Blue Bloods Season 9 Episode 1 Review: Playing with Fire
Christine Orlando
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Jamie and Eddie's desire to remain partners caused a rift within the Reagan family that barely lasted the length of Blue Bloods Season 9 Episode 1 and that was a let down.
Jamie and Eddie's surprise engagement was one of the highlights of Blue Bloods Season 8.
It opened up new avenues for these characters both personally and professionally and added a unique new twist to ramp up the drama by questioning whether romantic partners could or should be professional ones.
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Finding out that there was no written rule to keep this from happening was something no one saw coming, not this reviewer and certainly not Police Commissioner Reagan.
So why did the writers decide to resolve such an interesting plot point in the very first episode of Blue Bloods season 9, especially when it led to so many uncommon conversations?
Frank: There is no way, no way, you are saying couples riding together is a good idea.
Abigail: There’s a lot of valid reasoning in forbidding it.
Frank: Thank you.
Abigail: But maybe to Jamie’s side, there’s also no data or evidence, much less an actual rule. It’s just a tradition.
Frank: Some traditions are born of common sense.
Abigail: Yes, like Catholic priests being forbidden to marry because common sense tells us you couldn’t possibly tend the flock unless your personal life was utterly devoid of the comfort of human touch and companionship.
Frank: Not the same thing, Abigail.
Abigail: No, it’s not the same thing but it’s not that distant a cousin either.
I loved how Abigail could see both sides to this argument because I could as well. Should something be done simply because it's always been done that way?
Frank reacted emotionally instead of logically and he wasn't even trying to hide it, or perhaps he didn't even realize it.
Henry was correct when he pointed out that Frank's first reaction to the engagement was negative. He couldn't even let the happy couple sit through a celebratory family dinner before bringing up that they needed to end their work partnership.
And Frank bringing up Jamie and Eddie's fictional orphaned children seemed to be a particularly low blow in this Blue Bloods quote...
So I look the other way. You get married. The two of you get taken out in the same action. What do you want me to do with your kids?
Frank
Poor Eddie was caught in the middle of all this. She wanted to remain partners with Jamie but she also didn't want to be the cause of all of this turmoil within her new family. When she tried to make a sacrifice or find a compromise, Jamie accused her of caving in to his family and that wasn't fair.
On the upside, I loved how Jack, Shawn, and Nicky kept giving Eddie pointers about their Sunday family dinners. They've never had a newbie at the table and it was fun to hear their perspective on their relatives' idiosyncracies.
I was disappointed on two fronts with this story.
First that the show didn't spend at least a couple of episodes illustrating how this particular situation could be both an advantage and a hindrance on the job.
Second, that they wrapped it up by having Jamie become a Sergeant.
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Jamie swore up and down that not only didn't he want the position, but he also didn't even want to take the exam so that he wouldn't continually be asked about it. So now we're supposed to believe that he took it without his father finding out.
Although it's no surprise that Jamie would be the top of his class, I was hoping to see Eddie move up as Sergeant and I feel a little badly that her new fiance stole her thunder.
Moving on...once again, Danny Reagan proved that he can't be trusted to follow the rule of law.
I get that Danny had an emotional stake in this case and that the DEA suspected Delgado of torching his house. Of course, he'd want to find the man and arrest him.
But when Danny wants something, things like warrants and probable cause just fly out the window.
Baez told Danny they had to do everything by the book it was absolutely laughable because they had just illegally broken into the man's house to search it and arrested him without cause.
Danny did nothing to build a case against Delgado and gave his attorney every reason to have the case dismissed even if it ever did get to trial.
But there wasn't a trial, not even close. Danny set Delgado up to be murdered by the cartel.
I'm not going to shed a tear over Delgado. Erin's boss wasn't far off when he quipped about it being a "public service homicide," although I would have compared it to the old adage, "live by the sword, die by the sword."
The problem was that Danny never even really tried to do this right. It was vigilante justice from beginning to end and the fact that Baez sat back and followed along had me thinking less of her too.
Once again, Danny was furious with Erin.
Why is it that the Reagan sons are always so concerned about even the appearance of asking their father, the police commissioner, for anything but demand Erin's help regularly and then are angry if she can't deliver?
Keeping a balance between her NYPD family and the rules of her job is a constant source of stress for Erin and unsurprisingly, her boss recognized that. I give him credit for being direct about that concern.
Erin's first order of business as Bureau Chief was to promote Anthony to be her lead investigator. These two are one of the most singular and entertaining teams on TV. They are so different in so many ways yet they both take their jobs seriously, believe in the law and have unending respect for one another.
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So you tell me TV Fanatics, did the wrap up they drama over Eddie and Jamie continuing to be partners too quickly or are you content that the story is moving on?
Was Frank's reaction over the top or spot on?
And am I being too hard on Danny?
Let me know what you think and check back next week for my review of Blue Bloods Season 9 Episode 2.
Until then you can enjoy many more Reagan family dinners if you watch Blue Bloods online here at TV Fanatic.
C. Orlando was a TV Fanatic Staff Writer. Follow her on Twitter.
