some of the constant criticisms viewers have leveled at the character.

It’s as if they’re willing to acknowledge Bailey’s flaws instead of solely cramming her down our throats under the guise of her being quirky and perfect.

Of course, by doing so, The Rookie could simply be setting her up for an overarching plot point in which she starts working on herself, displays some growth, and that brings her and Nolan closer together once they actually address the tension and conflict between them.

I’m prepared for that. But I maintain that the latest snafu is only proof that they should not be together.

Bailey doesn’t respect boundaries, and she never has. It was almost foundational for her character, which they played up as quirky and cute rather than acknowledging how problematic it could be.

But now we’re in a place where she no longer respects Nolan or what their partnership should be.

She treats him like he’s an adventure that’s for her entertainment and nothing more. And she certainly takes advantage of him, presumably because he’s nothing like her ex-husband.

While it’s great that Nolan makes Bailey feel safe, especially after her experience as an abuse survivor, to turn around and steamroll over Nolan at any opportunity subsequently doesn’t make her look great.

These two cannot handle any real conflict as a couple. There’s no mediation or compromise on either side. They occasionally clash, then quietly handwave their conflict away, leaving it unaddressed.

If there’s a real problem, it almost always plays out the same way. Bailey gets dramatic, blows up a bit, and retreats or flees, and then Nolan stubbornly tries to hold his own until he eventually relents and succumbs to her behavior.

And then you blink, and they’re canoodling again as if nothing happened. We’ve done this repeatedly.

There has never been any conflict resolution between the two, so neither of them gets what they need from their dynamic.

Their first conflict was when he didn’t even know she was married. If it was information she kept from h im, and he didn’t get time to properly process the lack of information because it became more about her experience with an abusive husband, her issues with getting a divorce, and her fear.

Bailey’s experience and feelings are certainly valid, but so are Nolan’s, yet they can never be a priority.

She proposes after a traumatic near-death experience, and they never properly examine her trauma or what it means for their relationship. They just dive in.

Then we get the baby situation, where they have two totally different opinions about whether to have them, even though I’m pretty certain they were on the same page when they first mentioned the kid.

The two of them agree on something, but then Bailey changes her mind, and suddenly it becomes about whether Nolan will submit to her new desires.

And he does. Nothing about the scenario is even fair to Nolan, and you could tell he was only going along with planning for a kid of their own because he was trying to make her happy.

Except she wasn’t happy because her fertility treatments weren’t working, so they shifted over to adoption, but then that didn’t follow through with that in part because they both loved their jobs too much to have to sacrifice those for a kid.

The irony of that isn’t lost, right?

Our next big conflict was everything that happened with Jason and the hitman. Bailey ultimately worked with a hitman, and Nolan had to lie and cover for her, even though it could’ve cost him his job.

And somehow, Bailey was angry at Nolan throughout all of this.

But it also coincided with a pattern of Bailey rarely valuing Nolan’s job and its importance to him when it is not beneficial to her.

So this season’s whole fiasco of thinking he should give up his job so she can jump to the next shiny thing just builds on all the other issues Bailey has had before.

Bailey told Nolan to keep an open mind, said they wouldn’t decide until they both agreed, and then went back on her word as usual. And she just expected Nolan to cave into her desires.

Her frustration right now is because, for once, he hasn’t. And he even went further, finally calling her out for being fickle, flaky, and incapable of sitting still long enough to actually fix or resolve problems.

It’s been years of Bailan being frustratingly one-sided and incapable of basic conflict resolution. Sure, they could go to couples therapy.

But at this point, The Rookie should do us all a favor and call Time of Death on this relationship now.

It’s like yelling into the void sometimes — so if you’re out there, holler back.
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