15 Saddest Blue Bloods Episodes, Ranked md20

Blue Bloods is known for intense storylines that coincide with heartwarming family moments. The formulas Blue Bloods has created have made it one of CBS’s most successful police procedurals. As part of the series intense storylines, Blue Bloods has featured plenty of heartbreaking episodes that left fans in tears while watching their favorite police procedural.

Fans have to watch the Reagan family go through losing friends, loved ones, and colleagues who are killed in the line of duty. They also go through the hardships surrounding everyday people, no matter their careers. Blue Bloods focuses on family, and it’s that familiar connection to the characters that makes many viewers feel as if they are going through the same feelings of loss as those on screen.

15. “Officer Down” Finds NYPD Facing the Loss Of Their Own

This Season 1 Episode Still Hits Home

Early on in the Blue Bloods story, fans understood that the show was not going to soft-pedal the stresses, moral dilemmas, and tragedies that police officers face. This became abundantly clear to fans with the Season 1 Episode “Officer Down,” which portrays the killing of a police officer and what the department goes through in the aftermath. That puts this episode at number 15 on the list.

In “Officer Down,” Officer Michele Martin (played by guest star Maggie Steele) comes across a group of thieves involved in a diamond heist at a jewelry store downtown while she is on her break. In a brief shootout, Officer Martin is gunned down, and the department mobilizes to find the one who did it. This episode shows the department as it reels from the tragedy but also focuses on the Reagan family. For them, the event triggers memories of Joe Reagan’s murder which is an ongoing investigation at this point in the show.

14. “Fog of War” Explores Guilt Over Friendly Fire

Officer Addison Confronts the Reality That Mistakes Can Be Lethal

In “Fog of War” another guest star (Justin Cunningham) portrays what a police officer goes through when things go drastically wrong in the field. Cunningham portrays Officer James Addison takes part in a drug bust operation and shoots the undercover cop in a case of mistaken identity. The undercover cop later dies of the gunshot wound, and Addison is left to face the inquiry and his own conscience in the wake of the tragic mistake.

While Addison is cleared of wrongdoing, it’s his own feeling of guilt that creates his existential crisis: Should he continue to be a police officer? While this episode is not as tragic as others, Cunningham’s portrayal of inner conflict and the consequences at stake when being a police officer place this episode among the saddest. But Tom Selleck as Commissioner Frank Reagan helps take the edge off both Addison and the audience.

13. “Cutting Losses” Shows Danny Grieving the Loss of His Wife

The Reagan Family Rallies to Help Him

The Season 8 premiere of Blue Bloods had to deal with one of the realities of show running when Amy Carlson (who played Linda Reagan, Danny’s wife) left the show. The result was a death narrative for Linda that all happened off-screen. In the show’s arc, Linda died in a helicopter crash on May 28. Episode 1 of Season 8, “Cutting Losses” picks up with Donnie in the aftermath of his loss. Danny (portrayed by Donnie Wahlberg) feels guilty for not having been home enough.

Fans see the tough former Marine visibly grieving during a therapy session and also find Danny lashing out at his sister Erin’s ex-husband for just bringing up the date of the accident. But once again, the show balances Danny’s tragedy with the efforts of the Reagan family to help. Erin enlists Danny’s help on a case when he is considering retiring, and the family gets Danny and his sons a new home.

12. “Home Sweet Home” Shows Tragedy That Doesn’t Involve Death

Viewers See a Child Face Harsh Realities

In “Home Sweet Home,” Blue Bloods gives an honest portrayal of what life on the streets can look like for children. While the episode has a happy ending, it’s in the context of seeing parents and caretakers abandon a child to pursue addiction, and that gives “Home Sweet Home” a sad and bitter edge to it that the ending isn’t quite able to dull.

While on patrol, Jamie and Eddie come across a homeless boy, T.J., and after they chase him down, they realize that he is 12 years old and has been abandoned by both his mother and his aunt. After getting in trouble for drug use in Baltimore, his mother sent him with some money to his aunt in New York. But it turns out that his aunt is homeless and she disappears, leaving T.J. to believe that her boyfriend has killed her. The story ultimately finds T.J. in a caring foster situation, but the revelation that his aunt wasn’t killed but in fact stole his money for drugs and left him alone leaves a lasting impression on the viewers.

11. In “Unbearable Loss”, a Father Loses His Son to Violence

Frank Reagan’s Harshest Critic Buries the Hatchet

“Unbearable Loss” combines a father’s tragic loss and the rivalry of bitter critics into one of the show’s top-twenty most highly-rated episodes on IMDB. Reverend Darnell Potter is one of the African-American community’s most out-spoken critics of Frank and the Reagan family, but he seeks Frank’s help to solve the murder of his son Michael to a gunshot.

