“Blue Bloods” ended after 14 seasons Friday with a tragic death, a shooting spree that takes down the mayor, a pregnancy, a new couple and a secret marriage.
But of course the beloved CBS police procedural could end only one way after the final arrests were made − with the traditional Sunday family meal in the dining room of patriarch Frank Reagan (Tom Selleck), the New York City police commissioner. The family dinner has closed out each of the 288 episodes.
Creator and executive producer Leonard Goldberg dished up the episode-ending concept that lured “Magnum P.I.” star Selleck to join the cast of the police procedural, which premiered in 2010. Selleck, 79, knew the law-enforcement family gatherings would resonate, and fought to keep the show’s ending.
“That meal, at the end of the episode, and Leonard’s gift of casting are probably why we are still around,” Selleck told USA TODAY in February.
Widower Frank sits at the head of the table for the last time in Sunday’s episode, which is dedicated to “Charlie’s Angels” producer Goldberg, who died in 2019. There are jokes about the need for a bigger table as the Reagan family has grown in every way. But it still features the stalwarts: Frank’s father and former New York City Police Commissioner Henry (Len Cariou), Detective Danny (Donnie Wahlberg), Assistant District Attorney Erin (Bridget Moynahan), and Detective Jamie (Will Estes).
Selleck has criticized CBS’ decision to cancel “Blue Bloods” and called for more episodes. But his character’s final sentiments reflect fonder feelings on an impressive 14-season run.
“Looking around this table,” Frank says. “I couldn’t be more proud … or grateful.”
Who got married? Who is having a Reagan baby?
Officer Edit “Eddie” Janko-Reagan (Vanessa Ray) is devastated by the shooting death of her partner, Officer Luis Badillo (Ian Quinlan), part of a shooting spree that also gravely injures Mayor Peter Chase (Dylan Walsh). Assembled police in full dress uniforms salute Luis in the final bagpipe-filled funeral of the series.
Eddie overcomes her grief to cute-announce that she’s pregnant by bringing her childhood high chair into the Reagan dining room and placing it next to her beaming husband, Jamie.
The happy news prevents Erin from making her big announcement: She and ex-husband Jack Boyle (Peter Hermann) are giving marriage another chance. Erin had proposed the idea to Jack while sipping coffee on a mid-workday walk. “Everyone deserves a second chance, right? Everything would be different this time,” she says.
The reformed couple smooch dramatically in the sunlight, agreeing to remarry at City Hall and tell everyone “after the fact.” But at the dinner table, Erin doesn’t want to detract from Eddie and Jamie’s pregnancy news. Instead of revealing their reunion, Erin hastily announces the DA’s office will bring a first-degree murder indictment against Luis’ killer. Jack, who never lost his spot next to his ex at the table, smiles knowingly at Erin: Their good news will have to wait.
Partners Danny and Maria go for a slice of love, finally
Danny has two grown children from his late wife, Linda (Amy Carlson), at the Reagan dinners, but no life partner. The widower gets a touching nudge from his grandfather, Henry, that he find someone to come home to. Danny asks his detective partner, Maria Baez (Marisa Ramirez), out for a pizza.
As she takes Danny by the arm, Maria’s smiling acceptance foretells a beautiful future together. But it’s too early to earn Maria a spot at the final dinner.
Tom Selleck and Edward James Olmos go head-to-head
Selleck has one more opportunity to flex his “Blue Bloods” tough-but-human persona in a tense prison scene. Frank has to persuade prisoner Lorenzo Batista (Edward James Olmos) to reveal his shooting-spree-suspect son’s location. Frank, fuming operatically, won’t rat on his own kid. But Frank effectively convinces him.
With Lorenzo’s cooperation, Frank can tell the mayor, who’s recovering in a hospital, that his shooter has been arrested. Frank places the kill-shot bullet that missed the mayor on a bedside table to demonstrate how close he came to a tragic death.
And “Blue Bloods” is history.