Blue Bloods Season 5 Episode 16 Review: In the Box

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Danny Reagan played hero once again on Blue Bloods Season 5 Episode 16. As much as I like Danny, the Danny saves the day story line feels as though it’s been overdone. 

Anthony Drake was clearly not in his right mind. First the man was lamenting that his messy divorce and the restraining order his wife took out against him meant he’d never see his 12-year-old daughter again, then he pulled a gun on a police officer. Well, if there was anyway to make his situation worse, Anthony certainly found it. 

Baez tried to keep Anthony calm as they were locked in the interrogation room. The entire SWAT team gathered outside as Danny took charge and In some ways that made sense. Danny already had a rapport with Anthony so perhaps it was better for him to continue to communicate with the man but when Danny promised that they’d bring his daughter to see him I couldn’t help but roll my eyes.

Making that promise was a huge risk. Anthony’s ex-wife, Heather knew that he was unstable. That’s why she got the restraining order in the first place. What made Danny think that she’d let her young daughter anywhere near this situation?  I couldn’t blame Heather for refusing to bring Penelope to the station. My own reaction might very well have been the same. 

As a mother, Erin was able to convince Heather that bringing Penelope to see her father was the right thing to do, even given the tenuous circumstances. In the end, it was a decision that most certainly saved lives but there were plenty of ways that could have gone horribly wrong.

What I found amusing was that despite more SWAT members than I could count, Danny was the one who ran into the interrogation room and confronted Anthony. That seemed very odd but as I said, Danny Reagan played hero once again. 

Elsewhere Eddie raised money for a poor man’s funeral.  I found this entire story line both dull and disheartening. We never actually saw the crime take place so I had little connection to the victim. I suppose it was a story of how one person’s initiative could turn things around but how sad that no one who saw Reginald and Alice every day was willing to help until they felt guilted into it. And the one witness changing his mind and handing Jamie money with his phone number on it felt completely contrived to give this plot a happy ending.

Garrett was in a bad spot. His adult step-son's an addict. He’d been in and out of rehab twice and arrested several times and Garrett was trying to help the only way he knew how. But was he really helping?  I don’t know but I did enjoy the discussions on patenting that it brought out between Garrett, Frank and even Gormley who told Frank in this Blue Bloods quote

Anybody who knows any of your kids, how they turned out, they'd wish they could have talked to you when they were raising their own.

Gormley

But Garrett’s circumstances weren’t Frank’s and everyone’s kids are different. I wonder if we’ll be seeing more of Garrett’s stepson in the future. 

In the end, the Reagan family dinner was much too short. I was hoping there would be some discussion about Garrett’s son’s predicament or Eddie’s fundraising efforts. In the end we only got to hear them say grace.

This certainly wasn’t a bad episode but it also wasn’t one of the stronger ones this season.  I hope we get a little less Danny hero worship and more dinner conversation next time around.

You can always watch Blue Bloods online here at TV Fanatic. 

In the Box Review

Editor Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
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User Rating:

Rating: 4.3 / 5.0 (44 Votes)

C. Orlando was a TV Fanatic Staff Writer. Follow her on Twitter.

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Blue Bloods Season 5 Episode 16 Quotes

You have a gun pointed at my face, of course I’m not going to try anything.

Baez

You have no right to judge me for what I do or try to do for helping my boy.

Garrett