Blue Bloods Series Finale Review: The Reagan Family Gets a Happy Ending

The Blue Bloods series finale is perfectly in line with the CBS show’s long history — which is both a strength and a wealness. Season 14, Episode 18, “End of Tour” will be predictable to anyone who’s watched the TV crim drama during its decade-plus long run. It’s so classic Blue Bloods that one can’t help but wonder if it was originally ended as more of a season finale than an end to the entire show.

“End of Tour” paints a picture of police officers and other public figures under attack, with all of the Reagans coming together to restore order in New York City. Aside from the death of a prominent recurring character, there aren’t many surprises to be had in the hour. But that might be comforting to some viewers, as every member of the Reagan family gets at least a little screen time in order to say goodbye.

Who Dies in the Blue Bloods Series Finale?

One Major Character Doesn’t Last More Than a Few Minutes

Now it’s painfully clear why Blue Bloods was giving Luis Badillo more to do in the last few episodes: because the show was planning on killing him off. After taking center stage in Season 14, Episode 16, “The Grey Areas,” Eddie Janko-Reagan’s partner is murdered before the credits roll on “End of Tour.” In retrospect, it looks like the show was trying to give viewers a few last moments with Badillo and/or drum up more interest in the character to make his death more impactful.

The scene in which Badillo is shot is nail-biting, but once the shock wears off, it’s not totally surprising. Badillo’s death lines up with the sort of unofficial TV show hierarchy. He’s important enough for fans to care about him, but as a supporting character, also expendable. Blue Bloods can have the emotional impact of a character dying without having to touch any of the Reagan clan. TV show characters often die in finales, and Badillo’s passing gives the episode some degree of personal stakes — though other than Eddie’s understandable devastation, no one else has the kind of emotional response audiences are used to. They mourn his loss, but only Eddie seems to really feel it.

As sad and somewhat disappointing as it is to see Badillo killed off, “End of Tour” relies on his murder a little too much. Audiences are told about other attacks on NYPD officers, and that other officers have been killed or wounded. But Badillo is the only officer whom viewers actually see hurt. Everything else as it relates to the police is just dialogue. A judge is murdered and Mayor Chase is wounded, too, but because fans have no connection to the judge and Chase survives, it’s what happens to Badillo that truly matters.

The Blue Bloods Finale Revisits a Season 14 Story

But Does It Feel Big Enough for the Show’s Last Episode?

“End of Tour” is the follow-up to the Blue Bloods Season 14 midseason premiere “Life Sentence.” The man behind all of these attacks is Carlos Ramirez, the bad guy who escaped via helicopter at the end of that episode, and is still determined to get his daughter Amelia back. That plot is where the finale wavers a bit. If this were just a season finale, circling back around to Ramirez would have been totally fine — putting a bow on this small batch of episodes. But as a series finale, is it memorable enough to hang the last story on a villain from earlier this season? Fans’ mileage may vary. On one hand, it would have been more resonant to pick something from earlier in the show’s lengthy canon. On the flip side, if the writers were stretching to make connections all the way back to the beginning, then the audience would have noticed.

What’s interesting is how Danny Reagan is used within the plot. Naturally, he feels responsible for everything — until Henry Reagan tells him to “think like a father.” This is hitting Blue Bloods‘ underlying theme of family right on the nose. It’s Danny’s appeal to Ramirez as a father that gets him first to let Amelia go, and then to surrender peacefully instead of attempting suicide. Is this a little convenient? Yes. Does it encapsulate just what this show has been about for so many years? Absolutely. In the end, it’s Danny’s perspective as a devoted family man that closes one of the series’ most high-profile cases.

The theme of family also carries over into Frank Reagan’s scenes, as the latest A-list actor Tom Selleck gets to play against is Battlestar Galactica‘s Edward James Olmos. Olmos portrays the father of the man who shot Mayor Chase, and there is another great back-and-forth between these two wily veterans (as still strange as it is to see Olmos portraying a bad guy). Had the show continued into Season 15, this would have been a great character to revisit sometime.

And shippers are even thrown something, too, because after a reference to Danny’s late wife Linda, Blue Bloods hints that Danny and his partner Maria Baez might become romantically involved. Fans have suggested that for a while, but “End of Tour” is not subtle with Henry making his son promise to find someone to come home to after the case ends. And when Danny asks Baez out for pizza afterward, the clear implication is that it could be her. Unfortunately, these and several other plotlines fall into the show’s trap of quickly resolving things either on or off-screen to tie it all up too neatly.

Blue Bloods Gives the Reagan Family What They Want

Everyone Around the Dinner Table Gets a Happy Ending

The last few episodes of Blue Bloods have had an ongoing issue with tying up loose ends off-screen in order to get to specific endings. The series finale is another example of that, because many things that could and should have played out are implied or rushed through. Frank’s talk with Lorenzo, trying to get him to give up his son’s location, doesn’t actually feature that pivotal moment. Instead, it just ends, and the viewer later sees Lorenzo being arrested. Eddie is wounded early on, but quickly discharged from the hospital so that she can be part of the hunt to find Amelia, since Eddie’s the character who bonded with the girl in “Life Sentence.”

Meanwhile, Erin Reagan has a fairly limited role in the finale, except to suggest to her ex-husband Jack Boyle that they get remarried at City Hall. This makes sense since the two have been rekindling their relationship for a while now — but in terms of this specific episode, it feels like it comes out of the blue, especially since everyone else is running around handling this city-wide crisis. And yet there’s not time for even a glimpse of the wedding. Even Eddie and Jamie Reagan get short-changed, because the show finally goes back to Eddie’s desire to have a baby… solely so the couple can announce at the dinner table that they’re already expecting. Particularly the fourth act of “End of Tour” comes across like the writers being solely focused on giving all the characters exactly what they want.

That doesn’t make for the best script; there are other directions that the episode could have gone (although one of them would’ve involved killing Dylan Walsh off another TV show). But given that this is the Blue Bloods series finale, there’s a certain amount of understanding. This has always been a “feel good” procedural, an alternative to the grim and gritty cop dramas, in which most things work out and the family is always around the dinner table. While some parts of the last episode are underwhelming, leaving everyone on a happy note is what the fans will want, and the writers can’t be faulted for serving up exactly what makes them walk away happy.