Frank Reagan: Garrett, he used one of our police officers as a prop.

Erin Reagan’s storyline starts with a mock trial winner praising her as a great prosecutor, but once he’s on the other side of the table, the character pivots to accusing her of painting everyone with a broad brush. And once she and Anthony get him off the hook, he’s back to looking up at her. Erin is 100 percent correct when she tells Christopher that he’s the one who jumped to conclusions, but the way he is written practically causes whiplash. It’s as if the character was made specifically for Erin to impart that lesson. The best aspect of this plot is also the guest star; that’s Station 19 star Okieriete Onaodowan, who just appeared in Law & Order Season 24, Episode 5, “Report Card.”

Blue Bloods Glosses Over Danny’s Close Call
Episode 16 Doesn’t Reference His Previous Experience
A kneeling Danny Reagan looks up at MMA fighter Nate Silva in a warehouse in Blue Bloods Season 14
Some procedurals keep close continuity, while others take a more relaxed, week-to-week approach. Blue Bloods opts for the latter route with Danny Reagan’s storyline in “The Gray Areas.” Watching this episode, viewers would have no idea that Danny almost died in the previous hour. He’s his usual sarcastic self, and his partner makes no mention of it either — despite the fact that Baez was gone when her partner nearly got shot, so one thinks she might have asked about it. In fairness to the writers, there’s no set time that’s passed between episodes, so all of that may have happened off-screen. But with that close of a call, it would have been nice to have an on-screen acknowledgement.

Instead, Danny and Baez investigate the death of an MMA fighter, thrown out a window before the big fight. His opponent is the obvious first suspect and the only one seriously established. That’s because as soon as the suspect mentions match fixing, viewers know that the true perpetrators are going to be the big, tough guys, who drag people to a warehouse and threaten to shoot them. The surprise is that the suspect’s coach is one of them. But because all of these characters are broadly drawn, it only matters insofar as Danny gets another win. The MMA angle simply means there are some loud, bright scenes at a weigh-in and at the fight to make the plotline more visually exciting.

Blue Bloods Lets Jamie Fall on His Sword

Once Again, Eddie’s Storyline Tugs at the Heartstrings

Eddie is at her best when she’s fighting for someone who has been wronged, but since Blue Bloods Season 14 came back, that’s pretty much all she’s gotten to do. In Episode 16, it’s trying to stand up for her partner Luis Badillo after he’s caught smoking marijuana not too far away from a police charity event. As is pointed out, this is an incredibly stupid decision, so the plotline feels a bit contrived. But it sets up Eddie and Jamie to try and find Badillo before Internal Affairs does. Eddie does her usual campaigning in front of her boss before Jamie steps in and lies, saying that he was the officer who reported Badillo but it was a false report. He gets a citation that goes on his record, but this is just brushed off as Jamie doing “the right thing” for a fellow cop.