Hailey Winton

**Hailey Winton** is a character on the Paramount+ series *Rabbit Hole*. She is portrayed by Meta Golding.

Hailey Winton came from nothing, pulled herself up by her bootstraps, got into law school, and found a great job. Until a chance encounter with John Weir changed everything. Weir suspects Hailey isn’t who she claims to be, is he right or is he being paranoid?

## Profile

Hailey Winton is an engaging lawyer who has a hook-up with John Weir. The two are thrust into an international conspiracy when Weir is framed for murder. She has a haunted past and reasons to not trust anybody. Hailey comes into John's life just before everything explodes around him. At the opening of *Rabbit Hole*, she is working for a non-profit organization, the In-House Counsel of the Homeless Aid Network.

## History

### The one-night stand

One evening, Hailey is at a bar swiping on a dating app when she comes across the profile of a John Weir. Seeing him sitting nearby, she heads over and chats him up. The two hit things off quickly and return to her hotel for a one-night stand.

The next morning, however, things seemingly get confusing for Hailey. When she wakes up, she finds John readying himself to leave. He tells her that she's going to have to make "Madi" work harder if she wants leverage on him. He says that the job is over, that his marriage ended years ago. She tells him to leave, that she's not into any weird cosplayer stuff, asking why he slept with her if she thought she was blackmailing him. "You're kidding, right?" he asks, and leaves.

### The murder suspect

Later that day, John is annoyed to see Hailey across the street as he exits an important meeting at Arda Analytics regarding the wrap-up on a job he just successfully completed. He returns to his own company and has his people investigate Hailey, but they find her only to be a "well-cultivated nobody," a lawyer for the Homeless Aid Network. John then goes to meet her outside her work, demanding to know what she was doing outside the Arda Analytics offices. She asks how it is that she always ends up picking out the weird stalker guys, saying that she hates dating apps.

John is confused, asking her what she is talking about with dating apps. She explains about finding his profile while swiping at the bar. This is news to John, as he does not use dating apps. Before the conversation can continue, however, she finds herself looking up and goes silent in shock. On a television monitor above is a picture of John alongside that of U.S. Treasury Department investigator Edward Homm. The headline states that John is a suspect in the man's murder. Noticing Hailey's silence, John looks up and sees this. He curses and she punches him in the neck and shouts for help, but he manages to elude pursuit.

### The suspicious detectives

Convinced that Hailey is somehow involved in the mess that his life has just become, John returns and waits outside of Hailey's workplace the next day. Meanwhile, inside, as she is about to check out, Hailey is approached by two individuals who identify themselves as Detectives Reins and Fewkes. They ask if she is Hailey and she agrees that she is, asking if this is about John. They tell her that they'd like to come with her until they can find out more, maybe ask her some questions. She agrees and they all head outside, but Hailey quickly realizes something is wrong when they try to lead her to a Mercedes. She tries to break away, saying that something is wrong, but they insist she come with them.

Hailey shouts for help and they grab on to her, her shouting to let them go. She curses, saying that she's a lawyer, but Reins subdues her, shouting to the gathering crowd that she is under arrest. Just then, John appears in front of them, holding up a phone. He asks what their precinct is and what the charges are. He then shouts to the crowd that Hailey has done nothing wrong and they are arresting her. He tells them that he has it all on camera, that he sees them, and the crowd takes up his chant of "We see you!" He asks Hailey if she's ready. "For what?" she asks and he says that she's ready enough, shouting to the crowd that there's a gun. Hailey gets the drop on the two "detectives" and takes off with John into a nearby car, and they speed away.

### "Blindfold or trunk?"

Cursing, Hailey asks who they were. Rather than answering her, however, John demands to know just who *she* is and who she's working with. She asks why people are trying to kill her and if he's going to, but he tells her that he just wants to know why she was outside Arda Analytics the day before. She says she was just at her job and he mocks her as being a homeless aid lawyer who happens to know Krav Maga. She counters that she doesn't, that she only took a course to strengthen her core. She says that she's nobody but he says that whoever is after him is after her too. She says that he is the shady one, that he murders people, and he tells her that he hasn't murdered anyone.

