The big day is finally here.
After a year of preparation, Blue Bloods is set to conclude its ninth season with the ceremony fans have been waiting for: the wedding of Eddie Janko (Vanessa Ray) and Jamie Reagan (Will Estes) — now also known as “Jamko!”
In the season finale, titled “Something Blue,” Frank (Tom Selleck) worries about the toast he’ll deliver at Jamie and Eddie’s rehearsal dinner as their wedding day approaches. But luckily for fans, EW has an exclusive preview of what that toast will look like, and (spoiler alert!) it’s a bit of a tearjerker. We learn here that Eddie has decided she’ll walk down the aisle on her own.
“Eddie isn’t anyone’s to give away,” Frank says in his toast, which you can watch above. “She is her own woman, and her own life force, and I have seen it in action on the job. And we have all seen it in action at our dinner table.” (Well, that’s true.)
EW caught up with Ray in advance of the finale, and she revealed the idea behind Eddie’s surprising decision. “My parents were in town and came to visit me at work, [and] we were talking with our executive producer, Kevin Wade, about the wedding and who would walk Eddie down the aisle,” she recalls. “Not a lot of people know this, but when I asked my dad to walk me down the aisle for my wedding, he said no! Then he explained that it’s because that is an antiquated tradition. I’m not property. I’m not his to give away. I’m my own person and I get to make the choices for my life.… Kevin heard that story and loved it!”
She adds of filming the emotional scene, “[Kevin] and Brian Burns then wrote that incredible speech for Frank.… It took everything in me not to cry hearing Tom Selleck repeat words my dad said to me.”
Be sure to watch the clip above, and check out some exclusive photos from the season finale. Blue Bloods concludes its ninth season on Friday at 10 p.m. ET, on CBS, and will return for a 10th season in the fall.