Blue Bloods spawned 293 episodes throughout its 14 seasons. While the vast majority of these episodes make for compelling viewing, a select few episodes left an indelible impression on the memories of long-time viewers. One of these special episodes is the Season 5 finale, “The Art of War,” in which the Reagan family is plunged into crisis while dealing with the real possibility that one of them might die. Each of the remaining family members, led by Danny and Frank, must ask themselves how far they’re willing to go to achieve justice.
Now that Donnie Wahlberg has reprised the role of Danny Reagan in the upcoming Blue Bloods spin-off series Boston Blue, there is renewed focus on Danny’s past, especially in terms of why Danny decided to relocate from New York to Boston for the new series. For this purpose, “The Art of War” is especially valuable, as this episode shows Danny struggling to balance his raw emotions with a sense of justice while attempting to resolve one of the most personal cases in his career. Moreover, “The Art of War” episode, which first aired on CBS on May 1, 2015, powerfully demonstrates the Reagan family’s indomitable ability to close ranks and strengthen under the most difficult of circumstances.
A Reagan Family Member Is Shot in “The Art of War”
As seen with the Blue Bloods series finale, the most intense season finales are those in which the lives of the Reagan family members and their friends are imperiled. The Season 5 finale, “The Art of War,” opens directly after the conclusion of the penultimate Season 5 episode, “New Rules.” That episode begins with NYPD Deputy Chief Donald Kent and Kent’s wife, both close friends of Frank Reagan’s, being shot and killed by a vicious gang called the Warrior Kings.
After Frank assigns the case to Danny, with the expectation of Danny following the rules of law, Danny focuses on getting information from Hector, a gang associate who witnessed the hit and has been hospitalized with a bullet wound, at the hospital where Danny’s wife, Linda, played by Amy Carlson, is employed as a nurse. Curtis Turner, a gang recruit who works as an orderly at the hospital, enters Hector’s room with a gun to kill Hector while Linda is tending to him. The episode ends with Linda moving in front of Hector just before several gunshots erupt within a black screen.
As “The Art of War” opens, it’s revealed that Hector and Linda were both shot by the fleeing Curtis. While Hector later dies, Linda is taken into surgery, just as Danny arrives at the hospital. Driven by a need for justice and revenge, Danny sets out to find the perpetrator or perpetrators while being consumed by the thought that Linda might not make it. Danny’s frenzied emotional state leads him to clash with Frank, who inserts himself into the case while urging Danny to control his rage. If “The Art of War” merely encompassed the personal nature of this conflict for Danny, with the added uncertainty of Linda’s condition, it would be a superior episode.
However, what sets “The Art of War” apart from most other Blue Bloods episodes is how it continually unleashes surprises by subverting expectations. Instead of giving in to his impulse for revenge, Danny eventually relies on cleverness and intelligence gathering to catch the gang member who killed the Kent couple and ordered the hit on Hector. Before ending with the touching sight of a recovering Linda joining the Reagan family’s Sunday dinner table via speakerphone, “The Art of War” provides a most satisfying comeuppance scene in which Frank visits the Warrior King’s imprisoned ringleader, Clinton Wallace, who is stunned to realize that his life prison sentence just got a lot worse.
Linda Was Killed on ‘Blue Bloods’ in a Contract Dispute
While Linda survived being shot in the Season 5 finale, contractual issues eventually led to the character’s demise. During the filming of the seventh-season episodes of Blue Bloods, Amy Carlson declined to renew her contract to play the role of Linda in the show’s eighth season, thus forcing the show’s creative team to eliminate the character. On May 28, 2017, between the Season 7 finale, “The Thin Blue Line,” and the Season 8 premiere episode, “Cutting Losses,” Linda dies in a helicopter crash while tending to a patient the crew is airlifting to a hospital.
In the Season 9 premiere episode, “Playing with Fire,” drug cartel member Luis Delgado, who was responsible for the previous firebombing of Danny’s house, tacitly admits that Delgado’s cartel was behind Linda’s death. This revelation leads Danny to essentially instigate Delgado’s murder by releasing Delgado in front of his crew and therefore making him look like a snitch, thus sealing his fate.
Carlson’s sudden and unexpected departure from Blue Bloods precluded a proper death scene for Linda, whose death is revealed in “Cutting Losses” as a postscript, as Danny speaks of his sense of grief and loss to a therapist. Just as “The Art of War” serves as a fitting tribute to Linda’s life and her presence on the show, “Cutting Losses” is very effective in showing how Danny attempts to process the shock of Linda’s death while carrying on with his life. Indeed, the haunting sight of Linda’s empty chair at the Reagan family dinner table reverberated throughout the rest of the series, and certainly beyond.
“The Art of War” Isn’t the Best ‘Blue Bloods’ Episode
One of the most important characters in Blue Bloods is a character who primarily exists through memories and pictures. This is Frank’s departed son, Joe Reagan, who was murdered in the line of duty on May 15, 2009, approximately 15 months before the show began. The first-season finale, “The Blue Templar,” resolves the mystery behind Joe’s murder, revealing that a group of corrupt police officers known as the Blue Templar killed Joe after he infiltrated their ranks. In the episode, Frank discovers that the corrupt officers murdered Joe after he got too close to exposing the group, which Frank dismantles in the episode.
While “The Art of War” is often listed as being among the show’s best episodes, “The Blue Templar” is most commonly referred to as being the show’s best episode. Indeed, “The Blue Templar” episode is often spoken of by Blue Bloods fans in distinctly reverential terms, especially with the episode’s emotionally overpowering concluding sequence, in which Frank and the rest of his surviving family members leave their traditional Sunday dinner and then make their way to Joe’s grave to pay their respects. Of course, in addition to Joe’s enduring presence, his legacy manifested itself on Blue Bloods through the introduction of Joe Hill, an NYPD detective, played by Will Hochman, who was revealed to be Joe’s biological son in the show’s 10th-season finale. Blue Bloods is streaming on Paramount+ and Hulu.
