Blue Bloods Shocker: Lori Loughlin’s Nostalgic Return in a Season 14 Stunner!

Blue Bloods Season 14, Episode 14, “New York Minute” feels like it’s looking backward rather than forward. It’s not uncommon for shows to get a little retrospective during their final seasons, or to bring back old characters for one last hurrah. This episode does both, as it’s driven mostly by two returning guest stars: Lorl Loughlin as Grace Edwards and Lauren Patten as Rachel Witten. The Reagan family still has plenty to do, but it’s the guest characters who are at the heart of the action, and that plus some half-finished plots means that the episode isn’t as exciting as it could have been.

“New York Minute” primarily revolves around Danny Reagan losing out on a prestigious award that has a connection to the Reagan family, but there are also stories about a mentally ill young man and art forgery. Aside from some tense standoffs in the second plotline, there’s not much action, and some of the family members have little to do. But the episode’s heart is in the right place, and it has good ideas that it just doesn’t develop all the way.

Blue Bloods Puts Danny Under a Microscope – Kind Of

Lori Loughlin Returns as Grace Edwards

the most interesting storyline in Blue Bloods Season 14, Episode 14 is actually connected to the show’s past. In the seventh season of Blue Bloods, viewers met Grace Edwards, who wanted Frank Reagan to convince her son not to join the police force. “The Greater Good” brings her back as the legal counsel for the Irish Society. When they pull their plans to give their annual award to Danny, Frank searches for an explanation, while Henry Reagan thinks this is a good thing — he believes the honor is cursed. This creates tension in the family and even spoils a Reagan family dinner, but it provides something for everyone to talk about, including the viewers.

Grace’s explanation that Danny is ” a very loose cannon” is not out of left field, and neither is Frank’s determination to stand up for his son. The added connection back to Joe Reagan, who had been set to receive the same award before his death, may or may not be necessary. It’s always nice when Blue Bloods calls back to Joe and his impact on everyone else’s lives. But this plotline doesn’t need that to be interesting. The fact that Danny’s family members spend time talking about Danny before anyone actually informs him creates enough drama, because he’s right to be angered by that. And the criticism of Danny could also be a discussion point to talk about how cops are perceived — especially those with family ties to the department. But rather than get into that, the plot becomes about curses and history.

The trio of scenes between Loughlin and Tom Selleck are fine, but not much more than the usual disagreements Frank gets into with other public figures, and Loughlin is stone-faced most of the time so the emotional high points (like a moment in which Grace accuses Frank of trying to blackmail her) are harder to connect with. But this story is really about the family’s lack of communication, and in that, it succeeds.

Blue Bloods Season 14, Episode 14 Lets Eddie Keep Problem-Solving

Vanessa Ray Has Another Good Outing

The second half of Blue Bloods Season 14 has so far been pretty good for Eddie Janko-Reagan. “New York Minute” is the second time in three episodes that Eddie’s ability to problem-solve, or at least attempt to, has been in the spotlight. The Blue Bloods Season 14 midseason premiere saw her go out of her way to help a girl whose mother had been murdered, and in this episode, she goes above and beyond again to try and help a mentally ill young man — even if she just makes a bad situation more complicated. The most exciting part of the episode happens at the beginning, when Eddie and her partner find her old friend Rachel Witten being held hostage. After they defuse the situation, Eddie realizes that Rachel provoked Jimmy Catsavis in an attempt to get him help for his mental health and substance abuse issues.

Eddie Janko-Reagan: You instigated him to get him back in the system.

Eddie’s quest in the episode is thus two-fold: protect Rachel from getting in trouble, and find a way to ensure that Jimmy actually does receive the care he needs. The former doesn’t work for very long as Captain McNichols finds out, Rachel is suspended and Jimmy is released, only to threaten to drop his younger sister Carlie out a window. But what makes the storyline work are the characters of Eddie and Rachel, as well as the performances by Vanessa Ray and Lauren Patten. Rachel’s decision-making is certainly questionable, yet it’s nice that Rachel is the one to talk JImmy down and save Carlie — that important moment isn’t passed off to a Reagan. Plus, Eddie is as heartwarming as ever, even when she’s getting chewed out by her boss. The best part of Blue Bloods is these reminders that there are good people out there trying to do good things, even if they don’t always work out.

Rachel quits her job as a social worker after all this, but Eddie and Jamie tell her that she’s saved Jimmy’s life and start unpacking her stuff, so it’s possible that she’s not going anywhere. This semi-vague conclusion is another example of the primary issue with Season 14, Episode 14: it knows how to start its stories, but not really how to finish them. That’s particularly glaring in the one plot that should be the easiest to solve.

Blue Bloods Gets Danny Into Art Crime

The Case of the Week is the Least Intense Part

It’s kind of interesting that on a long-running procedural, the storyline that gets the least amount of screen time is the most procedural one. Danny and his partner Maria Baez are occupied by investigating the murder of a fellow detective who had been looking into a gallery selling counterfeit art. This would be the “A” story on any other show, especially with the added stakes for the NYPD and the victim being someone Baez knows, but it’s relegated to the “C” story in this episode — and that shows. There are enough twists and turns to keep the plot moving, but folks who have watched this show long enough will know the ending from the scene in which Baez and Danny interview the gallery owner’s wife, Catherine. When she says she didn’t know about the fraud and is looking for her husband, fans will know that means she’s the real perpetrator — and she killed him.

There’s not enough screen time to get interested in any of the details of this case, and Blue Bloods also misses an opportunity to tie this back to the Irish Society award story. With Grace calling Danny a loose cannon, how he behaved during this investigation could’ve been a juxtaposition. Either he could’ve done something off-book again (therefore proving Grace right and adding pressure on Frank’s shoulders) or maybe he had a choice and chooses the safer option (therefore proving her wrong and giving Frank the perfect rebuttal). Instead, this is a run-of-the-mill story that wraps up abruptly when Catherine is quickly arrested. Its last scene is just Danny calmly telling her son Blake that he doesn’t think he has it wrong. There’s no real payoff, emotionally or dramatically.

Blue Bloods Season 14, Episode 14 brings back two characters from the show’s storied history, and uses them to help illustrate new storylines. It’s a neat trick, and certainly gives the episode more of a hook than creating brand-new characters whom the audience wouldn’t care about. It’s also still worth watching, from Eddie doing all she can to Danny admitting that Grace did offer him the award, but he turned it down as the job is its own reward. But it’s also an episode that could’ve been so much stronger if there had been a little more put into the writing. History isn’t quite enough, especially with the limited number of episodes left before the Blue Bloods series finale.

Blue Bloods airs Fridays at 10:00 p.m. on CBS.