Blue Bloods Season 9 Episode 13 Review: Ripple Effect
Jack Ori
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It's not often that all things Reagan lead to the same place.
But on Blue Bloods Season 9 Episode 13, every member of the Reagan family dealt with some sort of potential scam.
Maybe there was a larger point here and maybe not, but either way, it was entertaining!
Danny's interactions with the medium were predictable, but nevertheless enjoyable.
I don't know if this storyline was meant to be comic relief, but I couldn't stop laughing, especially when Danny met Maggie the Medium.
Maggie: That wasn't a suicide. She was murdered.
Danny: How do you know?
Maggie: She told me.
Danny: You mean she told you someone wanted to kill her?
Maggie: No. She told me someone DID kill her.
Danny's sarcastic comments wore thin as the hour went on, but their initial conversation was almost as good as an Abbott and Costello routine, with Danny thinking he was interviewing a potential witness and Maggie trying to impart information she picked up from beyond the grave.
It was no surprise that her information turned out to be 100% correct or that she somehow knew about Linda's death being no accident.
Danny refusing to believe in a medium who turned out to know nothing would have been no fun at all!
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It was understandable that Meredith's mother wanted the cops to do whatever it took to find her daughter's killer. She didn't believe the death was a suicide and she wanted the person who was responsible to be caught and punished.
And Maria realized that the scientific evidence was so weak that they'd never make a case, so it was totally logical that she turned towards the medium to see if she could help get this poor woman some closure.
Danny: Maybe the mother's intuition was right.
Maria: Or the psychic's.
I found Danny's comments while the medium was working to be irritating. The medium's opinions might or might not have been true, but he could have evaluated the likelihood of her statements without interrupting with sarcastic nonsense every other second.
Anyway, it was really a shame that this case ended in tragedy. Meredith's mother didn't really get any answers, and neither did the audience.
Steven killed Meredith and he was a sex offender. Presumably, she fought him off when he wanted sex, but we'll never know for sure because Steven said he was sorry and then rammed into a truck on purpose.
If I were Meredith's mother, getting the locket back wouldn't be enough, not without knowing the full story of what happened and why.
I sort of hope that she paid an off-screen visit to Maggie because that's the only way she has any chance of getting answers now.
Frank's story was interesting on several levels.
I was surprised that the fake charity actually did some good even though it was mostly a scam and more surprised that Frank gave Norris such a generous second chance.
Erin's comments surely helped, but Norris wasn't just a scam artist. He was a scam artist who used Frank's image to lend authenticity to the scam.
If ever there was a time for Frank to be boiling mad, this was it!
Related: Blue Bloods' Frank Reagan: Grumpy Curmudgeon or Man of Principle?
The scam itself led to one of the best Reagan family dinner conversations ever. Everyone talking about their bucket lists was fun, and then Henry got serious.
It was heartbreaking that he never got to go to the Vatican because of his wife's illness, making Frank's request of the Archbishop that much sweeter.
Henry: Top of my bucket list: Don't kick the bucket.
Danny: Ha ha.
Henry: I always wanted to see the Vatican. Betty and I were going to go for our 50th. But then she got sick.
The Archbishop's focus on punishing Norris for making the Church look bad was more than a little hypocritical.
Frank was right that the diocese was at fault for not vetting charities it supports better, and whether or not the press got wind of the scandal was really not Frank's problem.
In addition, the Archbishop's disgust that Norris didn't receive the maximum punishment allowed under the law wasn't particularly aligned with Catholic values. And anyway, that plea deal kept the Church out of the news, so he should have been grateful!
He got Frank back good, though. I hope viewers are privy to Frank working with the inmate penpal program. It might give him another perspective on what life is like for the people his officers put away.
Or not.
Either way would be interesting, and I hope this arc continues and isn't just a joke that is never mentioned again.
As for Erin, could she have been any more jealous?
She insisted that Jack lied to her and was trying to get special favors to win points with his girlfriend, but there was no evidence of that, and the fact is that getting a conviction against this robber helped the DA office's stats. So it was win-win.
I can understand her being a little miffed that Jack was asking for favors, but as Anthony pointed out, she always runs to do stuff for Jack whenever he snaps his fingers. Besides, was it really that big a deal?
I guess it doesn't matter, since these two appear to be on the way to a reconciliation that Frank will absolutely not approve of, or at least are open to one.
Anthony: You two need anything else? I got work to do on a case.
Erin: Which one?
Anthony: Any one. I'll make one up.
I ship Erin and Anthony, but it doesn't look like that's ever going to happen, since both of them appear to be on the way back to their exes.
Unless, of course, it all falls apart and Erin and Anthony end up back in each other's arms. Stranger things have happened.
Jamie and Eddie's case was my favorite. I'm not sure why the mother was on the hook for neglecting her child. If Mrs. Rodriguez was going to neglect her son, why go to the trouble of injecting him with fake insulin rather than not giving him any medication at all?
Anyway, that doctor was annoying and made judgments based on zero facts. I was glad he was proven wrong!
Getting the fake drug scammers off the street was enough of a miracle, but then Eddie sacrificed her wedding dress so Mrs. Rodriguez would have medication for her son and my heart melted.
Jamie: She [Mrs.Rodriguez] got a miraculous donation of enough insulin for the next year.
Eddie: Really? Isn't that something?
Jamie: Do you know anything about it?
Eddie: I decided I didn't need the most expensive wedding dress in the shop.
Jamie: And this is why I love you. Not because we work together or ride together. Besides, if it was just about dating a female cop, there's plenty of them right here.
And then Blue Bloods followed up with Jamie's beautiful speech to Eddie about why he loves her. Eddie and Jamie are at their best when they have something to deal with other than Eddie's opinion of how Jamie is doing his job, and this was no exception.
If this is what we're getting now, the wedding itself is going to be spectacular.
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I had only one complaint, and that's that the wedding dress shopping scene took up too little time.
I thought it would be a longer sequence, but it was praactically blink-and-you-miss-it.
Jamie's declaration of love made up for it, but still.
Your turn, Blue Bloods fanatics!
Did you like the shared theme running through everyone's stories?
Did you think the wedding dress buying scene was long enough?
And was Danny right to distrust Maggie the Medium?
Weigh in below, and don't forget you can watch Blue Bloods online if you missed anything!
Jack Ori is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. His debut young adult novel, Reinventing Hannah, is available on Amazon. Follow him on X.
