Blue Bloods Series Finale: Tragedy Brings the Reagan Family Together One Last Time

Warning: this story contains spoilers from the series finale of Blue Bloods.

New York City was under siege in the series finale of Blue Bloods.

The New York Police Department set out to find suspects in three separate shootings — including the mayor and the death of one of their own. After receiving a video manifesto demanding the amnesty for a list of prisoners, police commissioner Frank Reagan (Tom Selleck) was handed the “keys” to the city by the mayor, who remained hospitalized with a gunshot wound. He then set out to find those behind the attacks and bring them to justice.

As Blue Bloods came to end after 14 seasons, the Reagans gathered one last time and some major family news was revealed.

Read on to find out how Blue Bloods came to end.

Revisiting the Past

When Danny Reagan (Donnie Wahlberg) and Marisa Baez (Marisa Ramirez) began an investigation into the shooting of Supreme Court judge Barbara Carson, they quickly realized the culprit could be someone from their past. 

After discovering a hostage video featuring Barbara, the detectives saw a reflection of the shooter when they zoomed in on the sunglasses. They identified the shooter as Carlos Ramírez (Manny Perez), who fans may recall was previously apprehended after he attempted to flee with his daughter Amelia during an intense standoff at a helipad earlier this season.

Once they realized Amelia may be in danger in the hands of her father, the detectives attempted to track her down and were nearly shot in the process. After shooting their would-be assassin, Danny intercepted a call from Ramírez. When the criminal threatened him, Danny reminded him, “You did that all by yourself. You put your daughter in danger right now.”

However, Ramírez wasn’t going down without another dig at him. “You put her in danger just like you did with your wife,” he said, referring to his late wife Linda Rose Reagan who died in a helicopter crash, before adding, “You pretend to be a family man but you do anything for a win. Not this time.”

The exchange made Danny more determined to bring Ramírez to justice. With the help of Detective Anthony Abetemarco (Steve Schirripa), they figured out where the criminal was staying with his daughter. Facing arrest, Ramírez pointed his gun at himself before Danny talked him out of it for the sake of his daughter.

Following the arrest, Danny’s grandfather Henry Reagan (Len Cariou) reminded him of all the people he saved by going after criminals and how always told him “not to bring the job home.” However, his grandfather added, “But the problem now is you have no one not to bring it home to…Promise me, when this case is over, you’ll find that someone.”

Danny later followed his grandfather’s advice and asked his partner Marisa out for a pizza.

A Death of One of Their Own

The second shooting in the episode took the life of Officer Luis Badillo (Ian Quinlan), who was gunned down by a motorcyclist while responding to a car jacking with his partner Eddie Janko (Vanessa Ray). 

As Eddie recovered at the hospital after being grazed by a bullet, she worried that one of her bullets accidentally hit her partner in the standoff. Her husband Jamie Reagan (Will Estes) was visited at the hospital by his nephew Joe Hill (Will Hochman), who had intel on one of the shooters, Amelio Mars.

When Jamie appeared hesitant to join him in finding the culprit, his nephew reminded him that it’s “all hands on deck out there” and his help was needed. With that, they raced to Amelio’s apartment, only to find his pregnant girlfriend, who claimed to know nothing about his whereabouts.

When they later followed up and discovered his girlfriend had gone into labor, they realized even a criminal wouldn’t miss the birth of their child. They found Amelio making silly faces to his newborn at the nursery window. Then, Eddie stepped in to arrest him using her late partner’s handcuffs.

At Badillo’s funeral, the commissioner reminded Badillo’s mother, “Please take a good look around. Luis’s whole family is here with you today” before Eddie handed over his police hat to his son.

Keys to the City

After the mayor was injured in a drive-by shooting by a motorcyclist, Frank Reagan visited him in the operating room before his surgery. In a surprise move, the mayor advised him to go against the chain of succession and take control, saying, “I’m handing you the keys, you’re driving. Get us out of this.”

After pondering the mayor’s meaning, Frank realized he needed to continue to do his job with a “personal touch” and implored his colleagues to look at the shooter’s connection — possibly a brother or uncle — in the prison system, who they could “lean on to find out where this guy might go.”

He added, “I want to be there when we bring this guy in.”

After identifying the mayor’s shooter as Alandro Bautista, DA Bureau Chief Erin Reagan (Bridget Moynahan) asked ex-husband Jack Boyle (Peter Hermann) to stick out his neck to get her information on the suspect’s prison informant father. Despite his hesitations, Jack said he would do it for her.

With Jack’s help, Frank connected with Alandro Bautista’s father Lorenzo Bautista (Edward James Olmos) behind bars and asked where they could find his son. However, Lorenzo was upset that Frank wanted him to “rat” out his son and told him, “When you look in the mirror, you see yourself with a white hat. You think you’re the good guy.”

The commissioner then played hardball and threatened Lorenzo’s role as an informant, which put him back in the general population of the prison without special privileges, unless he gave them his son’s whereabouts before recalling the story of his late son Joe.

“I had a son who was killed by the police, actually, and he was about your son Alejandro’s age and if someone were to say to me before it happened, ‘Here’s your choice. We can kill him now, or he can spend the rest of his life in prison,’” he said. “I tell you what, I wouldn’t blink.” 

He continued: “I’d be up there at that prison every chance I got with a bag of hamburgers for us and a deck of cards so we could spend time together, just shooting gin and shooting the bull and I’m be thrilled to be there and eternally grateful for the chance, because I know the cold dark the other choice brings.”

After the conversation, Lorenzo clearly had a change of heart about protecting his son’s location as the commissioner later informed the mayor that Alandro was arrested at a furniture store.

Meanwhile, on the personal front, Jack asked Erin if her father Frank would now forget “his grudge” against him after their split. But, she said her dad never had a grudge — instead “he got cold to hide his hurt.” 

Erin then reminded Jack that they “work well together” despite their failed marriage, adding, “Despite our best efforts, we’re still right here, one foot in, one foot out. Maybe we try both feet [in]?” 

“Get married again?” he responded and she added, “Everyone deserves a second chance, right? Maybe we give each other a break? I mean, everything would be different this time. Party of 2, City Hall? Tell everybody about it after the fact.” He then pulled her in for a kiss.

How It Ends

At a family dinner after the funeral, Eddie and Jamie surprised everyone by bringing a high chair to the table and announcing they are expecting a baby. However, they didn’t plan to find out the gender ahead of time. 

“Whether it’s a he or she, if I may, they will be really lucky to be a part of this family,” Joe said amid the celebration.

Erin and Jack held back from sharing the news of their reunion at the dinner table and instead discussed the indictment for Badillo’s killer.

The episode concluded with Frank saying, “You know, we’ve got a lot to be thankful for. And looking around his table, I gotta say I couldn’t be more proud or grateful” before leading the family in prayer.

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Blue Bloods is available to stream in full on Paramount+.