They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
That was never more obvious than on Blue Bloods Season 12 Episode 5, where both Danny and Anthony’s efforts to help someone led to more trouble.
Meanwhile, Jamie’s mistrust of Eddie’s father also led to a dangerous situation, suggesting that sometimes there are no winners.
It’s hard to blame Jamie for being distrustful.
Eddie’s father has screwed her over more times than he can count, and as Jamie pointed out, Eddie always ends up upset when her dad is around.
Her initial reaction to hearing her father’s name was to tell the other cop HELL NO to speaking with him, after all.
And on top of that, there was another problem.
Eddie impulsively invited her father to stay without consulting Jamie first. While married couples shouldn’t have to get permission for every little thing, partners shouldn’t make significant decisions like this unilaterally.
Of course, she asked on the spur of the moment partially because Armin needed a place to stay ASAP to comply with the terms of his pre-trial release.
But still, she could have at least called Jamie to give him a heads up so that he didn’t come home to discover his least favorite in-law taking a shower.
The couple didn’t get much of a chance to work things out, either. Jamie more or less kicked Armin to the curb, only to discover too late that his refusal to be more welcoming contributed to a dangerous situation.
Rescuing Armin from his former associate seemed to soften Jamie and Eddie’s attitudes toward Armin. I wish there had been more of a discussion between the partners, though.
External events shouldn’t solve problems like this. The communication issues still need to be resolved, especially since Eddie’s father may pop up again someday.
Frank: Eddie, any member of your family is welcome at this table.
Jamie: Are you saying you wanted him to come?
Frank: Not necessarily.
Danny: What Dad’s trying to say is that as great as it is to have saints at this table, he’d love to have some sinners too. Besides, sinners tell the best stories.
That said, I agreed with Danny that it would have been fun for Armin to join the Reagan family dinner.
It would have been awkward as hell, but Frank would have tried to keep the family in line and insisted on civility at his table.
That would have added a different dimension to this storyline! Of course, then the drug dealer attempting to kidnap Armin wouldn’t have happened, but did we need that?
Elsewhere, it sucked that Danny’s attempt at doing a good deed also got someone kidnapped.
I didn’t guess that the “missing sister” was an ex who didn’t want to be found. It was a non-obvious twist, but one I could have done without.
Why couldn’t Danny have managed to do something nice for someone and boosted his own morale for once?
It would have been equally compelling for the woman to suffer from mental illness and prefer being homeless to allowing her brother to help her, and then Danny could have done his good deed.
Instead, he ended up putting a woman in danger.
It all worked out in the end, but still. What a bummer!
Danny and Anthony lived parallel lives for once. Anthony’s case also ended with proving a guilty woman was guilty rather than freeing an innocent once. And he and Erin got death treats, too.
The most compelling story of the hour, though, was Frank’s conflict with the Archbishop.
I love when Blue Bloods offers its own, more conservative spin on topical issues involving police officers, such as the defund the police movement.
Most shows take a more liberal stance, so whether or not you agree with Blue Bloods’ position, at least it presents something different for viewers to consider.
The best part of this story was when the priest insisted he was only asking for reforms and bad police to be held accountable, and Frank pointed out that wasn’t what the slogan meant.
I take issue with that slogan for the same reason. Words have meanings, and saying one thing while meaning something entirely different doesn’t help your cause, no matter what that cause is.
Frank: You once told me that you had great respect for the boundaries between our two spheres. So don’t tell me how to do my job.
Archbishop: I wouldn’t dream of it. But you should ask yourself, which is more important to you: your office, or your faith?
I also didn’t like the Archbishop trying to force Frank to choose between the church and the demands of his office. The guy didn’t even believe his priest was right, so what was the point of that obnoxious guilt trip?
Besides, Frank was right: it wasn’t the Archbishop’s place to tell him what to do about an alleged bad faith leak of information.
I was curious about who had leaked the info, though, so I was disappointed that we didn’t find out who it was.
Ultimately, it didn’t matter, but the way Frank insisted that nobody open Abigail’s file made me wonder if a member of his staff was behind it.
Given Sid’s attitude, I wouldn’t be surprised if he were the leaker, and if so, that would have been a great twist.
Frank handled the situation as diplomatically as possible, though.
He was in a nearly impossible conundrum thanks to religious leaders who wanted him to publicly back them even though they were actively protesting the police department.
And no, McDougal shouldn’t have suffered a burglary. But he and the Archbishop both wanted it both ways. You can’t both protest the existence of the police department and demand that the department put your public image ahead of everything else!
Justice was served, and life goes on, but half the people involved should have known better.
Your turn, Blue Bloods fanatics!
Hit that big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know what you thought of the various plans that went wrong tonight.
Miss the episode? No problem. Just watch Blue Bloods online right here on TV Fanatic and then come back to comment.
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.