Blue Bloods season 8 spoilers: Who is the new Mayor?

As many Blue Bloods fans are now aware, there is a change at the top of the New York City pecking order — a new Mayor is in charge! Mayor Poole (David Ramsey) made the decision to step down at the end of this past season, largely due to Diggle fighting to save Star City a feeling that he no longer had it in him to continue in the post. This meant that there would be a change, and we’re going to see that play out in the early going this coming season.

According to Entertainment Weekly, The Sopranos alum Lorraine Bracco is set to recur on the eighth season beginning with the premiere episode this fall. Her role? Mayor Margaret Dutton, a former Public Advocate who finds herself in the position following the line of succession for the city of New York. Given that she hasn’t been elected into the position, we’ll see how long she lasts and how much she enjoys it and if the public responds to the skills that she brings to the table.

What we know for now is that Dutton is someone well-skilled at negotiations, she’s been involved in philanthropy for a long time, and she understands the social structure of the city. She’s also very wealthy, partially through inheritance, and has come at things from a power position for a very long time. The basic thing that we’re trying to say here is that this is probably a woman who is very accustomed at this point to getting what she wants.

Herein lies the bad news for this character: She’s going to be facing a rather immovable object this season in Commissioner Frank Reagan, a guy who doesn’t tend to listen to anyone other than his own gut and instinct. He doesn’t suffer fools, and he won’t care who she is or what she’s done. If he things that she’s operating against the best interests of the people of the city, he’ll be very quick to call her out on that.

While we’re very much sad to see Ramsey go, the reality there was that with his other job it was getting increasingly impossible to get him to make the jump to New York for more than just an episode a season. Given that Blue Bloods loves to explore police politics, it made sense to hire someone who can be around a little more often. Bracco’s a great performer, and she should bring a lot of interesting dynamics to the role. Hopefully, she is also someone who will be turning up off and on throughout the season as opposed to someone who falls off the map for a long time following the premiere episodes.

(Photo: CBS.)