Blue Bloods Season 8 Episode 17 Review: Close Calls
Christine Orlando
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How many chances do you give someone, especially if they are family?
That's just one of the questions that was being pondered during Blue Bloods Season 8 Episode 17.
When Frank's former partner, Lenny Ross, turned up in a holding cell, Frank wasn't just alerted, he crawled out of bed in the middle of the night to get the whole story straight from Lenny.
Unfortunately, Lenny didn't seem to know very much. He went to meet a guy at a strip club and woke up with no watch, no wallet, and no pants.
It would sound like a bad joke if two people hadn't been shot!
But when Lenny proclaimed his innocence, Frank still gave him the benefit of the doubt.
Erin: How well do you still know him?
Frank: What's that suppose to mean?
Erin: It means. people can change. It means. what was hi jinx back in the day can become a hard core lifestyle later on. I mean, I've read his book, he is no altar boy.
Frank: Doesn't make him a felon.
Erin: Shooting up a strip club does.
Despite calling him "Uncle Lenny" Erin's eyes were wide open when she started her investigation. She may not have cut Lenny any slack, but she was very thorough.
Watching Erin and Anthony at the strip club was so entertaining that I wish they would have spent a little bit longer there. As it was, they produced my favorite Blue Bloods quote of the episode...
Erin: I always wonder why they call it a Gentleman's Club.
Anthony: Looks better on your credit card receipt.
At first I wasn't sure why Frank was so loyal to Lenny, but hearing about how Lenny wore a wire to bring down a dirty cop made things a little more clear.
Only someone with a sense of integrity would risk themselves like that, especially during the 1980s when there was probably even more backlash for turning on a fellow cop than there is now.
As Frank said later during the Reagan Sunday family dinner, there's no such thing as a new, old friend, and Frank Reagan wasn't about to cut Lenny loose quite so easily.
But then there was Danny's wayward brother-in-law, Jimmy.
Jimmy sunk to a new low when he sold off his deceased sister's information for an identity theft scheme with the Albanian mob.
Needless to say, Danny wasn't happy to see Jimmy once again.
Jimmy: Last time I saw you, you dropped me off at a mob joint to catch a beat down.
Danny: That's because they were going to kill you for busting a champagne bottle over a made guy's head. I bargained for you life.
Jimmy: And you could get in trouble if I talked.
Danny: What? What you say?
Jimmy: Not that I'd do that Danny. I wouldn't do that.
I'd say that Jimmy's capable of doing almost anything, including turning on Danny if that's what's necessary to save his own skin.
But in this case, he needed Danny to save his once again.
I was hoping that Danny would have thanked Baez for finally convincing Jimmy to wear the wire, but that didn't happen. It seems that if Baez isn't unconscious in a hospital bed, Danny rarely acknowledges when he needs her assistance and she comes through for him.
It didn't take much for Jimmy to mess up while wearing the wire. Considering how often the guy lies, it was a little surprising he did it so poorly with so much on the line.
In the end, I was disappointed that we received no information about what happens to Jimmy next. If the Albanian mob knows he wore a wire and tried to set them up, wouldn't his life be in constant danger?
Couldn't that spill over onto Danny and his kids? That seemed like a more pertinent conversation than whether or not Danny should ever speak to his brother-in-law again.
Finally, we get to Jamie and his mysterious friend from the police academy.
First off, I was thrilled to see Jamie do something other than eat at the family dinner table, and it was great to see Eddie at all.
They've both been missing from far too much of Blue Bloods Season 8.
It was difficult not to feel Tariq's frustration. The guy has been undercover since he got pulled from the police academy ten years ago!
Isn't there a time limit for being undercover? Wouldn't being undercover that long start to mess with your sense of self and overall mental health?
Having to pretend to be someone else for ten years just sounds insane.
Jamie: You know what me and 99% of other cops are not that you are?
Tariq: Yeah, stuck.
Jamie: No, indispensable. Before you chuck it, at least put some value on it.
Tariq: Now you're sounding like a boss. and I don’t mean that as a compliment.
But to the NYPD, the information Tariq could provide was invaluable, and could save many lives. There weren't about to let him go.
So, oddly enough, the bomb was a blessing in disguise for Tariq, which sounds silly as I write it because he could have easily been killed. But it was also possibly the only way for him to gain that promotion.
Jamie said he did little to actually help Tariq, but he did talk to Gormley about the situation, and then he stood by Tariq as he attempted to disarm the bomb.
It's hard to call that nothing.
So what did you think TV Fanatics?
Did Lenny deserve Frank's loyalty?
Should Danny let Jimmy be a part of their lives?
And is ten years undercover just too much to ask of anyone?
Check back for my review of Blue Bloods Seaosn 8 Episode 18, where I hear could have something interesting for fans of Jamie and Eddie.
And you can always watch Blue Bloods online here at TV Fanatic.
C. Orlando was a TV Fanatic Staff Writer. Follow her on Twitter.
