‘Blue Bloods’ season 6, episode 16 review: Whoopi Goldberg guest stars — and shines

You always love it when big-name guest stars get the chance to appear on some of your favorite shows, and with that in mind, we were of course very happy to see Whoopi Goldberg appear on Friday night’s new episode of “Blue Bloods.” This is a woman who always does great work on some of these shows, and we certainly are of the belief that she did so here as a powerful City Council Speaker who had a difference of opinion in regards to policy and certain crimes.

The back-and-forth between Whoopi and Tom Selleck was excellent, especially since the show continues to touch on some of the themes today (tension between police and civilians, especially those within the African-American community) in a way that is fair but also sensitive. They don’t show Frank as someone speaking in absolutes, and the same goes for Whoopi’s character. In the end, the two agreed to trust one another as they attempt to forge some sort of ultimate compromise. Maybe this whole story is a little idealistic when it comes to the police listening to key influencers, but we don’t have any problem with the show at least trying to be optimistic.

As far as the rest of the episode, it was nice to see that Danny and Linda are continuing to work through some of their issues stemming from what happened at the end of season 5, but more importantly than that, his reaction to seeing a man who lost everything helped him to further realize just how devastated he would be if something happened to his wife. He showed her more appreciation than we’ve seen from him.

Finally, there was quite a bit of effective story to come out of Erin confronting her former mentor about some of his sentences. There was a heavy push-and-pull here, but we once again admire the logic of the writing. Everything in this episode made sense. Was it perhaps predictable? Sure, but we’re okay with that when the plotlines are handled with precision. Grade: B.

(Photo: CBS.)