Frank Reagan, the patriarch of the family, is the current police commissioner of the NYPD, with his father, Henry, being a former PC himself. Frank’s oldest son Danny is a detective, and his youngest son Jamie is a highly decorated sergeant. His daughter Erin is the bureau chief for the DA’s office, and even Frank’s deceased son, Joe (whose death happens off-screen before the events of the series begin) was a cop killed by a corrupt organization known as the Blue Templar.
Even Jamie’s wife Eddie, played by Vanessa Ray, is a cop.
The Blue Bloods show has been filled with the struggles and triumphs of the Reagan
family, from dealing with the Mexican cartel, which burned down Danny’s house and killed his wife Linda (played by Amy Carlson) in season seven, to Erin’s off-on relationship with her ex-husband, Jack Boyle (played by Peter Hermann), and Jamie growing closer to his partner Eddie, and when she saves his life in the season eight finale, he proposes.
The Blue Bloods ending is both happy and bittersweet, and Season 14, Episode 18, “End of Tour,” is predictable enough to anyone who has watched the crime drama over the last decade.
The season and series finale, “End of Tour” revealed that the gangs of New York have
teamed up to take down the NYPD and City Hall, and the Reagans must come together to restore order in their home. Aside from the death of a recurring character, there are not many surprises to be had in the sixty-minute episode. But that was comforting to me, because every member of the Reagan family got a little screen time to say goodbye.
In the beginning of the episode, Eddie’s partner, Luis Badillo, is shot by one of the gang members. In previous episodes, Badillo was given more to do, and it has become clear why: because the show was planning to kill him off, so giving him more screen time was meant to make his death more impactful. But his death does not come as a surprise–he was important enough for fans to care about, but as a recurring member of the cast, he was expendable.
The Reagan family mourns the loss of a great friend and police officer, but Eddie feels it the most.
I was sad to see Badillo killed off, but I felt that “End of Tour” relied too much on his
murder. Throughout the episode, we are told that other police officers have been attacked, with a precinct even being firebombed, but Badillo is the only cop we have actually seen who was hurt.
A judge was murdered and the Mayor, Peter Chase (played by Dylan Walsh) got shot, but survived, so the only connection we get to the attacks are through Badillo.
Even though the two gangs, Mano Sangriento and the Ace Double Treys, claim that they are “one family” and want amnesty for their members incarcerated and the release of one awaiting trial, it is revealed that the man behind the attacks is Carlos Ramirez, the antagonist who escaped via helicopter at the end of the Season 14 midseason premiere, “Life Sentence.”
He is still determined to get his daughter Amelia back.
Danny is my favorite of all the Reagans, and it is really interesting to see how he is
intertwined with the plot. In “Life Sentence,” he is forced to let Ramirez escape, and he feels responsible for everything, until his grandfather Henry tells him that this was about a father avenging his daughter–so Danny had to think “like a father.”
Blue Bloods is notoriously centered around family, with every major case interlinking the Reagans together, and the famous Sunday dinners that is featured in every episode, where all the Reagans gather to break bread and talk shop while pretending they are not talking shop.
When Danny finally tracks Ramirez down, one would have expected a fight filled with
gunfire and blood. However, Danny is about to appeal to Ramirez as a father to do the right thing–first to let Amelia go, and then to surrender himself peacefully instead of attempting suicide. This was convenient, but it perfectly encompassed what Blue Bloods has been about for so many years. In the end, it was Danny’s perspective as a family man that closed the series’ biggest case.
Danny has also had a close relationship with his partner Maria Baez, played by Marisa
Ramirez. As a Danny/Baez shipper, I was thrown a bone when the finale hinted that the two would become romantically involved.
Fans have begged for that for a while, but “End of Tour” was not at all delicate with the fact that Henry makes his grandson promise to live for more than just his job as a police officer, and to find someone to “come home to” after this case ends.
And when Danny asks Baez if she wants to go out for pizza afterwards, she gives him a knowing look and the two walk out arm in arm.
Almost every family member of the Reagan family received some sort of closure in the
last episode. Erin Reagan, Danny’s sister, has a limited role in the finale, except that she suggests to her ex-husband Jack Boyle that they get remarried at City Hall, just the two of them.
We do not actually see them get married, but it makes sense, because the two have been rekindling their relationship for a while now. But it felt like Eddie and Jamie’s closing got a little rushed.
In “Life Sentence,” Eddie bonds with Amelia and even cares for her for a little while, and she and her husband Jamie decide that they are finally ready to try for a baby. And at the dinner scene in “End of Tour,” they announce that Eddie is expecting.
Blue Bloods has always been an interesting, sparking cop drama as an alternative to gritty and grim ones, like Law and Order.
Most things always work out for the family, and every member comes home so they can have a family dinner on Sunday. It was a good, solid ending to a show I have been fond of for many years, and I don’t know about you, but I’m a sucker for a happy ending.
