[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Blue Bloods Season 14 Episode 14 “New York Minute.”]
The Reagans get to celebrate the late member of their family, Joe (who died before the series began), in a way they never could in the latest episode of Blue Bloods.
Near the beginning of the episode, Frank (Tom Selleck) learns that the Irish Society pulled an invitation to honor Danny (Donnie Wahlberg) with a service award (before the detective even knew about it). It seems to be a first in the 100-odd years of honoring cops and firefighters. The determining factor is, ostensibly, Danny’s reputation and baggage.
The mouthpiece is Grace Edwards (Lori Loughlin), with whom Frank previously crossed paths. He sets a meeting with her away from his office—as he does when one might get overheated—and tries to appeal to her. She says that stains in the press and public perception are hard to remove, even as Frank argues his son is a decorated cop and fine family man. That doesn’t change the fact that he comes from New York’s most visible cop family and enjoys a reputation as a very loose cannon. Their next meeting doesn’t go much better, with her feeling like she’s been blackmailed, not given information pertaining to five of her former nominees and board members.
CBS
To Frank’s surprise, Henry (Len Cariou) thinks it’s probably a good thing that the award has been taken from Danny. They both know how Joe’s turned out; he received it before he died (the ceremony was scheduled for two days later), and as Henry sees it, it’s jinxed. Other recipients have been paralyzed and stabbed by a perp. He even tries to get Erin (Bridget Moynahan) and Jamie (Will Estes) on his side. Jamie thinks Danny deserves it, but Erin argues it’s Joe’s award and should stay that way.
Danny (finally) finds out about it when the truth comes out over, of course, family dinner. As everyone argues, he leaves the table to return to his case.
At Frank’s last meeting with Grace, he tells her about Joe and admits he fooled himself into thinking this award could close that circle when nothing can. He apologizes for not handling it very well.
The episode ends with Frank, Henry, Danny, Erin, and Jamie meeting at Joe’s favorite restaurant, where they’d go whenever it was his turn to pick. Danny reveals he was officially ordered the award and turned it down, for two reasons (and neither is because he thinks it’s cursed).
“I just think being a good detective does not need to be rewarded with a shiny gold medal. I think the reward that I get is catching bad guys, reuniting families, saving lives, and that’s enough for me. And honestly, we could have saved all of ourselves a lot of chaos if we had just talked about it in the first place,” he explains. The second reason is simple: “Joe. We all admired Joe from the moment we knew what a big brother was, what a first child was, what a first grandchild was, and he wore all of those titles exceptionally well. But he was also a second-to-none cop, and he was truly deserving of this honor, and I don’t think that he should have to share the spotlight with me. This award belongs to him.” With that, they celebrate Joe, “the way we never got a chance to,” and toast to him.
“I think that it was always really sweet when we could bring that character of Joe Reagan back,” Moynahan tells TV Insider. “It was always really interesting to have storylines where they brought Joe Reagan back because he is part of the family, and yet we never met him on screen because he had passed away before the pilot. And it’s just another way that we Reagans got to bond over something that we cared about, we loved, and somehow the audience also learned to love Joe over the years. So that was really a touching moment for us.”
What did you think of the latest episode? Let us know in the comments section below.
Blue Bloods, Fridays, 10/9c, CBS