‘Blue Bloods’ EP Kevin Wade Explains What That Big Finale Means for Season 9
Spoiler Alert
[The following contains MAJOR spoilers for the Blue Bloods Season 8 finale, “My Aim is True.”]
Well, the Reagan clan sure had some excitement during their last show of this Blue Bloods season!
The Season 8 finale, “My Aim is True,” was full of highly emotional moments: A colleague of Erin’s (Bridget Moynahan) died in her arms from a gunshot wound — farewell, Tamara Tunie! — Danny (Donnie Wahlberg) confessed how much he misses Linda (Amy Carlson) at her grave, and Jamie (Will Estes) and Eddie (Vanessa Ray) finally revealed their love for each other.
Executive producer Kevin Wade gave TV Insider the whys and wherefores for the game-changing episode.
That was a nicely done, emotional way to end the season.
Kevin Wade: Yeah, we were kind of aiming for the heart in a lot of the stories.
Right from the get-go, Danny expresses his vulnerability and loneliness to his late wife. Did you wait for a gorgeous snowy day to finally do that tribute to Linda?
[Laughs] That was the day we got. It wasn’t written to open the show, but once we looked at what we had, we thought, ‘Well this sets the tone and the mood … ‘ It was a happy accident.
Does his admission he misses a companion indicate an openness to start dating again next season?
We’ve talked about it. Part of me thinks that would be an expectation. I would certainly expect that one of the Reagan family members at some point would weigh in and say, ‘Listen, not for nothing but you’ve still got two teenage boys, and they could really use a partner around the house.’ It’s certainly a conflict for him. It’s not easy to be alone. But there’s no immediate plan to introduce a second Mrs. Danny Reagan.
Jamie and Eddie are engaged! It’s about time Eddie had a seat at the Reagan table. Are you going to give your fans a nice big wedding early next season? In the season premiere, maybe?
We’re not rushing to marry them. We’ll come back and start to tell stories of how they go about their jobs or as separated out on the job.
Didn’t you establish that married partners on the force really don’t have to split up? Despite what Frank (Tom Selleck) and Pop (Len Cariou) seem to think.
Right, there’s nothing in the books that says they have to.
Could they still be partners if one becomes a sergeant? Weren’t they talking about taking the test?
We’ll find out in the first episode of Season 9 — if one or both of them took the sergeant’s exam and what the results were.
Another door left open is the future of Erin and her former husband, Jack Boyle (Peter Hermann). That’s what she was going to talk to her friend about before she was shot, wasn’t it?
Right. They sort of drew closer together over the season. That storyline was written by Siobhan Burn O’Connor, who shepherded the ins and outs of that relationship over the years. We’ll feel compelled to explore that in Season 9.
The main police storyline was about a group of wrongfully-convicted teens called the Central Park Six, similar to the real-life Central Park Five case. Was there any pushback about having one of the cleared suspects taking horrible revenge by shooting loved ones of those he believed sent him to prison?
No, not from the network nor the writers. A terrible injustice was done and money should certainly help heal the wounds. But what if there was one guy who had really put ’em off? So it was a real ‘what if.’ I didn’t do any research on the Central Park Five, or what became of them after they won their civil suit. This was just a pure kind of ‘what if.’
The press conference awarding the settlement money to the exonerated men gave Frank (Tom Selleck) on of his most personal and emotional speeches. He felt guilty enough he hadn’t reached out to them because he figured they wouldn’t want to hear from him. Is this a breakthrough for Frank?
That’s a really good question. I think it was an attempt to show him as something he always has said he was, which is not political. And when he doesn’t have the answer he can say, ‘I don’t have the answer. There was nothing I could say to these young men, what could I say?’ So I thought it was a piece of character work where, sometimes to be good at your job, you have to admit that there’s failure built in. It takes a brave and transparent character to be able to admit that. So I thought it was a very good scene for Tom, and a very strong performance by Tom.
Does Tom ever ask for a little more of that type of scene?
No, but he does ask that his stuff be three-dimensional and that he have an emotional part to play in the stories we have for him. I’m always aware of giving him less exposition and more of a character dilemma to play.
Speaking of semi-emotional arcs, are you happy to have Bebe Neuwirth back playing Kelly Peterson, Frank’s sparring partner? Maybe she could be more than that next season?
We are very much hoping to have her back recurring as that character. So we’re meeting the last couple of days talking about stories, and that’s a big part of it. There is a mutual respect there and a little spice of mutual attraction, even though they often work from opposite sides of the table.
