There has always been one seat empty at the Reagan family dinner table on Blue Bloods, as Joe Reagan died before the series began. During the first season, Jamie investigated what had happened to his brother, leading to a climactic scene during one of Blue Bloods’ best episodes in which Frank confronted his son’s killer. The pain of losing Joe led to a different storyline after season 10 when Joe’s adult son joined the Reagan family. Joe Hill and the Reagans have a complicated relationship that has been an occasional part of the series since his introduction.
Joe Hill Is Joe Reagan’s Secret Son In Blue Bloods
The Reagans Didn’t Know About Him Until He Was An Adult
Joe Reagan never knew he had a son. He had met Joe Hill’s mother, Paula, at the Police Academy, where they were classmates. When Paula became pregnant, she dropped out of the Academy. She didn’t tell anybody the reason she had quit, including Joe, and thus he was not aware that he had fathered a child. However, she named the baby after Joe, though she didn’t plan to tell him who his father was when he got older.
How The Reagans Found Out About Joe Hill
Sean Discovered His Cousin By Accident
The Reagans’ discovery that Joe was related to them was a fluke. Sean had been doing a genealogy project and used an at-home DNA kit, which he uploaded to a genealogy website, which showed him he had a cousin named Joe Hill, who appeared to be the son of his late uncle Joe. Since Joe Hill had decided to follow the same career path as his father, Frank was able to investigate by calling him to his office for a performance review, which was really a ploy to get to know his son.
Joe Hill’s Relationship With The Reagans On Blue Bloods Has Been Contentious
He Has Never Quite Found His Place Within The Family
Joe was initially pleased to be welcomed by his father’s family, but developing a relationship with them was more difficult than it seemed. Like the other Reagans, Joe is a cop who works under Frank, but unlike them, he is not used to Frank refusing to take family relationships into account when dealing with disciplinary or other issues on the job. Additionally, Joe soon learned the reason his mother had wanted to shield him from his father’s family when a reporter obtained his birth certificate and made his relationship with the Reagans public, leading to unwanted media attention.
This plot point occurred in Blue Bloods season 11, episode 2, “In The Name Of The Father.”
Joe’s contentious relationship with the Reagan family stems from never having known his father, making this challenging circumstance yet another way that Joe Reagan’s premature death has affected the family. Joe resents that Jamie and Danny grew up with his father and he never knew him, while the others are living with the pain of Joe Reagan’s death and the questions about whether they could have prevented it. Jamie took his brother’s death especially hard, and Joe Hill represents a reminder of all they lost, making it even harder to relate positively to him.
Why There Is Hope For Reconciliation As Blue Bloods Wraps Up
Joe And Jamie May Have Come To An Understanding After Riding Together
One of the things that needs to happen before Blue Bloods ends is some sort of resolution to the friction between Joe Hill and the rest of the family. Joe has had this painful, back-and-forth relationship with them since his introduction, often declining to come to Sunday dinner because he’s angry at one or another of the Reagans. Every time he starts to come to an understanding with his family, there is some new drama that interferes with it, making it seem they are always starting over. Thus, his story needs to be wrapped up in the little time remaining.
