Jennifer Esposito returns to Blue Bloods as Jackie Curatola in Season 13. The finale gives Jackie a decade-long wait for a satisfying ending. Jennifer Esposito left Blue Bloods in 2012 after playing the dynamic Jackie Curatola for three seasons. Her exit from the CBS police procedural was a dramatic one because Esposito was unceremoniously fired. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Esposito was told by her doctor to take a week off work because of her celiac disease, but CBS believed it was a ploy to make more money.
Considering those circumstances, most Blue Bloods viewers assumed they would never see Jackie again. But in a truly surprising turn of events, Esposito reprized her role as Jackie in Season 13 — more than a decade after her departure. Jackie returned in the Season 13 finale of Blue Bloods and with a new job title at that. This means Esposito can finally give the character she abruptly parted ways with after the shutdown that Jackie and her fans always deserved.
Updated on September 19, 2023 by Katie Doll: Jennifer Esposito’s return to Blue Bloods was the highlight of Season 13. It feels like the old days of teaming up with Jackie and Danny to solve a case and reminisce about the past past. The Season 13 finale ended with the hope that Jackie would return in Season 14, but if not, the show rightly closed the door on her character.
Updated on December 29, 2023 by Jordan Iacobucci: After more than a decade on the air, Blue Bloods is coming to an end with its fourteenth season. The upcoming final season of the long-running police procedural will have a lot of work to do to wrap up the main characters’ storylines, but Jennifer Esposito’s Jackie Curatola shouldn’t be forgotten in the process.
How Jackie left Blue Bloods is a failure
Jackie Curatola was introduced as the partner of Donnie Wahlberg’s character Danny Reagan. The pair have a strong relationship and strong friendship that is at the heart of the first three seasons of Blue Bloods. In Season 2, Episode 11, “Mercy”, when Jackie’s car follows the suspect into the river, Danny tries to save her by diving. However, he cannot find her and assumes she is dead. His devastating reaction to Jackie’s death highlighted how important she was to him. Later in the episode, Danny discovers Jackie has actually been held hostage and risks his life to save her. The two of them have the kind of partnership that every TV police procedural aspires to.
But in Season 3, Episode 7, “Nightmare,” one of the saddest episodes of Blue Bloods, Jackie is shot while on the job and begins to question her career as a detective. Her frustration with the bureaucratic nature of the NYPD left her uncertain when deciding whether to continue her job. When Danny visits Jackie in the hospital, she tells him that she has decided to resign. That farewell scene was brief and unsatisfying, especially for fans who had grown attached to Jackie. While she may have gone through ups and downs with the NYPD, she loves being a detective, so quitting doesn’t fit her personality. The only positive point is that Blue Bloods doesn’t let Jackie die like the movie did with Linda, Danny’s wife.
Blue Bloods makes up for Jackie’s lackluster breakup
On April 13, TVLine reported the return of Jennifer Esposito to Blue Bloods, along with another long-absent cast member. This reveal confirms that Jackie has returned to police work – and shows her wearing a jacket that says “Chief of Police”. This promotion suits the character much better than a quick resignation. She is a skilled detective who puts her heart and soul into police work, such as when Jackie goes undercover to help stop a serial killer in Season 2, Episode 7, “The Lonely Hearts Club”. Blue Bloods fans may feel better knowing that during her time away from the screen, Jackie persevered with her career despite her previous misgivings and rose through the ranks.
Jackie’s resignation in Season 3 felt like a defeat, but her becoming Sheriff felt like a victory. It symbolizes the pinnacle of her hard work and dedication. This position also gave her power that she had previously felt frustrated about not having. By not only reintroducing Jackie but doing it this way, Blue Bloods is righting the mistakes it made in 2012. Instead of tearing the character down, the series is building her up in a way that should’ve been right away. from the beginning.
Jackie and Danny team up in the season 13 finale
As advertised, Jackie’s return in Season 13 of Blue Bloods is a testament to her character. The reunion between Jackie and Danny takes place after Dr. Walker’s killing spree. Jackie is now the Sheriff of a small town in Suffolk County, and although Danny wants to take on the case himself, Jackie insists that she come along because she also has victims in her town.
Walker was recently released from prison because there was little evidence. The couple went looking for Walker’s deceased mother after finding a lock of her hair and she was found in the walls of an old house under her birth name. After Jackie left the scene to go home, Walker sneaked in and attacked her, fleeing after Jackie fought him off.
How Jackie could return in Season 14
The ending of the Season 13 finale left Jackie and Danny with a bittersweet but open-ended feeling. Jackie says the case reminds her of the good and bad of the job – she hates seeing helpless victims die of violence and things get personal with the suspect. But she loves working with Danny. But in the end, she claims she found her happy place, as does Danny. They go their own way.
Their final goodbye seemed to close the door for Jackie to return, but that may not happen. Walker is still on the run, and with Jackie technically being his last victim, he may not be finished with her just yet. The finale of Season 13 did a great job of reigniting fans’ love for Jackie and making up for her painful departure in Season 12. Perhaps Season 14 can continue to move past the past for Jackie and towards a better future.
With the news that Blue Bloods will end with Season 14, the upcoming season will be the last chance for audiences to see more of Jackie Curatola. Even if she only makes one more guest appearance, audiences will definitely still want to see Jackie one last time before Blue Bloods ends.