Just like Frank Reagan runs the Reagan family, Tom Selleck dominates the return of Blue Bloods. Season 14, Episode 11, “Life Sentence” is the midseason premiere — and the start of the long-running CBS drama’s final episodes. As such, the script wants to tie the whole family into one case of the week, but it’s the subplot involving Selleck’s character Frank and returning guest star Stacy Keach that stands well above the rest of the proceedings.
“Life Sentence” seems to take its title from that story, in which Frank is surprised by Archbishop Kevin Kearns asking for his help on a murder case. Kearns wants to help the suspect avoid the death penalty… but Frank doesn’t see the case the way he does. Meanwhile, Erin Reagan is randomly accused of jury tampering, which is just one of a whole series of events related to a gang leader. All of the plots have something to offer, but Selleck and Keach bring Blue Bloods back with quiet brilliance.
Blue Bloods Reunites Tom Selleck and Stacy Keach
Old Friends Turn To Enemies in Season 14, Episode 11
After 14 seasons, Blue Bloods has developed a pretty impressive bench of guest stars, and “Life Sentence” features the returns of four well-known recurring characters. Chief among them is Kevin Kearns, the Archbishop of New York, played by Mike Hammer star Stacy Keach. For roughly eight years, Keach has popped in and out of the series — and Season 14, Episode 11 may be one of his best appearances. Kearns tells Frank that a murder suspect named David Benson wants to surrender to the NYPD, but that’s motivated by self-interest. If he faces his charges in New York, he can potentially avoid a worse situation in Ohio, where he’s likely to receive the death penalty. Kearns is hopeful Frank will save Benson from lethal injection; Frank isn’t sympathetic to a murderer.
The death penalty has been a hot-button issue for years if not decades, and Blue Bloods tackles it well in conversations Frank has with both Kearns and his daughter Erin, who also opposes the idea. Neither side budges on their beliefs but neither side is presented as “right” on the subject. Instead, the focus is on what this divisive issue does to Frank and Kearns’ friendship. Every time Kearns shows up in Frank’s office, things get worse and worse, to the point where Kearns makes a comment about thinking they “were friends” — past tense. Both Keach and Selleck, true veterans of the game, are able to escalate their performances subtly so the tension grows effortlessly. Erin gives her father a bit of a wake-up call:
Selleck has been vocal about Blue Bloods’ cancellation, and it feels like some of that frustration comes out in his performance. Frank mostly keeps his cool, but the audience can hear and see his conviction as he and Kearns go back and forth on what the Archbishop considers to be a “humanitarian issue.” In the end, they meet in the middle. Frank says that he spoke to the governors of both states and the Attorney General in Ohio so that Benson will receive consecutive life sentences instead of the death penalty. And Kearns apologizes for trying to leverage his and Frank’s friendship for his own ends. Frank correctly points out, though, that he came to the person who could help the most, which is part of an underlying theme in the episode. This subplot features two great actors whose characters are written with such mutual respect, and they set the tone for everything else.
