Blue Bloods Season 12 Episode 6 Review: Be Smart or Be Dead

Okay, what was wrong with that judge?

It was bad enough that Leticia Harris' defense was that Erin's opening the case was politically motivated.

But on Blue Bloods Season 12 Episode 6, the judge kept overruling Erin's objections even when it seemed like there was no legitimate purpose to Leticia's questions.

Erin thought she lost the case because Kimberly purposely admitted to having lied in the past and made herself seem untrustworthy.

But the judge was also partially to blame. Harris spent each cross-examination opining about how Erin only opened the case so that she could steal Kimberly's job, sometimes testifying herself before asking a question, and the judge overruled every one of Erin's objections.

Even without the judge's obvious bias, Erin should have won that case. Harris' defense looked like that of a desperate woman.

She never once denied that her mother pulled the trigger — her whole argument was that even if Sandra was guilty, it didn't matter because Erin had a political reason for prosecuting her.

The jury should have seen through that. Whether or not Erin opened the case to benefit herself, if Sandra was guilty, she was guilty, and Leticia didn't do much to clear her mother's name.

Kimberly's insistence that Leticia was right didn't do her any favors, either. It made it seem like she cared more about stopping Erin from running against her than bringing a murderer to justice.

Erin: Why did you wait so long before coming forward?

Kimberly: I already told you.

Erin: Leticia Harris is going to try to poke holes in your story.

Kimberly: I can’t change how long I waited. Now is there anything else you want to talk to me about?

Erin: What is that supposed to mean?

Kimberly: I want to go home. I’m tired. I’m in the news every day.

Erin: I’m sorry. That wasn’t my intention.

Kimberly: Yeah. You had nothing but good intentions. And in the Reagan playbook that makes everything okay.

_{🔗 permalink: Yeah. You had nothing but good intentions. And in the Reagan playbook that makes everything…}

She was reluctant to testify in the case, but that didn't justify her bitterness or her anti-Reagan stand. It just made me root for Erin to displace her for once and for all.

Meanwhile, Danny ended up the victim of a convoluted murder plot.

Elana had to kill Danny to get out of the gang, while the gang leader seemed to have made the order so he'd have an excuse to kill Elana. And in the meantime, the cops were sloppy about faking Danny's death.

The perp was right: the murder of the commissioner's son would be big news. Forget tomorrow's newspapers — it should have been all over social media.

I can't believe the cops never thought of that before setting up this sting.

I expected better than this disappointing plot. Danny and Jamie butting heads while Jamie protected Danny sounded promising, but that was a tiny aspect of the hour.

Elana quickly agreed to participate in the sting, got herself into trouble, and got rescued. Danny's annoyance with Jamie was a minor part of this plot at best.

And Danny shouldn't have been part of the task force who was trying to arrest the perp, either. He was the target, and he was supposed to be dead.

On TV, cops get involved with cases they have no business being involved with, but still. This one wasn't believable.

Were the tunnels the perp escaped through the same ones that Stabler chased two mob bosses through on Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 2 Episode 8? Or is New York City full of random underground passages that only the bad guys know about?

Eddie's case was more compelling, especially after discovering that Henry was the anonymous Good Samaritan.

Henry: Eddie. I was arresting people before you were born. I’m too old and too experienced for you or anyone else to tell me what to do.

_{🔗 permalink: Eddie. I was arresting people before you were born. I’m too old and too experienced for you…}

The only reason she didn't tell anyone was family loyalty. She made it clear that she thought Henry was too old to be doing things like this and probably would have told Frank if she didn't know it would ruin Sunday dinners forever.

She should have known that Frank was already aware of what Henry had been up to, though. Not much gets past Frank, especially not where his family is concerned.

After he was exposed as the Good Samaritan, Henry's reaction had to be one of the most heartbreaking pieces of dialogue in Blue Bloods' history.

Henry: I felt like a cop again. It felt good to be relevant for a few minutes.

Frank: More like irreplacable.

_{🔗 permalink: More like irreplacable.}

Henry's role is so often to be the Sunday dinner patriarch who doles out hard-earned wisdom from his seat at the head of the table.

It's easy to forget that Henry was once more than that and even easier to assume that he doesn't want something more at this stage of his life.

But once in a while, he expresses a desire to be purposeful again, and this was one of those times.

Thank goodness for Frank's near-perfect answer to Henry's feeling that he is no longer relevant.

The Henry drama made up for Eddie having to deal with yet another annoying partner, too.

Ever since Eddie married Jamie and therefore couldn't work with him anymore, she's had the worst luck with partners. Either they're total Reagan haters, or they end up leaving the force.

And this guy was incredibly obnoxious. He refused to call Eddie by her professional name, slipped in references to her status as a Reagan every chance he got, and insinuated that her desire to know who the Good Samaritan was stemmed from the desire to get a fellow cop in trouble.

God forbid a cop does something wrong while he's around. He won't like Eddie's response to that either.

It wasn't surprising that this particular idiot is hoping to manipulate Eddie into asking for a different partner. But despite that, would it be such a tragedy if she did?

The last thing Eddie needs during a crisis is a partner who continually undermines her and can't be trusted to have her back.

Finally, Joe got a taste of not being treated like a Reagan and realized he didn't like it.

Hallelujah. He's been fighting his family connection since he learned about it. It was getting old and he was headed down a bad path, anyway.

He claimed he wouldn't engage in street justice, but what the hell else could taking matters into his own hands mean?

Frank doesn't play around with stuff like that, and Joe needed to learn that sooner rather than later. He also needed to realize that being related to the Reagans wasn't so terrible.

I loved Anthony's conversation with him. It helped Joe put things in perspective, and Anthony was in the best position to do it since he's also an outsider.

Your turn, Blue Bloods fanatics. Hit that big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know your thoughts about the episode!

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Blue Bloods airs on CBS on Fridays at 10 PM EST/PST.