As the two men attempt to reconcile their differences in the face of Potter’s brash behavior (he brings people to the department he thinks are suspects) and continued misunderstandings, Potter’s raw grief is at the forefront. But in the background is the Reagan family’s lingering grief over Joe, which is what makes this episode so poignant. In the end, Potter asks Frank to speak at his son’s memorial service, which becomes a way for the family to find continued healing.

10. “With Friends Like These” Offers a Look At Mental Health

And It Highlights The Tragedy Of Access To Treatment

“With Friends Like These” highlighted the division between firefighters and police officers, but the saddest element of the episode came from Jamie and Eddie. When responding to a person in distress, Eddie and Jamie find a woman who left her home and is struggling with her mental health. With no support system, the woman’s battle against schizophrenia makes for an emotional watch that engages real-world mental health struggles.

The episode gives an honest look into the lives of people who can not get the help they need to care for themselves. It also delivers the heartbreak police officers and others experience when they try to help someone but help comes too late. “With Friends Like These” finds Jamie pulling some strings to get the woman the care she needs, only to discover later that she commits suicide. The tragic end highlights how Blue Bloods is able to present real-world dilemmas without sugarcoating them, which is why it comes in at number 10 on the list.

9. “Two-Faced” Depicts A Father’s Love And Its Consequences

Few things are as tragic as a child’s death, which is the case that Erin has to tackle in Season 9’s “Two-Faced”. Dr. David Peterson tries everything possible to cure his daughter, Sarah, who is terminally ill, but his unconventional methods cause her to die. What was considered an accidental death is later revealed, by the doctor himself, as deliberate poisoning at the request of Sarah to escape the pain.

The moral dilemma faced by Dr. Peterson, Erin, and the doctor’s ex-wife makes for a compelling but gloomy watch. Blue Bloods asks viewers to reevaluate what it means to love and care for each other and to identify with the lengths to which one would go to end pain for a loved one. In “Two-Faced” Erin decides to charge the doctor with manslaughter instead of murder, understanding that Sarah would not want him to spend his life in prison.

8. “Little Fish” Shows the Reagans Deal with Their Failures

They also Confront Real World Consequences

Police procedurals are known for being dark, and Blue Bloods is no different. The first season showcased how guilt plays into the role of being in the version of the NYPD the show created. In “Little Fish,” Danny and Frank face similar feelings of helplessness when they can’t help victims they had been connected to previously. When skeletal remains are discovered at a construction site, Frank is plagued with the feeling of failure as the remains belong to a kidnapped child from a cold case Frank worked on early in his career.

Frank returns to his detective days as he personally revives the cold case to find the real perpetrator, his interaction with whom is intense and emotional. Meanwhile, Danny tries to help a sex worker who helped him in a case before, but she is killed before he can find her. This heavy episode shows the more vulnerable sides of the Reagans which had yet to be explored in the first season but is a recurring theme throughout the show. How the family deals with failures without losing its cohesion is one of Blue Bloods‘ biggest draws for fans..

7. “The Greater Good” Finds Frank Wrestling With Moral Dilemmas

Danny Has to Prove His Innocence Against Charges of Vengeance

“The Greater Good” set the tone for season 7 as many episodes were heavy in tone and left fans reaching for tissues. Frank Reagan faced a moral and ethical dilemma that touched on his grief from losing his son Joe, who died in the line of duty. When a mother, Grace Edwards, begs Frank not to let her son graduate from the NYPD Police Academy, so he won’t be put in danger, Frank understands her pain because her husband had been killed in the line of duty.

At the same time, Frank also understands the son’s deep and abiding desire to follow in his father’s footsteps. Seeing the usually stony Frank grapple with a problem he has faced personally was difficult for fans to watch. The mother’s love was touching, but it was also upsetting that she would try to control her son’s career. Meanwhile, Danny has to convince a grand jury that his shooting of a serial killer was in self-defense. But the charges against him question his motives, bringing up the moral dilemmas of death and justice.

6. “Love Lost” Delves Into Assisted Suicide

And It Tests Other Aspects Of The Show’s Relationships

“Love Lost” is another episode of Blue Bloods that brings a real-life issue into the show and forces viewers to take a second look at their own perspectives on the subject. Danny has to investigate a case that involves a woman who was suffocated by her husband. By the end of the investigation, it is revealed that the woman wanted to die and tried to have medically assisted suicide to end her pain from cancer.

However, complications with the medications caused her not to die, so her husband ended her life to help her out of her pain. Viewers see the sorrow in the husband as he deals with the grief of losing his wife and being the person who ended her life, which is heart-wrenching. “Love Lost” presents many moral and ethical dilemmas but plays to the human emotions in every viewer. Additionally, viewers also see Erin dealing with personal loss, as her ex-husband decides to defend the person she is trying to convict, culminating in an episode that tests the depths of relationships unlike any other storyline.