‘Blue Bloods’ Explores the Meaning of Family & Gifts in 200th Episode (RECAP)

Meredith Jacobs September 27, 2019, 11:00 pm

Blue Bloods

The Real Deal

Season 10 • Episode 1

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the Season 10 premiere of Blue Bloods, “The Real Deal.”]

It’s (mostly) business as usual for the Reagan family as Blue Bloods reaches a major milestone in its Season 10 premiere. There are a couple key returning characters, one of whom joins the family for Sunday dinner while the other nearly loses her life to help a grieving father.

Elsewhere, Erin (Bridget Moynahan) has it the hardest as she struggles to find a way to put an abuser behind bars and protect a victim who doesn’t want to come forward. Jamie (Will Estes) and Eddie (Vanessa Ray) get a taste of married life as cops and Reagans when they go apartment hunting and figure out their futures on the job.

But the best part may be that the family dinner comes with a makeshift gavel to call everyone to order during one of their usual debates.

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Welcome to a Reagan Family Dinner, Lenny

Frank (Tom Selleck) learns his ex-partner has a daughter when she’s picked up on narcotics and weapons possession and uses his courtesy card. According to Lenny (Treat Williams), she’s a good kid who made a bad choice to hold stuff for a friend. The paperwork is legit, the DNA is a match, and she knows information she could have only gotten from her mother, a waitress he remembers.

Lenny took her in and gave her a job, and yes, she did steal money from him. Why didn’t he tell Frank about her? Lenny thought it would come across as another screw-up, especially considering Frank raised four kids from the day they were born in his image, with his values. Lenny got his fully-formed.

(John Paul Filo/CBS)

Or … not? When Frank visits Carrie (Gus Birney), she admits she’s not Lenny’s daughter. Her half-sister is, and she took her DNA (and advantage of the former cop). “You think I’m trouble? I’m nothing compared to her,” she warns. “She’s damaged goods. Hell on wheels. You could even say I did you all a favor.”

Speaking of doing someone a favor, Frank and Henry (Len Cariou) plan to do that for Lenny. At first, Frank wonders if he should give Carrie a second chance and the opportunity to have Lenny have her back, but his father points out he does have a daughter. And since Lenny thinks Frank has a model family, Henry suggests he invite him to dinner and they press a few hot buttons, get Danny (Donnie Wahlberg) and Erin riled up.

That’s easy. All it takes is Henry kicking it off by comparing fishermen taking one claw from a crab (their meal) to cops operating with one hand tied behind their backs because of lawyers. Danny adds in his two cents about body cams, and Erin goes from there. Jamie puts an end to the argument by banging his hammer on the table. He knows this is all for Lenny’s benefit, that Frank wanted him to see a family squabble. Lenny thanks his old partner.

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All that’s left for Frank to do is tell him the truth and send him in to meet his real daughter. (She is behind bars, for grand larceny).

Is Maggie’s Gift Her Curse?

Maggie (Callie Thorne) brings Danny and Baez (Marisa Ramirez) to meet Adam, a grieving father whose daughter was found murdered soon after she disappeared a year ago. The medium knows the detective on the case is looking in the wrong places. Though Danny initially says he’ll just go through the motions, they get a DNA match to two other cases. They’re looking for someone who has killed three girls.

Though Maggie offers up a couple clues — she saw an art studio, and the victim was killed near a body of water — Baez doesn’t put much faith in her “gift.” Danny doesn’t need her disrupting his life anymore (getting him to take his ring off, asking for help on cases), she says, but Maggie insists she just wants to help a father find peace and catch a killer. After her daughter was murdered in college, it took her years to learn to live again, and she’s done that by giving back to others.

(John Paul Filo/CBS)

The police discover the same artist messaged all three victims — and has another girl in his sights, planning to meet her that afternoon. But when Danny and Baez find the girl at the part, she tells them a woman matching Maggie’s description said her life was in danger and to run. Video of the man abducting Maggie leads them to a moving company and one of its drivers.

When they arrive at his place, he refuses to reveal where Maggie is and instead sets himself and his car on fire. Danny gets Maggie out of the trunk just in time. Later at the hospital, he apologizes for giving her a hard time, but she’s used to her gift (or curse) alienating people.

Erin Doesn’t Back Down

Following an attack, the victim, Olivia, claims not to know anything about the person responsible. But her boyfriend, John, looks mighty guilty, especially considering his bruised knuckles and the video showing her being thrown out of a car matching the description of his.

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With Sandra, a “a high priced defense attorney for guilty people with big pockets,” as his lawyer, Erin doesn’t have an easy job proving he did it. Olivia agrees to testify, but once she’s on the stand, Sandra lists everything John pays for (including an expensive apartment) and Olivia claims he never hit her. She says Erin pressured her into saying he did.

When Erin later goes to talk to Olivia at home, she finds her holding a knife on John. Erin pulls her gun, but John manages to grab the knife and stab Olivia. (She’ll be fine after surgery.) Erin shoots him in the arm, and Anthony (Steven Schirripa) arrives on scene to arrest him.

The Realities of Being a Reagan

Jamie and Eddie are ready to look for an apartment, but first they need to find out which precinct (or precincts) they’ll be working out of. (It’s customary, but not a rule, to separate married officers.) Their CO gives Eddie a choice: the midnight shift or another precinct. He also gives them the card of a real estate agent who respects the job.

(John Paul Filo/CBS)

And while she shows them a gorgeous place, Jamie knows it’s cheap because their last name makes anywhere they rent one of the safest buildings and blocks in the city. Though Eddie wishes he wouldn’t look the gift horse in the mouth, he wonders if it may have been a test from Captain Espinoza or a way to have a drop on the son and daughter-in-law of the commissioner.

In the end, Eddie moves to nights, and the couple tells their CO they’re not comfortable being given a discount on an apartment due to their last name. He had a feeling and offers them the lease he holds on his mother’s old apartment. They take it, and it’s the perfect new home for Jamie Reagan and Eddie Reagan (at home — on the job, she’s still Officer Janko). Their new super takes a photo of him carrying her across the threshold.

Welcome back, Reagans. What did you think of the 200th episode?