John tells her that he just saved her life, suggesting that she show some appreciation. He tells her that his entire life has just been blown apart and that he needs some answers or else she's not going anywhere, that she's stuck with him. She shouts that nobody tells her to do. She thanks him for the rescue, but says that it was a little racist, using assumptions about black people to manipulate the crowd. He tells her that he doesn't have time for this, asking her "Blindfold or trunk?" "What?!" she asks and he tells her that he can't have her seeing where he's going, so it's one or the other.

### A growing trust

Hailey is quickly drawn into John's world, which involves a secretive plan to take down a man called Crowley who is plotting to take over the United States from the shadows. She meets his father, Ben Wilson, and learns that as a child John witnessed Ben's apparent suicide, only for Ben to reveal to him and his best friend, Miles Valence, that he had staged the suicide, many years later. She also learns that Edward Homm is actually alive and being held by John and Ben to keep him safe from Crowley and his forces.

Although their relationship is at first fraught with suspicion, a growing trust quickly builds between Hailey and John. With his resources limited, John even agrees to allow Hailey to help him with one his ops, trying to get information out of a man with close ties to Crowley. In order to do so, he gives her a crash course in the art of deception. Hailey passes the test with flying colors, but it quickly becomes clear that there is something that she is still hiding from John. During the op, she reports to John that she has spotted her former boss at the financial services company she once worked for. She reveals that she quit the company because of their shady dealings, but before doing so stole a small amount of cryptocurrency from them, which today is now worth over $25 million. John tries to withdraw her before she can be made, but it is too late. He, Ben and Edward manage to rescue her, but not before Crowley learns that Ben is alive.

### The ace in the hole

In the aftermath, the group finds themselves on the run, Crowley's people seemingly tracking their every move and repeatedly sending assassins to the safe houses where they are staying. Hailey witnesses John becoming seemingly more unstable, convinced that there is a mole in their group and determined to figure out the details of the last call that his friend Valence took before jumping to his death. They eventually discover that they are being tracked via chip on an expensive bottle of wine that they stole when fleeing from the op. John, however, also learns that it was Ben who placed that last call to Valence and it shakes him greatly.

Worried about John's mental health, Hailey decides that they need a backup. She thus goes to FBI agent Jo Madi, whom John had told her was trustworthy, despite her pursuit of him. She provides her with the details of the case that they have been working, including the fact Edward Homm is still alive and evidence that proves a vast conspiracy orchestrated by Crowley. She later reveals to John what she has done. Although stunned at first, he chooses to accept it, realizing that she acted in what she felt was his best interests.

Things come to a head when Crowley orchestrates the assassination of Senator Nora Evers, assuring the passage of the Shared Data Act, a bill which grants certain private U.S. corporations access to a treasure trove of government data. Crowley uses the data to stage further assassinations of federal judges, intending to stack the courts in his favor. To counter this, John and Ben decide to play their "ace in the hole" - the revelation that Edward Homm is alive. Hailey is put in charge of driving Homm to the TV studio where his survival will be revealed. In the process, they briefly reveal him to a crowd led by an online journalist who has been touting his being alive the entire time.

The two of them make a stop at the FBI offices, where John and Jo Madi had staged John's arrest and escape. They then proceed to the headquarters of ANB, home of the "Pulse of the Nation" broadcast, where Ed is to reveal is survival. Despite a desperate gambit by Crowley, the broadcast goes off and the conspiracy is exposed. In the aftermath, John and Hailey meet with Agent Jo Madi, who tells John that she has enough evidence to put him away for one of his past jobs, but isn't going to do so, that she's going to spend some time with her family. Hailey then reveals to John that when she met Madi, she saw an opportunity to get closure with her boss. Instead of going after John, Madi is going after him instead, and she's off the hook for the cryptocurrency that she stole. John admits that he didn't see this coming, saying that he's getting nervous, that she's getting at this. She replies that she's a work in progress.

## Gallery

### Video

Rabbit Hole - Hailey & Weir's Trust Issue - Paramount+
## References

1. ↑ Snierson, Dan (January 6, 2023). 'Things are not what they seem' in first look at Kiefer Sutherland's thriller *Rabbit Hole*. Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved on February 25, 2023.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Rabbit Hole - Inside The Series. Paramount+. Retrieved on March 25, 2023.