It’s nice that, after all these years, you made Det. Baker (Abigail Hawke) part of Frank’s inner circle. She has a seat with his two amigos, Garrett (Gregory Jbara) and Sid (Robert Clohessy).
Abby has stepped up as we’ve given her more over the years and the chemistry between the four of them is terrific. It’s been really nice watch Abby along from just saying, ‘so and so here to see you, Commissioner,’ to having real input.
After the departure of Mayor Dutton — farewell Lorraine Bracco — do you have a new mayor picked out yet?
We may not have one. We’ve played three mayors over the course of the show, and we could have a mayor, but we could find ways around it.
Anything else you can tease about Season 9?
Not really except that I hope that the last two or three episodes of the year tee up some stuff with the audience. We’ve painted ourselves into some corners, and hopefully the audience is eager to see how our characters carry on with their personal and professional lives and the obstacles we’re trying to push their way.
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The writers and actors did an AMAZING job on Jamie and Eddie.
The desperation in the eyes of Eddie after the shooting, that changes to realization and admittance. The vows they share together at the table.
As a retired LEO, many times I wish I could do technical advice because there are a few places that are corny or unrealistic in regards to beat patrol (my whole 15 years I was a beat cop or beat supervisor).
HOWEVER, from the shooting to the end of the episode, there was not one single spot that I even thought for a moment was corny or unrealistic. This July, I celebrate 20 years of marriage with my wife and 22 years of knowing her, and I felt every single bit of the emotion and words put forth by the writers and actors.
Bravo to all of them...from a cop who doesn't start tearing up very often if at all.....
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yeah Finally I've been waiting forever for Jamie and Eddie its about time. Can't wait to go home and watch this
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A good end to another great season. Looking forward to the next season!
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One way in which the writers dropped the ball--or had the Reagans drop the ball: they discounted the idea that the bad guy would target someone from Frank's family. It was mentioned, but dismissed. Dismissed too lightly, imho. Frank should have known better than that. And what's worse, it wasn't even mentioned at the Sunday dinner.
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Isn't that what the attempted hit on Jamie was?
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Yes, the attempt on Jamie was part of the bad guy's plan. And earlier in the episode someone even mentioned to Frank, "Someone in your family might be a target, too." And that led to... nothing. Frank did nothing, and nobody suggested any precautions be taken for his family. That's what I mean by the threat being "dismissed too lightly." And nobody mentioned it at Sunday dinner either-- an attempt on Jamie's life, and it wasn't even brought up.
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Gotcha. I thought you were implying that there was no attempt on the Reagans. I understand what you meant now. Great episode! I love this show so much.
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I thought that also. They should have at least shown something with Erin. Her co-worker was killed instead of her, there was no lasting effect on her. Someone else took the bullet that was meant for her. She did not seam effected.
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She was affected. Remember the scene in her apartment? Also, the bullet was not intended for Erin, but her co-worker to injure her husband who had been the prosecutor on the case when the six were convicted.
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Be more specific. There are a couple of times that the ball was dropped in the series that isn't quite believable. One example is when Linda was left on her own to get in a car to drive to a meeting point to get her and the children to a safe place so that Danny could testify against the crime figure. It was pretty obvious that the mobsters were ahead of the game and were going to kidnap her. Of course the tension that was raised and the stuff Danny had to go through to get Linda back made for pretty good TV. I also thought the writing and plot could have been more realistic when Jamie went under cover as Jimmie to attempt to infiltrate some, 'made" family members. That had failure written all across it from the start. But it also showed some of the threats and tension officers go through to go under cover and accomplished that and all showed the courage that Jamie is made of. Jamie has showed the kind of stuff that should have him moving toward the detective series rather than the Sergeant series. Eddie on the other hand appears to be developing skills that would make her a good Sergeant. She needs more commendations and awards for her police work to get to that point along with more experience. If I were a writer, I would want some obstacles to get in the way of smooth sailing for Jamie and Eddie to keep the tension and thus the series going. I also would like to see Danny get inot some kind of special assignment with the CIA that would put him into an almost impossible situation, as the agencies work together to get some crime higher ups in the drug or terror world. Alex D. retired Prob. Dep., 37 years, L. A.
