Jamie’s sensitive side often gets him in trouble with his superiors.
He tends to have more compassion for mentally ill individuals than the average cop, which sometimes looks to the higher-ups like refusal to play by the rules, spoken and unspoken.
And, on Blue Bloods Season 11 Episode 13, that threatened to destroy his relationship with Frank and, by extension, the rest of the family.
I was surprised that it turned out that Jill’s connection to the family was that she had saved Danny’s life during his tour of duty.
Jamie’s compassionate treatment of the homeless woman was right in line with other things he’s done, like the time he tried to talk down a mentally ill woman with a knife even though it went against his commander’s orders or the time he peacefully resolved a situation with an autistic man who assaulted a cop.
Frank: You know her?
Jamie: I’ve collared her before. She’s not in a good head space right now.
Frank: Sounds like you’re pulling for her.
Jamie: Isn’t compassion part of the job?
Sid: Especially for cops.
So unlike Frank, I wasn’t in the least bit concerned about why Jamie was doing what he was doing. I assumed this was just Jamie being Jamie.
Nobody really answered Jamie’s question about whether compassion for perps was supposed to be part of the job, either.
Sid implied that the woman allegedly assaulted a cop meant compassion was supposed to go out the window but hasn’t Frank been working on restoring the NYPD’s reputation with citizens all season long?
This story could have easily ended with big headlines about the cops using deadly force against a mentally ill homeless woman who threw a bottle at them if Jamie hadn’t intervened.
The rookie cop said he stood for integrity and valuing human life, but as Baker pointed out, seasoned cops often took far worse abuse than he suffered at Jill’s hands. So there’s no guarantee that he wouldn’t have drawn his weapon if it had escalated further.
Unlike Sid, Frank’s problem seemed to be more that Jamie wasn’t telling him why he had sympathy for this woman than anything else. I’m not sure why he needed to know that, but it was the real cause of the rift.
Jamie resented the expectation that he’d tell Frank everything all the time, and things snowballed from there.
Henry: There’s a new coffee shop I want to try out. Jabba the Hut. Star Trek reference.
Jamie: Star Wars. And Dad sent you.
Henry: Says who?
Jamie: A lifetime of experience.
The most heartbreaking part of this was that it affected his relationships with everyone else — including Henry.
I’m sure that Jamie was annoyed that Henry was doing his usual sticking his nose in to try to smooth things over with the family thing, but I couldn’t help feel sad that he refused to go out for coffee with his grandfather.
If this rift had gone on much longer, it could have affected Jamie’s relationships with everyone. Sunday dinners could have become uncomfortable, and he might not have wanted to go, and Eddie might have ended up in an awkward position if she still wanted to attend.
So I’m glad that Frank refused to mind his own business, found out the truth, and mended fences with Jamie.
It was too bad about Hector, though. He and Jamie had a great rapport in the car before this incident happened, and it was a shame that this whole thing derailed their relationship altogether.
Meanwhile, while Jamie was dealing with this, Eddie had to consider giving Vorhees a second chance. The juxtaposition of their cases was interesting, and it made me wonder if they discussed their issues with each other at all.
I didn’t blame Eddie for initially wanting nothing to do with Vorhees. I don’t remember all the details of his awful stint as a parole officer, but I remember enough to know that he was the kind of guy that you need to take a shower after you’ve dealt with.
But when Vorhees admitted he needed a job reference, it seemed to appeal to Eddie’s sense of human decency. She’s as big-hearted as Jamie but often in a different way, and this was a prime example.
Fortunately, her gamble paid off — if Vorhees hadn’t redeemed himself after she gave him a second chance, it would have been truly awful.
The big showdown with Hobbs was weak, though.
If the cops were smart enough to use Bluetooth so the guy wouldn’t find a wire, they should have been smart enough to connect it to something he wouldn’t easily find (and hide the connection, so it didn’t pop up on his phone.)
That was a super contrived situation designed to get Eddie in danger so that Vorhees could rush to her rescue.
I was sure he was going to screw the whole thing up, too, since he ignored Anthony’s orders to go rushing to Eddie’s rescue, and it was weird that she accepted it since, usually, she’s not happy with men acting like she’s less capable of self-defense than they are.
Finally, let’s talk about Danny’s case.
Danny has an uncanny ability to be right 99% of the time, and this was no exception.
Well… except for him believing Fells’ false confession.
As soon as Fells said the night was a blur and that the only thing he remembered clearly was threatening the victim, I knew he wasn’t the murderer and that he was filling in memory gaps incorrectly.
Not figuring that out was a rare slip on Danny’s part, but he made up for it by getting Jill to go to rehab after all, so I won’t hold it against him.
Your turn, Blue Bloods fanatics! Whose side were you on in Jamie and Frank’s conflict? Did you expect Vorhees to come to Eddie’s rescue? And how do you grade Danny’s ability to work the case in the comedy club?
Hit the big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know!
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Jack Ori is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. His debut young adult novel, Reinventing Hannah, is available on Amazon. Follow him on Twitter.