Blue Bloods season 8 episode 4 review: Stopping Garrett’s swatter

Even though Jamie and Eddie (again) didn’t have a big role on Blue Bloods season 8 episode 4, there was quite a bit still going on.

What are we talking about here to be specific? Well, much of the episode revolved around the supporting characters more so than we are used to. Take, for example, Garrett, who spent the bulk of the episode trying to figure out exactly who was responsible for swatting his house. Trying to find answers here was not easily, mostly because with Garrett he wasn’t willing to assess the full field of possibilities.

While this was an elaborate and at-times dangerous operation for Garrett trying to resolve, in the end the culprit here was just a troubled blind teenager who was just upset about not being given a Commissioner for a Day honor. Garrett did a little more investigating than he’s used to in this episode and it was interesting to see him more in that position.

Meanwhile, when it comes to Danny and Baez their case was fairly standard-issue: Trying to figure out a way to take out someone responsible for gunning down an officer. They were set to testify against a criminal, and trying to resolve this story was mostly a test in standard-issue police work. It also had one of the most horrifying scenes of the entire episode, one where it was clear that Danny does not appreciate his late wife being mentioned by shady criminals out in the field.

Meanwhile, what we saw for Erin tonight was (surprise) even more tension that we had a chance to see between her and Anthony over Jimmy, an informant that he didn’t want to work with. He was persistent and eventually he came around, but there was also the realization of inherent bias here. It couldn’t be ignored; not only that, but it shouldn’t be ignored. Still, this is a story that could’ve gone a little more in-depth than it did when it comes to exploring the Jimmy – Anthony history.

CarterMatt Verdict

This was probably our least favorite episode of the season, if for no other reason than that there wasn’t anything about it beyond swatting that we’d say is memorable down the line. While the storylines all made sense, not having Jamie and Eddie for another week was a distraction. Meanwhile, can we say that we like the family dinner scenes informing the case at the midway point rather than as reactions at the very end? Maybe that’s just us, but they seem to work better in that spot.

What did you think about Blue Bloods season 8 episode 4?

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(Photo: CBS.)