Blue Bloods Season 10 Episode 16 Review: The First 100 Days
Jack Ori
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Are we sure Erin is okay?
After her car accident in the first minutes of Blue Bloods Season 10 Episode 16, she seemed out of it, had random angry outbursts, and had a rambly visit with Jack.
She said she was re-evaluating her life after the fender bender, but was there more to it?
My first thought was that Erin had some sort of concussion that nobody was aware she had.
Her spaciness was consistent with a traumatic brain injury, and a lot of what she had to say didn't make sense.
Jack: Something wrong? You got that weighing heavily on my mind but I don't want to say it look.
Erin: You hurt me.
Jack: What?
Erin: You hurt me.
Jack: I don't know what you're talking about.
Erin: You hurt me. I've been denying it to myself.
Jack: Are you having some sort of out of body experience?
Erin: It's the truth.
Jack had no idea what she was talking about when she accosted him in his office, and it was so stream of consciousness that I was sure it was due to a problem with her brain.
That doesn't seem to be the case, at least for now, but this could come up again in a later episode.
The other possibility, of course, is that she was suffering from post-traumatic stress.
It was too soon after the accident for her to have full-blown PTSD, but the way she minimized what happened to her and continually insisted she was fine demonstrated that something was going on.
That would make her rant at the dinner table make sense, too. Maybe she'd been bottling some stuff up for years that came to the surface after the accident.
The question is whether this accident was a one-and-done type of thing or if she will continue to have aftereffects during the rest of Blue Bloods Season 10.
Hopefully, she'll continue to struggle. That would be more realistic and could be a more compelling story than the tiffs with the DA's office and run-ins with Frank that Erin usually gets.
Either way, hopefully, Erin just wants a friendship with Jack. We've gone down this road too many times before and I have no desire to take this journey yet again.
Elsewhere, Frank was at his strongest during this particular battle with Mayor Chase.
Frank: I have seen a drop in crime over the last decade. My polling favorables are better than yours.
Chase: You running for something?
Frank: Just my job. And change may be the only constant but not all change is equal.
Chase: That's some pedestal you put yourself on.
Chase has been a thorn in Frank's side since his inauguration, and I was surprised that Frank enjoys working for him.
But I wasn't surprised that Frank was going to stand his ground as only Frank could to try to get some of the cops he needed out on the street.
As Mayor/Frank conflicts go, this was a good one.
Chase was surprised that Frank didn't fight him once he gave him a small number of cops, while viewers were probably relieved.
Usually, Frank's fights with the mayor go on and on, to the point that Frank vs. the mayor is an irritating Blue Bloods trope.
But not this time. This time, Frank surprised Chase by standing his ground just long enough to get some of what he wanted.
Some of Frank's exchanges with the mayor were funny, too.
I loved Frank comparing himself to the houses his friends had bought that shouldn't be torn down, but Mayor Chase "fact checking" the analogy and Frank's incredulity that he took it literally was hilarious.
Mayor Chase was not prepared for the force that is Frank Reagan when Frank wants something. Frank threw everything he could at him, including his own resignation.
We all knew that Frank wasn't going anywhere, but Chase didn't -- and it worked. Chase backed down, outplayed by Frank, and Frank got some extra cops without having to negotiate endlessly.
That's what I'd call win-win.
I wish Danny had half the diplomacy skills that Frank does, though.
His storylines are often the least entertaining because he's always losing his temper and treating suspects and witnesses in ways that would get him kicked off the force in real life.
Let me tell you something that you're already starting to know. Life is hard, and every bad choice you make makes it harder. The more bad choices you make, the harder it is, and your brother had a stack of bad choices.
Danny
For the most part, his behavior after Charles tagged his car was no better than usual. Poor Baez had to spend most of the hour trying to rein Danny in before he blew the case...or a gasket.
He was rude to the neighbor who liked Charles, too, and it wouldn't have been surprising if her call to him was fake and meant to set him up because of how he treated her.
The only interesting part of any of this was the end. After all that, Danny ended up giving Charles life advice and trying to get him back onto the right path.
That's not something I would have ever guessed would happen, but it was better than Danny considering to explode over his car getting graffitied.
Finally, how cute was Jamie and Eddie's storyline?
Jamko fans now have a mascot! That was a nice touch.
The idea of a dog that knows about random crimes a mile away was silly. Maybe it was a tribute to the Lassie series of the 1950s, but still.
Nevertheless, Jamie and Eddie's lightheaded storyline balanced the heavier stories perfectly.
It was unsurprising that Eddie got attached to the dog and Jamie didn't want it, but that's the kind of domestic Jamko story that makes this couple worth watching.
They have ordinary problems on top of whatever workplace problems they run into. Like the Sunday dinners, Jamie and Eddie's domestic storylines make the series feel more true to life and relatable.
So what did you think, Blue Bloods fanatics?
Hit SHOW COMMENTS and share your thoughts.
Blue Bloods doesn't air another new episode until April 3rd, but if you'd like to see this one again, you can watch Blue Bloods online right here on TV Fanatic.
Blue Bloods continues to air on CBS on Fridays at 10 PM EST/PST.
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.
