Take a deep breath, “Blue Bloods” fans — it looks like everyone’s favorite police commissioner won’t be giving his seat up to someone else when the drama concludes in the fall of 2024, in spite of previous heavy foreshadowing hinting that the beloved patriarch is about to retire.
“I’m pretty sure that Frank [Reagan, Tom Selleck] would stay in his job until the series ended,” showrunner Kevin Wade told TVInsider in the wake of the Season 14 mid-season finale. “We didn’t really pursue that avenue because the show is built on him being the police commissioner of New York City. So to take a detour during the last mile, if this is the last mile, I don’t know what he would be doing down at the hardware store or having coffee with old buddies during the day. I always have to look at stuff that generates stories. Police Commissioner of New York generates stories. He’s the CEO of 35,000 cops,” Wade explained.
The hard-driving Frank does seem to be the sort of guy who’d rather die in the saddle — which hopefully will not happen when “Blue Bloods” rides off into the sunset. But it’s intriguing to note that Wade talks about creating plot points that generate stories as he told TV Insider there’s one thing he definitely won’t allow to happen when the show ends.
It looks like there won’t be any dangling narrative threads to pull on when “Blue Bloods” leaves the airwaves. Per Kevin Wade, the show’s intent is to go out with no question left unasked and no narrative stone unturned. “There won’t be any cliffhangers because there’s no cliff, but it ends,” he assured TVInsider. “Anything we would do that was an open question would by definition never be answered, so we’re trying to bring character stories to a close in that one. Obviously, we have some stories, some plot, but no, it’s designed as the last one.”
Taken at face value, that means everyone’s individual story is going to reach a proper conclusion — whether it’s Erin Reagan’s (Bridget Moynahan) quest for political respect, Frank’s pursuit of law and order, or even perhaps the simmering tension between Danny Reagan (Donnie Wahlberg) and his longtime squad partner Maria Baez (Marisa Ramirez), which has been continually teased throughout Season 14. In the late fall, fans will gather together to watch the last few episodes of “Blue Bloods,” and only then will we find out how everyone’s plotline comes to fruition.
