One can describe the dutiful “Blue Bloods” detective Danny Reagan (Donnie Wahlberg) as rugged, funny, and dependable. But Season 14 of Blue Bloods has added one sad descriptor to that teeming pile: with his family growing up and leaving the nest and his wife, Linda (Amy Carlson), long dead, the guy seems to be lonely. As such, Episode 4 could end up being one of Danny’s more pivotal episodes on the series.
In “Past is Present,” Danny and his partner, Maria Baez (Marisa Ramirez), encounter Trina (Sumaya Bouhbal), a young rebel and former perp, for the second time. When Danny and Maria meet Trina for the first time in Season 13, Maria is the one who has sympathy for Trina’s poor choices and defends her against Danny’s accusations. Danny, meanwhile, is convinced that Trina did kill the person who happens to be in her trunk and may have done it while she was high, to boot. During “Past is Present,” those roles reverse — Danny believes Trina deserves another chance after she calls on him for help when her life spirals out of control again, while Maria is beyond done with the teenager’s antics.
The incident sparks a conversation between the partners, and Maria flat-out accuses Danny of looking for someone else to parent now that his kids are off living their adult lives. While he insists that his support of Trina has nothing to do with some quest for a substitute child, it’s pretty clear that his devotion to the teenager has something to do with his frustrated parental feelings. And a recent return to the dating pool indicates that Danny might be ready to move on and start a fresh life.
Danny Reagan has been dipping his toes back into the dating pool
After Linda’s death, Danny vows to become a chaste widower like his father, Frank (Tom Selleck). His choice holds firm from Season 8 through Season 13. But during the Season 13 episode “Lost Ones,” sparks fly between the detective and Laura Acosta (Jessica Pimentel). Danny meets Laura while she’s in a battle with the New York City Police Department, which won’t pay out her disability pension. He and Baez become involved in the legal tussle, but Laura’s connection to Danny doesn’t end there. Over another Reagan family dinner, he reveals he’s asked her out on a date, and the Reagans are over the moon for him.
Now that Danny’s back on the market, the show has begun strongly hinting that he doesn’t just want to be single for the rest of his life and might even welcome starting a second family with a new wife. The identity of that potential bride remains a mystery, as Danny hasn’t been out with Laura since that first date. While “Blue Bloods” fans have long speculated that Danny and Baez might end up together in the future, the characters’ ultimate fates have yet to be written — but hopefully, wherever Danny goes, he won’t end up all by himself.