Who Is Blue Bloods’ Joe Hill? The Reagan Family’s Newest Member Explained

Blue Bloods explained Joe Hill’s connection to the Reagan family in an arc that began at the end of season 10. The long-running police procedural has been a fan favorite for 14 years partially because of its emphasis on a family of cops that comprises four generations. Rather than simply presenting the cases of the week like most crime procedurals, Blue Bloods’ Reagan family supports one another and comes together for family dinner after dealing with drama on the streets.

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

Courtesy of CBS/John Paul Filo
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.

Paula’s decision became simpler because of Joe Reagan’s untimely death. If he were alive, there was a chance that he would have run into Paula or found out about his son, or that Joe Hill would want to meet his father. Since Joe Reagan was killed, his son was satisfied as a child with the explanation that his dad was a cop who had died in the line of duty, and grew up to become a police officer like his father.

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.
Frank’s decision put Paula in an awkward situation. Joe had also run a DNA test as he was curious about his father and wanted to know his origins, and now he had the sense that his meeting with Frank wasn’t strictly about business. Thus, she was forced to tell Joe the truth. When Paula met with Frank about this issue later, she admitted that Joe was his grandson and that she had kept his parentage secret because she didn’t want her son growing up in the Reagans’ shadow, especially after his father’s death. However, Joe was curious about his father’s family and accepted Sean’s invitation to one of Blue Bloods‘ iconic Reagan family dinners.

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.