One can describe the dutiful “Blue Bloods” detective Danny Reagan (Donnie Wahlberg) as rugged, funny, and dependable. But Season 14 of Blue Bloods has added one sad descriptor to that teeming pile: with his family growing up and leaving the nest and his wife, Linda (Amy Carlson), long dead, the guy seems to be lonely. As such, Episode 4 could end up being one of Danny’s more pivotal episodes on the series.

In “Past is Present,” Danny and his partner, Maria Baez (Marisa Ramirez), encounter Trina (Sumaya Bouhbal), a young rebel and former perp, for the second time. When Danny and Maria meet Trina for the first time in Season 13, Maria is the one who has sympathy for Trina’s poor choices and defends her against Danny’s accusations. Danny, meanwhile, is convinced that Trina did kill the person who happens to be in her trunk and may have done it while she was high, to boot. During “Past is Present,” those roles reverse — Danny believes Trina deserves another chance after she calls on him for help when her life spirals out of control again, while Maria is beyond done with the teenager’s antics.

The incident sparks a conversation between the partners, and Maria flat-out accuses Danny of looking for someone else to parent now that his kids are off living their adult lives. While he insists that his support of Trina has nothing to do with some quest for a substitute child, it’s pretty clear that his devotion to the teenager has something to do with his frustrated parental feelings. And a recent return to the dating pool indicates that Danny might be ready to move on and start a fresh life.