Well, that was a different side to Erin’s personality!
Throughout most of Blue Bloods Season 12 Episode 14, she was on her usual high horse about doing things by the book and not accepting evidence unless she had proof everything was above board.
But in the last two minutes of the hour, she decided to take Joe bowling, and she seemed to become a completely different person. She was… fun! Who knew she was capable of that?
For a while, it seems like Erin’s only line in each episode has been endless variations of, “We have to do this by the book.”
Unsurprisingly, she wants to do things the right way. She is Frank’s daughter, after all.
But somehow, when Frank insists on playing by the rules, it comes off as having a strong moral compass. When Erin does it, she seems arrogant and annoying.
There’s some holier-than-thou attitude that often emanates from her and makes me tempted to change the channel, and her reactions to Joe’s evidence were no exception.
To give Erin the benefit of the doubt, she often has to put her foot down when her brothers, especially Danny, push for warrants that aren’t entirely supported by evidence or ask her to look the other way on a dubious search or interrogation tactic.
So she’s probably conditioned to expect unreasonable requests from anyone connected to the Reagan family. At this point, she may be tired of explaining over and over that justice isn’t served by her ignoring the law.
Still, though, Joe didn’t come to her with an agenda. He wasn’t even on a case when he overheard Deanna talking on the phone. He was trying to enjoy the end of their latest hookup when suddenly he heard her engaging in unethical behavior.
And when he came to Anthony, he was trying to right that wrong without getting his hookup partner in trouble. Then Erin had to come along and look down her nose at him for reporting possibly privileged info.
Ugh! Be grateful he reported anything at all instead of so obnoxious about it. It felt almost as if Erin was hoping that Joe had obtained the information incorrectly so that she could boast about not being able to use it.
And that kept happening throughout the hour, too. Over and over and over.
Even when Deanna was missing, it took both Joe and Anthony pointing out that there were exigent circumstances before Erin would consider checking out her last known address without a search warrant!
I get that Erin wants to be by-the-book, but come on! When a woman is MIA and is known to be associated with a mobster-like criminal, her safety should take precedence.
Joe’s behavior this time was much better than last time, too.
When he last popped up, he was breaking laws left and right to try to secure a conviction, which earned him Jamie’s wrath.
This time, he tried to do the right thing, only to get berated by Erin for no apparent reason.
She redeemed herself with that whole bowling/missing Joe Sr sequence, but her behavior was tedious to sit through until then.
Frank’s ethical dilemma was far more compelling.
He often does things by the book and is uncomfortable with bending the rules, but he was stuck between a rock and a hard place this time around.
Sid: He’s a great cop, on duty and off.
Frank: What does that mean?
Sid: He’s coached the police hoops team to the finals three years in a row.
Frank: I wish that weighed in.
Sid: It has to weigh in. Look how many kids he helped stay on the straight and narrow.
Frank: That doesn’t change the fact that his own son is on the winded and crooked.
Moretti might have been one of his best cops, but he was still putting himself and everyone else in danger by letting his gang-associated son live with him.
Frank didn’t want to lose Moretti, but what good was it to hold onto him if he could possibly put other cops in danger?
Frank: We’ve lost too many good cops. So I try to shift my weight a little. But how many times can I bend the rules before the costs outweigh the benefits?
Sid: I think you got room.
Frank: I don’t. This whole past year I’ve become too much of a soft touch.
Sid: I must have missed the soft touch days. Can I say something?
Frank: You may not. Wisdom given to make someone feel better about themselves is not wisdom. It’s blowing smoke.
Sid: Sir, no one ever lay on their deathbed saying they wished they were more of a hardass.
Frank and Sid’s conversation about this was a high point of the hour, but Tony Danza’s performance really made the show.
Moretti was a devoted father, or at least was trying to be. He blamed himself for his son’s problems and wanted to make it up to him by giving him a safe place.
Frank’s solution seemed heartless to him. He couldn’t imagine throwing his drug-addicted son out of the house.
But Frank was right. Vincent had already caused the gang to shoot up the house once. If he continued to live at home, there was no telling what tragedy might befall them.
It was odd that the family seemed so calm after the shooting. It was almost as if they were used to it. It happened and was over.
I can understand Moretti reacting like that. He’s a cop and has to be able to deal with getting shot at without falling apart. But it should have been a bigger deal for his wife and children.
Of course, if Vincent has been in trouble a while, the family might have expected something like this. Still, though, getting shot at is a scary experience, especially if it’s never happened before, and you’d think the people involved would have some reaction.
Finally, both Eddie and Baez stood up for their right to be taken just as seriously as the guys in different ways.
Danny: How many times have you told me not to steamroll other detectives, poach their cases? That sounds like what you’re doing now.
Baez: Yeah, but you always do it anyway because you’re following your gut. So maybe it’s time we follow my gut.
I loved how Baez pointed out that Danny always follows his gut, so they should follow hers this time.
She’s been pointing out these double standards a lot and refusing to accept them. Good for her!
As for Eddie, that assignment was rough, but it wasn’t entirely her fault things went south.
How was she supposed to predict that someone she knew would be at that bar and would blow her cover in front of the suspect she was trying to lure into a trap?
Katie was right that once Eddie had been made, it was dangerous for her to remain undercover. But that decision could have been made with a little less of a punitive attitude.
Of course, that wasn’t the real story. The important point here was that Eddie would rather be a detective than a sergeant. She proved to everyone’s satisfaction that she was intelligent and capable enough to be a sergeant, then walked away from it.
I’m glad the Reagans understood and were supportive. The last thing we needed was Jamie or Eddie yelling at everyone about whose life this was.
As for Danny and Baez, the case seemed to be secondary to Baez’s need to get justice for the woman she idolized. I found the resolution of this one hard to follow.
Hank killed Mimi for a reason I’m not sure of, but the cops knew he had an accomplice, so they were keeping an eye on Bill and made sure he knew it. I’m not sure what the point of any of it was, but it got us some more Baez time, so I’ll go with it.
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Blue Bloods airs 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 Twitter.