‘Blue Bloods’ season 6, episode 21 review: Erin’s big play; Frank’s party plan

Did we just have one of the best Erin Reagan episodes of “Blue Bloods” that we’ve seen to date? We’d argue that the answer here is “yes,” mostly because this was a case for her professional powers to shine, and for her also to know a little something more than we as the audience had a chance to know.

Basically, Erin turned into a strategist tonight to ensure that she got a conviction that she needed, promising witness protection for a key witness … but not before putting them in a position where they in turn could help get some of the information necessary. It was a big play that Anthony was so against that he was ready to transfer elsewhere; he admired Erin, but worried about her judgment and putting the life of an important witness in danger.

In the end, she managed to get everything she wanted in a super-short amount of time, and proved to Anthony that she knew what she was doing. She also promised to never leave him out of the loop again on any other big strategies.

Elsewhere, the Danny / Baez investigation proved to be strong mostly in that it was a compelling case, something that could’ve been on any other cop procedural. We don’t want to see the show become like some of those other programs out there, but every now and then, it’s fun to see “Blue Bloods” go more traditional. In turn, it’s odd that the weakest story of the night is Frank playing politics regarding a police union dinner. It’s just that after seeing him wrestle with such larger moral dilemmas, ones that impact the entire city, this felt more like watching someone do slightly entertaining paperwork. (Yes, he wasn’t doing real paperwork — just an analogy.)

We still consider “The Extra Mile” to be fairly solid “Blue Bloods” programming. If nothing else, it set the stage for the finale very well. Grade: B.

(Photo: CBS.)