Blue Bloods season 8: Donnie Wahlberg on Amy Carlson departure

The Amy Carlson departure from Blue Bloods is going to be something that takes time to get over — for Donnie Wahlberg and all of us. It was hard to imagine that any longtime character would ever leave the show, but Linda Reagan is now gone.

For Donnie, he is missing more than just a television character, someone we’ve come to know and love via family-dinner conversations and other notable events over the course of time. He’s losing a good friend on set, someone he’s come to care about after the past seven years working with her. They can of course still see each other way from work, but it’s still very much different from being able to spend so much time working on scenes together and developing a great relationship on set.

We certainly find the tribute that Donnie (who gave an outstanding performance) posted on his Twitter page last night following the events of the episode beautiful. He honors Carlson in the best way that he can, noting that it was actually him crying over losing her on the show in these scenes as opposed to just Danny being upset over his wife’s shocking death. We’re emerging clearly from the darkest period of time in his life, and he is trying to still figure out a way to move past this and still be the father figure and the family member that he needs to be — let alone a cop. We do know that he has the support of everyone close to him, and there is a lot of tragedy steeped in the Reagan family in the first place. For evidence of that, you don’t have to look any further than seeing what Frank goes through without his wife Mary, and what the entire Reagan clan is going through in regards to Joe Reagan, who died before the start of the series.

One other thing we like about what Wahlberg had to say is that he made a note of honoring his former co-star Jennifer Esposito, as well — she and Carlson are the most notable departures from the series over the years. They will live on within the show universe, and we certainly hope that losing Linda is a huge part of the entire Blue Bloods story through the entirety of season 8. It’s obviously going to be a huge fundamental shift for this Danny character, who has always looked towards his marriage for a sense of stability in a crazy world.

Are you still feeling sad over the Amy Carlson departure?

Be sure to let us know in the comments, and take a look at more of our comprehensive coverage from last night’s Blue Bloods episode.

(Photo: CBS.)