Blue Bloods season 8 episode 17 review: Jimmy returns; did Jamie help Tariq?
For Frank Reagan, his perception of his former partner Lenny Ross was that he was a guy rough around the edges; yet, he claims that he wasn’t a killer even after all evidence pointed straight at him. Frank understood that his perception of the case would be biased and with that, he assigned Erin and Anthony to look at it instead. They did, and given some of the people who held a grudge against Lenny, they were right to look at this closely. It turned out that Lenny was set up and there was a way to absolve him of some of the allegations against him.
Yet, we do still think that there needs to be more of a spotlight cast on Lenny after this. He’s been mixed up with too many bad people over the years and this case offered up a chance for Frank to see that. Yet, in the end the only thing that Lenny was really guilty of in this episode was not updating some of his proper permits.
Danny’s tough relationship with Linda’s brother continues
Jimmy O’Shea (Kevin Dillon) returned tonight, but under some most unfortunate circumstances. After some memorabilia turned up at his house it turned out that Jimmy was using his late sister in order to suit his own needs and fund his dangerous high-stakes operations. He’s a gambler who lost a lot of money and couldn’t get himself out of many seedy lenders’ orbit. Danny wasn’t altogether interested in helping him; instead, it took Baez to make some forward progress on the case. She encouraged him to wear a wire in order to take down the operation he was mixed-up in. Eventually, he agreed, and while things were touch-and-go for a while, Jimmy survived and the bad guys were taken down.
We’re not sure that Jimmy and Danny will ever be friends, but we appreciate any connection to Linda we can get.
Jamie’s struggle
After some episodes away from the show Jamie returned with a big storyline tonight, one in which a colleague named Tariq asked for help in the midst of a deep-cover operation at a mosque. He had been a part of this for years and saw no promotions, no improvement, and really no attention from the department. He felt forgotten, whether it be because of his race or because he was so far off the grid.
Unfortunately, Jamie was not exactly able to help. This was the man’s job and he just had to live with it. This depressed him, but in the midst of a bomb threat later on in the episode he reminded Jamie that he hadn’t become complacent in the midst of his mission. He stopped a bomb and saved countless lives. In the aftermath of this Tariq was promoted, and it turns out that Jamie didn’t even have anything to do with it. Sometimes, things just have a tendency to work out the right way.
CarterMatt Verdict
Blue Bloods season 8 episode 18 was an episode that delivered across multiple fronts, even though we would’ve preferred less of Frank this week and more of Danny, especially since the death of Linda remains the most important event in recent memory. This could have been explored so much more.
Beyond just this, we suppose we should just be happy to see Jamie again longer than just spotting him at family dinner.
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(Photo: CBS.)