WARNING: This article contains spoilers for the Blue Bloods series finale, “End of Tour.”
Blue Bloods has reached the end of the line.
The long-running police procedural aired its series finale, titled “End of Tour,” on Friday night, concluding 14 seasons on CBS. The episode offered each member of the Reagan law enforcement dynasty a fitting (if bittersweet) sendoff that provides a strong sense of hope as the show draws to a close.
CBS Blue Bloods Marisa Ramirez as Maria Baez, Donnie Wahlberg as Danny Reagan, Bridget Moynahan as Erin Reagan Boyle, and Steve Schirripa as Anthony Abetemarco
Marisa Ramirez as Maria Baez, Donnie Wahlberg as Danny Reagan, Bridget Moynahan as Erin Reagan Boyle, and Steve Schirripa as Anthony Abetemarco on ‘Blue Bloods’. Michael Parmelee/CBS
The episode begins with Danny Reagan (Donnie Wahlberg) and Maria Baez (Marisa Ramirez) investigating the murder of a judge who’d previously dismissed threats from the Ace Double Treys gang. The next episode shows Eddie Janko (Vanessa Ray) and Luis Badillo (Ian Quinlan) responding to a carjacking that quickly evolves into a shootout with two motorcyclists. The duo hits one of the shooters as the other escapes — and Badillo ends the encounter with critical wounds, while Janko gets grazed on the arm.
Meanwhile, Mayor Peter Chase (Dylan Walsh) also takes a bullet in a drive-by shooting as he oversees a ceremony at a new historic landmark. Frank (Tom Selleck) visits him in the hospital, and Erin (Bridget Moynahan) watches a video from a gang leader demanding amnesty for incarcerated gang members.
In the hospital, Frank explains that there’s been a coordinated attack that left four cops shot and one NYPD precinct firebombed. The mayor entrusts the city’s leadership to Frank (under the table, of course): “I’m handing you the keys. You’re driving. Get us out of this.”
Janko awakens in the hospital and asks where her partner is. Jamie (Will Estes) remains awkwardly silent as another officer says, “He’s not here.” Janko pushes further: “Not here in this hospital? Or not here anymore?” Jamie shakes his head. “There’s nothing you could’ve done,” he tells his wife, confirming that Badillo succumbed to his wounds.
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In perhaps the stupidest decision of the episode, another cop approaches the room and announces, within earshot of Janko, that Badillo’s shooter is on the same floor of the hospital. Janko freaks out and demands to see the shooter face to face, jumping out of bed. “I have every right to see him!” she yells as the hospital staff sedates her.
After that, Joe (Will Hochman) and Jamie resolve to find Emilio Mars, another one of the shooters, by whatever means necessary. Meanwhile, Danny analyzes a video from the executed judge and identifies the killer as Carlos Ramirez (Manny Perez) — the Ace Double Treys member who caused a stir before escaping in a helicopter in the midseason premiere.
Ramirez’s mother later enters the precinct, and Danny tells her that Ramirez’s daughter Amelia didn’t show up to school. Amelia, who bonded with Janko in the midseason premiere, calls the wounded detective and tells her that Ramirez has taken her to an unfamiliar location.
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Erin and her ex-husband Jack Boyle (Peter Herrman) interrupt the action with a tender scene (re)defining their blossoming relationship. “You know, when push comes to shove, we really do work well together,” she says. “Maybe we should do something about that… despite our best efforts, we’re still right here. One foot in and one foot out. Maybe we try both feet.” Erin surprises Jack with a low-key marriage proposal (sans ring), and he agrees on her conditions: “Party of two, city hall. Tell everybody about it after the fact.”
Next, Frank visits Lorenzo Batista (Edward James Olmos), the father of another one of the shooters, in an attempt to pressure him into revealing information about his son. After a long bout of gruff banter, Frank gets personal, invoking his dead son, Joseph. “If someone were to say to me before it happened, ‘Here’s your choice. We can kill him now or he can spend the rest of his life in prison,’ I’d tell you what: I wouldn’t blink,” he says. “I’d be up there at that prison every chance I got with a bag of hamburgers for us and a deck of cards so we could spend time together just playing gin and shootin’ the bull. And I’d be thrilled to be there. And eternally grateful for the chance, because I know the cold dark the other choice brings.”
