Spoilers ahead for Season 14, Episode 14, “New York Minute.”
Blue Bloods is continuing its final season run for the 2024 TV schedule, and it’s already getting emotional. There's still no telling exactly how the series will be wrapping up its remaining episodes, but even the cast's initial goodbyes after filming wrapped over the summer had me tearing up. The latest episode struck a touching cord by paying tribute to the late fictional family member Joe Reagan, and star Bridget Moynahan shared her thoughts.
The fourth Reagan sibling, Joe, was killed in the line of duty off-screen prior to the start of Blue Bloods' epic run, but the family has frequently brought up their fallen relative, especially when it came time to introduce his long-lost son Joe Hill in Season 10. The latest example, as seen in the episode “New York Minute,” came after Danny received a service award from the Irish Society, but had the invitation pulled. Henry thought it was a good idea, as he perceives the accolade to be cursed, seeing as how Joe received the honor just before he died, with the ceremony scheduled for two days after his death.
In the midst of the back and forth with Frank and Jamie thinking Danny should get the award, and Henry and Erin thinking he shouldn’t, the five Reagans met up at Joe’s favorite restaurant, as it was his go-to choice when tasked with picking a spot. Eventually, Danny revealed that he was good to accept the award after Frank talked with Lori Loughlin’s Grace, but turned it down due to the fact that he think catching the bad guys is the actual reward, and also because he thinks it belongs to Joe. Bridget Moynahan told TV Insider what he thought of the episode, saying how much she loves when the series takes it back to Joe:
I think that it was always really sweet when we could bring that character of Joe Reagan back. It was always really interesting to have storylines where they brought Joe Reagan back because he is part of the family, and yet we never met him on screen because he had passed away before the pilot. And it’s just another way that we Reagans got to bond over something that we cared about, we loved, and somehow, the audience also learned to love Joe over the years. So that was really a touching moment for us.
It’s one thing for a series to call back to a character that really resonated with fans before dying during the show’s run. But it’s another thing entirely to keep the callbacks going for a character that wasn’t even on on-screen part of the show to begin with. Still, that's just how powerful the Reagan family is that audiences can feel like they miss Joe in the same way his kinfolk do. With just a handful of episodes left, it wouldn’t be surprising if Joe comes up again, especially during the finale.
Since fans haven’t been properly introduced to Joe and only know him by the stories that the Reagans have told, it would be nice if there was some sort of flashback in one of these final episodes. However, there are reportedly Blue Bloods spinoffs on the way, so perhaps one of those can focus squarely on Joe and the Reagan family prior to the events of Blue Bloods, which would a blast to see. One can only hope.
As one of the many shows ending and canceled in 2024, Blue Bloods is turning it up for the final episodes, between the emotions and the action, there is a lot going on. There’s also the final Reagan family dinners that fans have been seeing, and no doubt, the last family dinner is going to make everyone cry, especially if it includes more tributes to Joe. New episodes of Blue Bloods air on Fridays at 10 p.m. ET on CBS.