Blue Bloods season 8: How can Danny Reagan move forward without Linda?

It’s been almost two days now since the Blue Bloods shocker that left Danny Reagan, and most of America, in a state of shock. There was no way to prepare for losing Linda (Amy Carlson) on the show. CBS didn’t tease that it was coming, it wasn’t in press releases, and there was no news about her exit over the summer. It wasn’t until Carlson was missing from the opening credits that something started to appear amiss, and that was confirmed when Danny spoke about her death in therapy.

Now that we’re starting to digest more what happened here, there is another question that needs to be wondered: How does Danny move forward from this? We do know that he is trying, and he has the help of his family — especially his father Frank, who has gone through both losing a wife and a son. If anyone understands the pain of losing a partner, it’s him. While Frank is not always the touchy-feely sort, conversations between these two men are going to be essential if we do get to see Danny move forward and figure out what lies ahead in his life.

Beyond just that, one of the other moments we are still waiting for is more interaction between Danny and his sons. They are obviously a huge part of his life, but for much of the premiere the focus shifted away from them. We need to understand more of his this family unit is coping with the loss in order for anyone to move forward and feel whole again. This is going to take time, but we do hope that on the other side of it we start to see everyone heal and remember all of the love that Linda did bring to their lives.

We know that Blue Bloods, as a procedural, often doesn’t like to focus on many stories from one week to the next. This is different. If the show doesn’t focus on the aftermath of this it will be doing a great disservice to the show and the fans who have watched it week after week.

As for Danny Reagan the Detective…

He does need to remain at work. What happened to Linda could’ve happened regardless of what his job is. This is what he shines at, and it’s also how he makes New York City a better place. While we do imagine Danny wrestling more with the concept of life and death now than he did in his job last year, it still should be integrated into the sort the rest of the year.

Ultimately, Donnie Wahlberg gave arguably his best performance of his entire run on the series in the premiere; we want to see the show now pay that forward and show that there is hope for Danny in the future. We’re devastated about losing Linda — many fans out there are — but the writers should use this as an opportunity to show those grieving that there can be a light on the other side.

How do you think Danny should move forward?

Be sure to share some of your early thoughts on that subject in the comments!

(Photo: CBS.)