Blue Bloods season 8 episode 13 review: The Danny – Henry team-up hour

Blue Bloods season 8 episode 13 was a story about unlikely pairings. When you have a series that is on the air this long, a big part of the challenge is finding a way to keep things reasonably fresh.

Luckily, the CBS series did a good job doing that with “Erasing History.” We begin here with Danny Reagan, who found himself in a position where he had to use his “gramps” Henry Reagan in order to figure out what happened with a murder at a convenience store. Henry was a witness to what happened, and through most of the episode he squabbled with Danny as Danny did everything that he could to figure out the truth. Both guys allowed their egos to get the best of them and, because of that, they weren’t really able to use each other to the best of their ability.

It wasn’t really until Baez used some old advice of Gromley’s to remind Danny that he needed to go back to the start and figure out if there was something that Henry missed. As a result of that, Danny did figure things out! As it turns out, Danny did figure out precisely what happened. He stopped another murder from happening, and in turn he was able to bring a very bad person to justice.

As for Danny and Henry, we like to think that they come to understand each other a little bit more in the process. Even though cops past and present work differently, there is still a way to find common ground.

Elsewhere in the episode…

One week after taking the police exam, Nicky found herself in a terrible position in which she had to choose between a group of protesters and also her loyalty to the police. Things started when she was present at a defacing of the NYPD flag, which led to her facing a lot of disapproval from her family. She cared about her friends; yet, she also respected her family and respected cops. She was the one this week, rather than Frank, put in the difficult moral position.

Yet, in the closing minutes we did see Nicky figure things out! She opted at the conclusion of this episode to clue in both her friends and the police as to what could happen if they clashed again, giving each party enough information to ensure that there was not another stand-off. Frank respected her loyalty across the board, and for now any perceived tension appears to be done.

We’d say that the Jamie / Eddie story was probably third on the Blue Bloods pecking order tonight, but we did still very much enjoy getting to see the two characters take down a corrupt parole officer. Jamie and Eddie are becoming the voice of the defenseless on this show — they do their best to help anyone, even if nobody else is around to do so.

Final Verdict

“Erasing History” was fun mostly because it offered a chance to see people like Danny and Henry work together — it broke the Blue Bloods mold, and after so many years on the air we do think that finding ways to mix things up story-wise is critical.

What did you think about Blue Bloods season 8 episode 13? Share some of your thoughts in the comments below!

(Photo: CBS.)