Blue Bloods Season 10 Episode 17 Review: The Puzzle Palace
Jack Ori
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The rank-and-file might not realize it, but Frank is the perfect boss.
On Blue Bloods Season 10 Episode 17, the rank-and-file was disgruntled after Frank suspended an officer for using excessive force
Frank could have told him where they could go with that complaint, but instead, he looked into what he could be doing better and then approached them to talk. What else could the union have asked for?
On the surface, it seemed like the union's complaint was spurious.
The officer beat up a civilian during a stop whose legitimacy was questionable in the first place, and it was ridiculous to think he would be reinstated and not be made to suffer any consequences for that.
Frank: There's a cancer in my department? What's the offer?
Johnny: Reinstate him.
Frank: In exchange for what?
Johnny: The respect of the rank-and-file.
One way to look at it was that the union had the attitude that cops can do no wrong. But as this story did such a great job of demonstrating, such conflicts are rarely what they appear to be.
In this case, the real issue stemmed from several problems within the chain of command. The rank-and-file felt that they were getting punished for following their CO's orders, while the COs were apparently giving orders in anger after being treated harshly at meetings.
Frank wondered what he could do better, got input from Danny and Jamie, and approached the union, which were all solid steps to take to resolve the problem. But he also could have done more about Sid's contribution to this problem than he did.
He and Sid had one conversation about the way Sid treated Captain Sims before moving on to Frank's concerns about being too far removed from the boots on the ground to be an effective leader.
During that conversation, Sid insisted he needed to be hard on the COs and that any CO worth his salt should be able to withstand a dressing down or two.
That's all well and good, but if that was part of why the union was disgruntled, Frank should have done more about it. He could have observed some of Sid's meetings or videotaped them so he could go over alternate strategies for getting results with Sid.
That would have demonstrated that he was serious about making sure administrators and commanding officers were held accountable for their actions, which was the union's chief complaint.
Hopefully, though, what Frank did do helped cut through Lyons' skepticism.
Limes: You can't change the system. You are the system.
Frank: So? Change can't come from within?
Lyons saw Frank as the enemy because he was, in essence, a manager, and that's a shame. Frank is one of those rare people who wants to be the best boss possible and to be fair to the cops under him.
Also, it wasn't clear what Lyons thought should happen instead. He can say all he wants that you can't fight the system if you're part of that system, but getting rid of the hierarchy altogether and letting rank-and-file cops make all the decisions just wasn't a realistic option.
An argument could be made for the rank-and-file having more input into administrative decisions, but you have to start somewhere, and that's with working things out, not wishing that the cops in charge's positions magically ceased to exist.
Frank's proposals gave the cops what they wanted, but more importantly, he listened to them even if he couldn't give them everything they hoped for. A cop like Lyons might have been disappointed that in the end, a strike was averted, but that was a victory.
The union resolved the problem without needing a strike. Everything worked the way it's supposed to. That's a good thing.
Carson: He had a lethal cocktail of drugs in his system which led to the fall down the stairs.
Danny: Convenient.
Carson: Not for him. He's dead.
The other cases were all fairly interesting, though Danny's case was pretty run-of-the-mill.
The compelling thing about this case was his potential relationship with Meghan.
After Danny helped protect her from Wilkes, she seemed interested in him, but he blew it by immediately criticizing her for having got involved with gangsters in the first place.
That's Danny. He wouldn't be himself if he did this any other way.
But the question is whether he's blown it forever, and whether viewers want him and Meghan to get another chance.
Since Linda's death, Danny's had several almost-relationships that never felt right, most notably with that psychic.
It remains to be seen whether this one will be any different. Meghan and Danny played well off each other, but could he really be with someone who broke a ton of laws out of fear?
Jamie and Eddie's case was sweet in a way.
Jamie was right that Mrs. Riley had dementia, but it was surprising that her ex-husband had actually been in her house and stolen her jewelry.
That seemed like a figment of her imagination, especially since she denied having been divorced for seven years.
Both Mr. Riley and Eddie said Mrs. Riley wasn't the nicest person, but there wasn't much evidence of that. Like any dementia sufferers, she had angry outbursts sometimes, but her basic personality wasn't terrible.
As for Erin and Anthony's case, this doesn't bode well.
Now that Hassett bought himself an early release, he's free to stalk Erin if he wants, and it looks like that may be what happens.
He was already hitting on her, and her response that she'd be watching him so she could swoop in the second he broke the law probably turned him on more than scared him.
I hope I'm wrong about this, but I got definite stalker vibes from their last exchange, and this could go in a decidedly creepy direction.
Your turn, Blue Bloods fanatics.
Hit the SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know what you thought about Blue Bloods Season 10 Episode 17.
And if you can't wait for the next episode to air, make sure you 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.
