Frank Reagan doesn’t believe that cops should receive special treatment when they break the law, but Danny and Sid apparently do.
On Blue Bloods Season 14 Episode 10, they spent most of the hour searching for a rogue cop running around threatening court officers with his gun because he was upset that a perp had been set free.
A tense ending sequence had the cop threaten to shoot himself, only to put his gun down and leave with Danny — then somehow escape while Danny and Sid decided not to bother to search further. What the heck?
The Aidan Quinn Story’s Ending Was Disappointing
Blue Bloods has always been pro-cop, but it’s never been pro-criminal. Frank emphasizes constantly that bad cops make the entire department look bad and need to be weeded out.
Danny said that Vanderlip didn’t want to cross Frank and had better cooperate — so what happened after that?
The ending wasn’t clear. Either Vanderlip escaped, or Danny and Sid decided not to collar him. Neither one made much sense, and the cops’ non-resolution of ignoring their knowledge of Vanderlip’s location was unsatisfying.
Blue Bloods doesn’t usually fall into tired TV tropes about cops protecting each other no matter how horrendous one behaves, but they dropped the ball this time.
Sid had made it clear he didn’t want to collar Vanderlip, but Danny felt differently, or at least knew Frank expected better. So what happened?
It would have helped if the escape or whatever happened on-screen. We went from Danny leading Vanderlip out to Vanderlip having run away, which was confusing.
Did Danny and Sid let him go or not? And why did they decide his running away by plane was a good enough ending?
Frank was distracted by the drama with Henry‘s late friend, but he should have had something to say about this.
Vanderlip Was Not Sympathetic
Vanderlip was supposed to be a cop who had just reached the end of his rope, but he seemed like nothing more than a guy abusing his power.
His interference with Danny arresting the perp could have led to the rapist escaping or hurting someone, and his inability to control his temper caused him to accidentally hit Baez.
Baez didn’t appear for the rest of the hour, so we don’t know how she felt about any of this, which was a shame. She should have been trying to convince Danny not to drop the case just because Sid didn’t want to collar another cop.
Danny and Sid looked like assholes when they were riding the judge hard about “shooting an unarmed man” when the situation occurred due to Vanderlip breaking into her office and attempting to hold her at gunpoint in the first place.
There is no way in hell that Frank Reagan would think that a cop who interfered with an investigation, ran around kidnapping officers of the court and demanding they “confess” to helping the perp get off, and broke into a judge’s office to do the same to her should escape punishment.
He should have had some harsh words for Danny and Sid or, at least, a comment at the Sunday dinner.
Henry Finally Had a Storyline, and It Was a Good One
Frank and Henry’s conflict was interesting. When Henry asked for a simple favor, I knew there would be more to it than he or Frank thought.
This ended up being a sad story. Frank was stuck — he couldn’t ask the fund to compensate O’Rourke’s wife and kids when O’Rourke was not at Ground Zero, and his years of volunteer service for cops who were there didn’t entitle his family to benefits.
I wondered if he could have somehow contracted his disease from spending so much time around people who were directly exposed to toxins and other agents contributing to cancer during 9/11.
I don’t know if that’s even medically possible, but I would guess not since nobody brought the possibility up.
Frank could have broken the news to Henry in a gentler way. Instead of being so positive that O’Rourke had never been at Ground Zero, he could have presented it as there being no records that he was, and therefore, he couldn’t help with the claim.
Henry might have been angry anyway, but at least then Frank wouldn’t have come across as a grumpy curmudgeon who wanted to stop Henry’s friend from accessing the fund.
Henry had mentioned that the fund was backed up because people kept making false claims, so Frank could have used that as a selling point when explaining why he couldn’t help.
I was surprised that Henry didn’t say that it wasn’t fair that a good guy who did help in a different way couldn’t get the money when other people were making fraudulent claims who hadn’t done nearly as much.
As Frank said, Henry’s a contract guy, so Henry might have felt that if the bad guys are cheating, it would even the score if a good guy like O’Rourke got some money even though he was only tangentially related to the 9/11 rescue effort.
Jamie and Eddie are Still The Cutest Couple
Jamie and Eddie have not had many memorable Jamko moments since marriage. The couple generally works different jobs, with one often coming home as the other is leaving, and are rarely together for long enough to discuss anything meaningful.
That’s why McNichols insisting they work together was the best anniversary present anyone could give them even if they didn’t think so.
Eddie: Any point in us pushing back?
McNichols: Have you met me?
It was weird that Jamie was suddenly working for McNichols again. What happened to his newly promoted Field Intelligence Officer job?
It was also strange that no city agency had responded to numerous complaints about this sober living facility. The director was letting residents use on the premises, violating their lease and agreements and of the law.
It wasn’t exactly subtle. There seemed to be two cops on the take who were doing nothing about the problems, but what was wrong with the rest of the city? Still, it was fun for Jamie and Eddie to work together for once — though Jamie did most of the work.
I didn’t fully understand how filming themselves dancing was supposed to expose the crooked cops, though we got a cute scene out of it, so I can’t complain.
It was unconscionable that those cops were going to let River die while they dragged their feet about getting her Narcan. Thank goodness she was still alive when the EMTs wheeled her out!
Stray Thoughts
- This episode was enjoyable but didn’t feel like a season or midseason finale, whichever one CBS is billing it as.
- Donnie Wahlberg thanking the fans and encouraging us to tune in for the final eight episodes in the fall was a nice touch.
- Jamie and Eddie’s vow renewal was an adorable way to end the season, but I wish the family dinners were longer instead of tacked onto the end.
Your turn, Blue Bloods fanatics! Hit the big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know what you thought of this episode.
Blue Bloods has been canceled but has eight episodes left to air. The final episodes will air on CBS on Fridays at 10/9c in the fall of 2024.
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.