‘Blue Bloods’ Season 13 Finale: Danny & Jackie’s Reunion Gets Violent & Erin Makes Announcement (RECAP)
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the Blue Bloods Season 13 finale “Forgive Us Our Trespasses.”]
It’s a full Reagan family dinner table at the end of the Blue Bloods Season 13 finale, though plans do change from what originally brings Nicky (Sami Gayle) and Jack Reagan (Tony Terraciano) back. Still, Frank (Tom Selleck) makes it known (twice!) how much he loves having everyone there.
See, the two were in town for what they thought would be Erin’s (Bridget Moynahan) announcement that she was officially running for Manhattan DA. However, after finding out that an offender who was supposed to be in a program following the assault of a woman attacked again and getting hounded by the press, it quickly becomes clear that what she wanted isn’t what she wants. After the election, she’ll be too busy wining and dining, giving speeches at press conferences, and lobbying politicians to deal with victims, Anthony (Steven Schirripa) points out. That’s what she wants, right?
Well, to her surprise, after the perp is indicted, she has a support group waiting for her (which she’d earlier noted she doesn’t have, unlike her brothers with the NYPD): Jamie (Will Estes), Eddie (Vanessa Ray), Anthony, and Jack (Peter Hermann). But when they try to guide her away from the press, she instead walks right over to them. “Recent events have clarified a few things for me, so I want to address the question of when I will be announcing officially my run for Manhattan District Attorney, and the answer to that is not this time around,” Erin says. “I believe I am where I need to be and where I will do the most good. Right now, it’s simple as that.” She doesn’t take any questions and instead walks off with Jack.
Meanwhile, Danny (Donnie Wahlberg) reunites with his former partner, Jackie (Jennifer Esposito), now chief in Suffolk County, when they both have victims matching the same MO: that of Dr. Leonard Walker (Mather Zickel). Danny tries to take the case, but, “no, no, no, I don’t think so,” Jackie tells him. “You’re the best detective I’ve ever worked with, but this guy’s not the only one who wants a little vengeance, so we’ll work it together.”
Walker should be locked up, but it turns out he was recently released because there just wasn’t enough evidence. When Danny talks to him, Walker offers his expertise and suggests that he’s looking for a team. He even gives a first name: Jeremy. But as his doctor explains, that’s Walker’s alternate identity; he suffers from dissociative identity disorder.
Danny stakes out Walker’s house, with Jackie joining him. Both take cases personal, but she’s mellowed, she explains, after spending time with people who care if someone’s pool is five feet from the fence. Maybe he should try it. Maybe after they get this guy, he says … only then another victim is found, and Walker’s phone pinged half a mile away. Walker also left a message for Danny at the station: He saw him outside his house and wanted to wish him goodnight.
The previously unidentified lock of hair comes back as Miriam Walker’s, Leonard’s mother; she went missing seven years ago, and he’d been living with her at the time. He probably killed her. People took hair as a sign of affection or to preserve someone’s memory in Victorian times, Danny notes to Walker when he comes in. Which was it for him? Walker knows what he’s doing and tells him they’re not that different. Danny sees himself as an avenger, right? The detective asks to speak with Jeremy, but Walker refuses and instead leaves.
But then they find a house that his mom had under her maiden name — and her body in the wall of the garage. It’s only after Jackie has left that scene that Danny and Baez (Marisa Ramirez) learn that Walker posed as an electric company worker to get into his victims’ homes — and the power goes out at Jackie’s. Walker attacks, and by the time Danny and Baez get there, he’s gone. Fortunately, Jackie’s still alive.
It felt like old times working together, Danny notes. “Brought back everything I hate about the job,” Jackie says, “but everything I love about working with you.” He agrees, but can’t quite believe she doesn’t miss any of it. She misses him, yes, she allows, but “I found my happy place … and I think you should, too.” He assures her, “I have,” and she says she can tell. After a hug goodbye, he joins Baez in the car, and she checks he’s OK. “Yeah, I’m right where I want to be,” he says, and they smile at each other.
Also in the finale, Frank and Mayor Chase (Dylan Walsh) once again find themselves disagreeing, this time about a joint effort with the NYPD the latter announces on a radio show. Mission Open Arms will remove homeless and emotionally disturbed people from the streets and put them into shelters, with officers “strategically and humanely” talking them into handcuffs. Frank calls it Mission Impossible in a press conference.
After a car ride takes Chase to the exact intersection where he needs to see just how well his plan would go (not well at all), he blames Frank for orchestrating it. The commission didn’t, but he does know which cops did and refuses to give Chase their names. And so Chase gives Frank an ultimatum: join him at the podium for the dedication of a new intake facility for the homeless and mentally challenged and sing his praises, or he’ll figure out who those cops are and give their names to the press.
Frank does attend the dedication ceremony, but Archbishop Kearns (Stacy Keach) is by his side — thanks to a visit from Garrett (Gregory Jbara), ostensibly on vacation after disagreeing with Frank earlier. (“Real leaders have a compass, and yours directed you there,” Frank tells him.) If you blackmail, is it a sin? Frank asks. Kearns isn’t sure. If it is and you defy blackmail, is that a virtue? Again, he doesn’t know. And then when the time comes from Frank to step forward and speak, Kearns does, thanking him for offering up his time to bless the partnership.
After, Archbishop Kearns makes sure both Frank and Chase listen to him. “A person walks down the block and the crowds part and the men tip their hats and the women curtsy and a stranger in this town asks, ‘Who Is that person?’” he says. We love Frank’s interjection: “What town are we in?” The answer always is, h’s the mayor and he deserves your respect. And as Kearns points out to Mayor Chase (who has been in office for three a half years), Frank has been rising through the ranks of the NYPD since he was 22, is as best as they come, and deserves his respect. They need to start leading together. He makes them shake hands.
With that, another season of Blue Bloods is over, and we can’t help but wonder how worried we should be about Walker still being out there.
Blue Bloods, Season 14, TBA, CBS