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Regarding Jamie, don't forget that while he was "under cover," he didn't set out to infiltrate a mob family. That was a total accident. He was originally in the bar to see if they were serving alcohol to minors, but he happened to be there to save the life of the mob-family guy, and that guy (Noble, was that his name?) contacted him afterward, so the powers that be at NYPD decided to roll with it and let Jamie get involved. I never liked that storyline anyway. As for Jamie's future, I'm undecided if he'd make a better detective or training officer. He'd be good at both, but I also think his skills would be wasted, either way. Maybe he and Danny both should get in on a joint assignment with the CIA, or FBI, or whoever (CIA can't really operate on US soil against US citizens, though, so.....). As for Danny, he doesn't really have the temperament to "work well with others" (haha!!) so getting him involved with another agency could be tricky. Might be fun to watch, though. 🙂 But yeah, even Danny's Murder-of-the-Week thing is getting a little stale, might be time to shake things up with something a little different.
So you worked in law enforcement? Then a lot of Blue Bloods should be familiar to you, with regard to policies and standards of behavior. I've written some books inspired by a cop show you might remember (Adam-12), so I kind of pay attention to that stuff, too, especially when it comes to Jamie's role. Danny's gotten to be too much of a cliche.
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This is what I would like to see for Jamie--in episode 6 of season 4(With Friends Like These), he had an encounter with an EDP. Remember Jenny Strong? He found a way to help her but was too late--she had hanged herself the night before. At the end of the episode, he and Frank were talking and he told Frank that every way he turned trying to get help for the girl he ran into a roadblock. He said he would like to see a task force put together to give beat officers more insight into how to deal with emotionally unstable people .Frank told him "Right now, this is like a calling for you so put together a list of people he would like to see on it" and he would help him set it up. I think this is the area where Jamie could really find himself.
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Yes, Frank asked Jamie to make a list of people who could serve on that task force--and IIRC he told Jamie to include his own name, which would mean that Jamie is (presumably) already on that task force. Wouldn't be a full-time thing, though, so maybe we just haven't seen it.
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It has been at least 4 years. I'd think it would at least get a mention.
Another thing I have wondered about is if things that come out on this show ever trigger real life events in the NYPD. Like married couples not being allowed to work together is more a tacit understanding than an actual policy mandate. Has that caused any married couples to push to be allowed to work together?
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The last episode made it seem like it was the end of the Blue Bloods series. Usually, the finally of a show is when the characters are seen to be moving on with their lives. What happens now to that heat that was between Jamie and Eddie that made their relationship interesting? It's a mystery as to why the writers came up with that story line now. Like when Linda, who never was known to fly in an airplane in her nursing career, all of a sudden gets killed when the plane crashes. It was bizarre. I have the feeling something's going on with Blue Bloods. Maybe it will be the end of the series. Tom is getting older and looks like he's in pain in many scenes. Without him, the series will be over.
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Just FYI It was a helicopter not plane
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Thanks for the correction. Doesn't make much of a difference does it? Either way she was unexpectedly killed off and she had never, in the entire series, flew in a helicopter. She then took a job subbing on a soap opera.
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Love the Jamie and Eddie pairing. Now it's time for Frank to find a little love. I was hoping for something with Lorraine Braco, but Bebe Neuwirth is terrific, and there is definitely a spark between them. I love the intellectual sparring between them.
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Let's have another season of Blue Bloods. It's still the best show on television.
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I don't think enough emphasis was put on the fact that Eddie saved Jamie's life and the incredible shot she made to do it. That's why I think season 9 should open with a picture of the emotional embrace between them on the front page of a newspaper with the caption "Her Aim Was True". Then the story could detail everything that led up to the situation. I don't think even the family knows everything that happened.
I've thought from the beginning of the series that Jamie is greatly undervalued not only by the department but the family as well. And I think the problem with the relationship between Jamie and Danny is that Danny is somewhat jealous of and intimidated by Jamie because he knows deep down that Jamie is the better cop. People respond to Jamie because he is always calm and so very patient.
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Can’t wait to see what happens, Danny need someone maybe even his partner 🤞🏻. Happy about Eddie and Jamie it’s about time!!!! I want to know if Nickie Joins the family business 🤞🏻. Erin needs a new love, maybe it will work out with Jack this time. I love my Blue Bloods!!!!!!
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You are right. Because Nickie is so bright, she could easily graduate from Columbia early. She could become and undercover officer or develop some tension in the family by becoming part of IA. At the same time she could go to law school part time. A lot of police officers have done that. Plus a number of guys should attempt to date and then marry her, only to be rebuffed and she doesn't know exactly why. But it is her desire to have a career before family that causes a lot of that. Alex D.
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