Garrett disagreeing with Frank over how to handle the press now that police reform is in the spotlight should have been fascinating.
Instead, it went in a silly direction that didn’t make much sense.
Blue Bloods Season 11 Episode 14 was all about communications issues, so this was par for the course. But still.
The hour started well enough, with Frank taking umbrage at Garrett’s remarks that the NYPD could do better.
Frank: It’s hard enough out there without our people reading you slapping them around over their morning coffee.
Garrett: I didn’t slap them around.
Frank: I know that, but they don’t. Walk it back.
Frank’s reasoning underscored the political tightrope he often walks: he again had to keep his opinion private to keep the rank-and-file happy enough to do their jobs.
The sad thing is that Garrett’s comments seemed so mild. He said the NYPD could do some things better. That is so vague and nondescript that it didn’t really hurt the department, and it wasn’t clear that anyone felt attacked by this other than Sid.
And if the story had stayed focused on whether even the mildest criticism of the NYPD was inappropriate, it might have made a compelling statement about the political climate police officers have to work in.
But that’s not where it went. At all.
Instead, somehow Garrett’s refusal to walk his remarks back became tied to his self-improvement journey.
He felt he was being asked to lie — fair enough. But since Garrett didn’t actually intend to cut down the NYPD, what on Earth did clarify that in another comment have to do with authenticity?
Garrett had butted heads with Frank plenty in the past, both before and after he lost weight and stopped drinking, but never before made it a question of identity.
He has just as passionately defended other opinions of his that clashed with Frank’s, and he had a point about a retraction keeping the story alive when it needed to die.
So could we have stayed there instead of going off in this bizarre direction?
The whole thing ended up being pointless, too.
Frank and Garrett fought, Frank implied he might have to fire Garrett, and then Frank apologized, and Garrett admitted he’d walked the comments back after all.
So both men conceded the other had a point and life went on. That’s great, but it wasn’t exactly a compelling resolution to this story.
Danny and Baez’s case was a bit more satisfying, although there were quite a few coincidences and loose ends in this one.
The idea of an anti-homeless jogger killing homeless men and then finding their bodies was interesting, and when the GPS showed that the jogger had been on the move for two hours before finding Billy, I thought he had pulled some sort of trick.
I’m not sure what Danny thought an expanded warrant would get him, but I’m sure he had a similar theory.
But then, at the last minute, he discovered one of the workers at the homeless shelter was mentally unstable and had been hugging the victim. I’m not sure how that translates into proof that she killed Billy, but apparently, it did.
The cops happening to discover Sandy on the tape at the last minute was far too convenient, allowing Danny and Baez to wrap up the case without needing that expanded warrant after all.
And I still want to know why the jogger kept finding dead homeless people if he wasn’t involved in their deaths. Was it just a big coincidence? Was he onto Sandy and following her around so he could call in each murder and hope it led to the homeless shelter being closed?
It was totally forgotten about once the suspect turned out to be innocent. In addition, mentally unstable Sandy killed people because the “bad one inside me” told her to give credence to his anti-homeless screed.
Erin and Anthony’s case was probably the goofiest. This seemed like the kind of quirky case that belongs on Major Crimes, not a more serious crime drama like Blue Bloods.
I also wondered where Kim was while Anthony and Erin wasted time and money on spying on a potential murderer who really just needed a good cry into his beer. She’s never happy with Erin’s work, and she couldn’t possibly have found this incident acceptable.
And she definitely would disapprove of Anthony pretending to be a mob boss to intimidate the suspect’s brother into doing the right thing!
Finally, Jamie and Eddie had another one of their marital miscommunication storylines.
I prefer when they butt heads over a case to this kind of thing. The domestic storylines are cute but always end up being more silly than not, and this one was no exception.
I agreed with Jamie that Eddie shouldn’t be counseling suspects, even if they were brought in because of a domestic dispute.
What happened to that social worker that rode along with them on Blue Bloods Season 11 Episode 6?
And the whole conflict over “love languages” was beneath them. If they’re going to fight, let it be over something important!
Jamie: I didn’t know for sure which was your love language so I thought I’d try all five.
Eddie: Maybe you were right. Maybe we should just start with English.
Jamie: In that case, I’m sorry. I don’t want to be the husband who belittles his wife when all she wants to do is make us better or have more fun.
That said, Jamie’s apology to Eddie at the end of the hour was so sweet, and his attempt to guess her love language was romantic even if it was a bit over-the-top.
However, I’d have preferred these two to find something more important to do.
Your turn, Blue Bloods fanatics! Am I too hard on Blue Bloods, or was this episode not as strong as usual?
Hit the big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know your thoughts!
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Jack Ori is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. His debut young adult novel, Reinventing Hannah, is available on Amazon. Follow him on Twitter.